Perhaps you would consider posting some of your handy work here. As per site owner, tampering with Naim electronics not allowed but speakers, rooms, decor, stands, sound proofing and more shouldn’t be an issue.
I recently got these speakers and stands. Added additional damping behind the driver, added a tweeter mesh with ‘dispersion guide’ after experimenting with different sizes. Added a 1/4 port foam plug. All helping with midrange detail leaking through both back of driver/port. Very happy with the result. These are exceptionally revealing and have lovely timbre, typical good paper cone stuff. Fast too.
Sprayed stands . I found it placed the speakers a fraction low compared to where I sit so added some silicone domes instead of the spike tips and under this hockey pucks. It looks silly but seems to work.
BK Electronics kindly made me up a high level lead with the required resistor in the Speakon plug. All I had to do was to solder some decent spades at the ends. Next I will remove the spade connectors on the internal speaker wiring and solder them.
I will post a photo once all the cabling has been sorted. It’s one big mess currently.
That is a very lovely wood grain. I built a pair of Zaph Audio ZRT 2.5 sealed towers with the matching 13” revelator subs with 1000W plate amps and a matching cabinet. They are all built out of Baltic birch.
I built the tower and cabinet about 15years ago and the subs last fall.
Several years ago I was getting the urge to get something better to out perform them and that is when I got my PMC twenty 5 24i’s. After getting better sources like adding the XPSDR to my NDX2 and now the new classic, I no longer have the urge to change them as they really showed the improvements with the system upgrades. Plus the revelator midrange and new subs are very good. The subs bring the system to a whole new level.
Looks nice, can you provide more detailed photo’s? Assuming you build everything with Scan Speak units? would be interested in the design of the subs as a possible enhancement option for my speakers…
Thanks, that’s kind of you to say so and I’m flattered. Spot on too, Devore was the inspiration for them.
I used these as a learning exercise as they were my first attempt at woodwork as well as crossover design and build. Of course they don’t look as nice as the original o/96 close up but they do pretty well in a sound comparison and I get enormous pleasure using them, having built these myself
I had seen your subs in a previous pic and have to confess that I had gone away to research what they were as I was very tempted to build a pair of those to match my main speakers
Here are a couple of pictures inside the sub enclosure. Yeah, they are the 32W/4878T100 in a 50L sealed box. 2” thick birch baffle. I never put any foam or polyester in them and they sound very good. They are not really a home theatre type of sub but very tuneful bass that I’m sure would complement a lot of speakers. It is kind of hard to tell but the top bottom and sides have 2x3/4” MDF and 3/8” BB plywood all glued together so the sides are close to 1.75” thick. The back has the amp enclosure built with 1” BB plywood with a extra layer of 3/4 glued
Pico de Gallo, tortillas and home alone with my amiable homebuilt monsters. For those who might wonder, those woofers (sub?) are all of 18” low distortion (=v little motion required to move air) with horns for tweeters and Supertweeters that keep me wondering if they make any sound at all! Certainly a conversation starter for one and all. Semi active, the woofers are driven by Class- D plates (with DSP) from the Netherlands. The rest driven by NAP 250DR/ NAC 282/ ND5 XS2/ LP12 etc. I would be remiss, not to state the name of the designer - Troels Gravesen. Initially had a monitorish sound that I was not that beholden to, but after moving from a SuperUniti to separates each upgrade, including the streamer/ Tellurium Q Black II has made the system truly shine.
Some of the polish can be attributed to burn in and a lot of it to a a nice, large, plush rug placed on the floor of an otherwise very live room (3 sets of French windows, a 7ft x 2ft fixed glass panel between this room and the kitchen, hard tile floors and a ‘piano gloss’ finish grand piano to boot).
I hear you - it wasn’t me but my son who held his breath while I built. My 24 year old was very worried, and critical about the ‘fact’ that I’d bitten off more than I could chew and advised a similar path as your’s, trying simulations of the dimensions, fitting things together using cheaper wood/ board (Baltic Birch ply is even more expensive here in India). But that made me more determined that I had to do it perfect, do it right and do it complete the first time around, no prototypes. Gratis 3D CAD by Autodesk called Fusion360 facilitated the designing of the various panels and subsequent CNC layout though the learning curve was steep. Notice the panels with oddly shaped cutouts in the RH foreground. Constrained Layer Ðamping for my high mass, modded Lenco GL 78 plinth long before Linn did. That’s a whole other high satisfaction story . . . .
I’m glad to say it worked out well, mainly because they were built almost perfectly to spec, with extreme patience in case the right part or material needed to be sourced from halfway around the world. My first build however was the SBA-10, a 3 way front ported design with an impossible to cut pyramid top design, the 15° sloping top fascia helping to account for tweeter phase (whatever that may ultimately translate into). It worked, and I cannot tell you the un-describable pleasure of stringing the entrails together and actually hearing a tin-pot sound out of them before finally mounting the drivers in place.
Each build took about 2 years, and staggering patience. Many builders cite Troels’ “The Loudspeeaker-2” as the finest they’ve heard, and Troels had earlier recommended I try the SBA 10’s given my description of my then system and room. I would go so far as to say the SBA10’s were obviously superb (my cost: USD 4.5k) and immediately acquitted themselves, TL-2s weighing in at 56kg each (approx. USD 10k), like said before needed superior components to grow into and strut their stuff, which they have done, in oodles finally. The occasional email still graces the aether, Troels-bound, asking for refinements and tips - he is prompt to respond, gracious and ‘to the point’.
(below: SBA 10 complete except one of two crossovers each, yet to be mounted)
Acousticly it should not matter, so mostly aesthetical. Extending the exterior, it breaks that area up nicely. Round ports would have extended up towards the driver (bottom of the port is bottom of the bass cabinet), so visually not have quite the same effect.
