mustang guy Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 With a hobby like live edge wood slabs it seems like "flat baffle" or "open baffle" speakers is what you should consider studying up on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vasubandu Posted January 17, 2018 Author Share Posted January 17, 2018 @mustang guy I have no idea what those are but will look into them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceptorman Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 13 hours ago, wvu80 said: Real wood is not desirable in speaker enclosures. They expand and contract with humidity. They vibrate like a bell producing distortion, and over time hard wood will crack. MDF is THE building material of choice, no kidding. They have a desirable sound deadening characteristic in that they don't have their own resonant frequency like a hard wood has. Be aware there is a cheap MDF and a good one. The better speakers all use MDF, heavily braced and then veneered. FYI: Khorn: 175 pounds La Scala: 125 pounds CF-4: 108 pounds RF-7: 94 pounds RF-83: 100 pounds It's interesting that the RF7ll lost 7 lbs over the RF7, then the RF7lll gained 10 lbs over the RF7ll. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 37 minutes ago, vasubandu said: @mustang guy I have no idea what those are but will look into them. In over-simplified terms, you would mount the correct driver right on the board you cut, and you have a speaker. Some folks make the base a subwoofer, others a bass bin, and others nothing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vasubandu Posted January 17, 2018 Author Share Posted January 17, 2018 Wow @mustang guy that is gorgeous, and it is the back. Make it out of waterfall bubinga and you really have something. Would 3 or 4 inches thick be good, or would it matter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 2 minutes ago, vasubandu said: Wow @mustang guy that is gorgeous, and it is the back. Make it out of waterfall bubinga and you really have something. Is that curly maple or a burl or some sort? edit: nm, I see it is waterfall bubinga Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 18 minutes ago, Ceptorman said: It's interesting that the RF7ll lost 7 lbs over the RF7, then the RF7lll gained 10 lbs over the RF7ll. I don't know the size of the III, but @Youthman is the only person I've ever seen who owned at the same time, RF-7, RF-7 II and RF-83, and documented it via his usual fine photography. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vasubandu Posted January 17, 2018 Author Share Posted January 17, 2018 No, @mustang guy bubinga is a tropical wood. Sometimes it has waves like that. The wood has a depth that you would not believe. It looks three dimensional. That is a $6,000 slabe of wood though. But there are tons of amazing woods out there. They typically are 2 to 3 inches thick but can be more. Three or four feet wide and 8 to 16 feet long. They make wonderful desks and tables. you also can get them small for a bookshelf speaker. Dang, check this one out. Tempting. https://www.ebay.com/i/232580016746?chn=ps If you are actually curious, just search google for "wood slabs" and go to images. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 On 1/15/2018 at 6:39 PM, vasubandu said: @Schu that's so the power won't all run out, right? Yea...I had to clean up some of that last month. ;D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 43 minutes ago, vasubandu said: No, @mustang guy bubinga is a tropical wood. Sometimes it has waves like that. The wood has a depth that you would not believe. It looks three dimensional. That is a $6,000 slabe of wood though. But there are tons of amazing woods out there. They typically are 2 to 3 inches thick but can be more. Three or four feet wide and 8 to 16 feet long. They make wonderful desks and tables. you also can get them small for a bookshelf speaker. Dang, check this one out. Tempting. https://www.ebay.com/i/232580016746?chn=ps If you are actually curious, just search google for "wood slabs" and go to images. That is a bit thicker than veneer. Beautiful depth! We have a woodcraft where I live. They usually have a great selection of exotic wood in the back room. WARNING: They ain't cheap by any means! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vasubandu Posted January 17, 2018 Author Share Posted January 17, 2018 1 hour ago, mustang guy said: WARNING: They ain't cheap by any means! Uh, couldn't that be said about anything here? I am lucky because there are 2 slab dealers within 30 miles that each have a few hundred raw slabs at any given time. I still could not finish one to save my life. They have been dried, usually in a kiln, and to finish them you plane to a good surface, but if you plane one side too far, it will curl up like a ribbon. A three inch thick piece of wood all curled up is quite a sight. So you have to do both sides a bit at a time, and that is a skill I lack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceptorman Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 2 hours ago, wvu80 said: I don't know the size of the III, but @Youthman is the only person I've ever seen who owned at the same time, RF-7, RF-7 II and RF-83, and documented it via his usual fine photography. Yes, his pics are always wonderful. The RF7 series keeps growing, they need the displacement of the box. The llls are quite a bit bigger than the lls, only a half inch taller, but over 2 inches wider, and 1.5 inches deeper. The weigh 10 lbs more than the ll. I think they look much more refined. