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Three times HDS
Some 10+ years ago I built my first "serious" DIY speaker. Back then I didn't have any measurement gear, definitely didn't know how to woodwork, but you have to start somewhere. I started with a 8" 2-way tower, using the Peerless HDS Exclusive 8" and the Peerless HDS tweeter. Back then the HDS tweeter was a new product, and when I saw the results of Zaph's testing I knew it was the right choice. Still one of my favourite domes today, as is the HDS woofer. I meticulously designed a 2-way crossover using only the traced data from Zaph Audio, which turned out rather well, and was my reference that I compared all my future speakers to since I listened to this speaker so much. Later on when I did purchase measurement equipment, I was happy to find the measurement was very good, as Zaph's data was accurate and my design process was correct.
The cabinet construction wasn't terribly bad either considering my severe lack of skills, but I was never happy with the finish. It was intended to hide the flaws and seams, and was a "crackle" finish with just regular acrylic wall paint. The colours and finish didn't really turn out like what I had in my mind.
Recently I found a pair of rare matching Peerless HDS Exclusive 5.25" midrange drivers, and decided to rebuild this speaker as an all HDS 3-way. I wanted to rebuild in the same cabinet rather than send it to the landfill and start over, and that's what I did. I replaced a lot of it with some new wood though, an acacia counter top, finished with Tung Oil. Keeping some of the old design elements, I rebuilt the pillar style footing from acacia, as well I finished the rest of the cabinet in regular acrylic wall paint, but solid colour in matte finish to hide the many imperfections.
This weekend one was assembled and measured. The crossover is designed but I will have to wait for a parts order to build it completely and make some noise. Until then, a photo comparison of how far this speaker has come over 10+ years.
and 4 others.
Comments
I built one 3 way with a 4 inch Peerless HDS mid. Effing love it. Yeah, your cosmetic skills have improved a bit!
Thanks Rjj! Unfortunately the mid here is the updated inferior Tymphany model, not the original DST Peerless HDS like my woofers. The updated Tymphany models used a shorter fibre instead of the long fibres in the old version. I can only assume a cost savings or supplier change, but the cone doesn't look as nice up close, and the response has an upper midrange dip that isn't present in the old version. Still workable though so I'll deal.
Great job of recycling an old design and cabinet ๐๐
Upcycled
Clean looking units! The contrasting wood and paint is classy๐ค๐ผ
Thanks 6thplanet. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, matches the vision in my head fairly well and it only looks a little bit like a cutting board or flooring
We have acacia flooring and sister in law has acacia butcher block countertop. That's some freaking dense wood! I built our stair treads out of it.
Better have a sharp blade ready!
Nice stairs! Rona has some acacia stair tread boards, I've used them to build shelving, trick is finding a couple good straight ones there.
I actually found this stuff rather nice to work with, I think hardness is about the same as the African Mahogany I used previously, but much easier to cut and sand, the mahogany had grain going every which way and the fibres just wouldn't let go. The countertop was a pricey board, but with one good mostly flat side that was sanded and knots filled so a lot of the prep work was already done, just cut down and put to use where all of the raw hardwood I have available locally would need to be flattened first.
Reason for the stairs, we did laminate flooring, to do the stairs with it required a bullnose trim piece. The wanted $18 per X 13....๐๐ผSo we bought a couple boxes of the hardwood flooring that matches the laminate for less than the bullnose junk. Also the wife wanted the squared chunkier front edge. Few weeks of work, they actually turned out way better than I was expecting with all the processes I had to go through to make them๐๐ป.....and happy wife, of course.
what did you use for the skirt board?
It was already a dark stained wood, so we left it as is. All the other trim/banister/rails were painted white.
My bad, walking up the stairs yesterday, I had forgotten she painted it white.๐คท๐ปโโ๏ธ
Schematic if anyone in interested. No real fancy footwork here, just 2nd order filters all around and some padding. Big heavy 16AWG air core inductor on the woofer because it's still cheaper than paying another shipping charge to order iron core from a different vendor than Solen.