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vasubandu Posted January 17, 2018 Author Share Posted January 17, 2018 Damn, I thought those were from the Klipsch site, and I remember thinking how well they were done. That is top notch professional quality photography. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 9 hours ago, vasubandu said: Uh, couldn't that be said about anything here? I am lucky because there are 2 slab dealers within 30 miles that each have a few hundred raw slabs at any given time. I still could not finish one to save my life. They have been dried, usually in a kiln, and to finish them you plane to a good surface, but if you plane one side too far, it will curl up like a ribbon. A three inch thick piece of wood all curled up is quite a sight. So you have to do both sides a bit at a time, and that is a skill I lack. I remember the planer in wood shop in highschool. You could send a very large piece through that monster. I think it weighed a ton. I remember putting a piece of very old and seasoned hickory through the thing. the teeth were not sharp enough to handle the extremely hard wood and the whole school shook when the board went through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parlophone1 Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 For open baffle I suggest you check Jamo R909. Not in production any more but it can give you a true picture what open baffle really is when produced by a reputable company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 The purpose of a speaker cabinet is to support the drivers and in the case of woofers, contain the pressure wave off the rear of the cone to prevent it from cancelling the front wave at low frequencies, long wavelengths technically. Also, the cabinet volume may be tuned with size and/or vents or passive radiators to resonate at particular frequencies to enhance the low bass output of the woofer. This tuning requires an air-tight enclosure. If a solid plank splits/cracks, it will no longer be air-tight. Weight in and if itself is irrelevant to speaker design/performance and should not be sought after. However, to have a stiff enclosure, perhaps with bracing, that is relatively non-resonant, a certain weight is inevitable depending on the material used. JBL makes some speaker cabinets for pro use that are plastic, with neodymium magnets that are surprisingly light. Others are out there, too. http://www.erseaudio.com/Products/SPXProSpeakerCabinets Though I am not much of a fan, MDF has been proven to be an excellent cabinet material, because of its low resonance. It also does not split or warp, though most of it will soften and sag in wet or high humidity conditions. Plywood is about 4 times as strong and stiff as MDF with similar density (weight). The increased stiffness at the same weight means it tends to ring when struck, if the panel is large and unbraced, i.e. the top or sides of a La Scala I. But high grade plywood will not soften, split or warp if sheltered from water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vasubandu Posted January 18, 2018 Author Share Posted January 18, 2018 Thanks @JohnA that was helpful. I know people like certain woods for musical instruments. Must be for their resonance. Maybe I could make a koa speaker that used resonance to make or amplify sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pzannucci Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 Always wanted to try this https://www.silestoneusa.com/colors/ . Closest I have is 3/8" tile caulked on 3/4" MDF. Quite dead and unfortunately very heavy. Needs minimal bracing though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vasubandu Posted January 19, 2018 Author Share Posted January 19, 2018 @pzannucci now you are talking my language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave A Posted January 20, 2018 Share Posted January 20, 2018 On 1/16/2018 at 9:39 PM, vasubandu said: @Dave A OK I see the smiley face, but I assume there is some level of seriousness to what you said. If not, you totally got me. As I recall, platinum is not much of a conductor - something like 4 or 5 times the resistance of gold, and gold has I think something less that twice the resistance of copper and silver. Silver has the least resistance of any metal, but it is so close who cares except yuppies buying speaker wire. All in all, this would seem to make platinum a poor choice, especially over a distance. And temperature is important here, I just don't remember why. Now your comment about puddled electrons made me laugh. Yes, electrons have mass, about 1/2000 of a proton, but that does not mean that they puddle. Electrons are both particle and wave, and making one stop in a puddle would have drastic consequences for the universe. Now that one did send me to the internet, specifically to ResearchGate, where I found this, which seemed fairly illuminating. https://www.researchgate.net/post/Can_we_stop_electrons_from_moving Bottom line, I do not think that electrons pool, but I may be wrong. Copper wire, nice thick copper wire. Serious humor only. Speaker wire by the roll from Parts Express is fine as far as I am concerned. Finer strands mean you can bend it more times before breaking but other than that all this other stuff is fluff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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