The Audiophile/reference music thread.

[DaLoCo]

Well, it depends on the type of enclosure. If it is going to be a box of some sorts, then you are going to have problems. I am not so much on about the tonal quality. In any case, in a good speaker design the material from which the enclosure should be made must be acoustically dead. The whole situation is completely different to a guitar where you want the wood to give character to the sound. With speakers its should be the other way around.

Quite right...

 

But he does want the speaker enclosure to compliment the sound of his guitar, so special circumstances. The front and and back panels ideally should be veneered MDF to allow for movement over an extended period of time.

[DaLoCo]

Get your point about acoustical instruments, and most famously certain violins of great value from antiquity from a special type of wood hitherto unequalled in nature. The vibration of the strings are transferred to the woods sound chamber, which produces the sound, although resonance is surely to be avoided (vibrations as certain 'natural' frequencies)

 

But a speaker box is a surely a different device. The sound waves are projected from the moving cone. The box is an inert passive anchor, and also an acoustical sound chamber inside, with suitable porting. And exciting resonant frequencies would be undesirable surely because the box will buzz / boom at those certain frequencies.

 

Help me understand if I got it wrong please: I love the physics of sound although my theoretical knowledge is a bit rusty.

 

For standard speaker design you need it to be as neutral as possible, quite right. He is looking at a one-off build for a specific guitar to achieve a specific tone, and the type of wood can help achieve the goal. if he had different guitars then a neutral sound would be the desireable goal.

[DaLoCo]

The expensive wood is not just for tone. I have read that a few hardwoods will be good for tone. I want a wood that looks good too.

You would need to coat the wood inside and outside. What a lot of people do is to veneer MDF on both sides with the desired wood (sandwich). It retains the tonal quality but cancels out the effect of humidity, but a good coating also limits humidity.

[DaLoCo]

Look at these...Sonus Faber constructed out of solid wood. They cut the wood in strips then glue them with the grain opposing....

 

 

[gummibear]

Look at these...Sonus Faber constructed out of solid wood. They cut the wood in strips then glue them with the grain opposing....

 

 

 

That's so sexy

[Kona Kula]

Thanks for all the info and questions. It will help me make my decision. As I said this will be a first build for me so I am sure lessons will be learnt. The idea here though is a specific tone as mentioned. It is not the same as a normal speaker. However I will read some more and figure out the best way to do this. If solid wood is impossible then I will look at an alternative. I really hope that I can do it the solid wood way.

[Kona Kula]

Look at these...Sonus Faber constructed out of solid wood. They cut the wood in strips then glue them with the grain opposing....

 

 

 

Yeah, that is hot. If I can get a finish anywhere near that I will be super stoked.

[DaLoCo]

Yeah, that is hot. If I can get a finish anywhere near that I will be super stoked.

Pay someone to do the finish for you.....or spend six weeks trying to get to it and eventually just assemble and play

[zeabre]

Have a look at Franco Serblin's creations. Real wood, but as above built up from multiple sections. And remember, quite a few manufacturers specifically go for designs such as thin wall bracing over more rigid designs...enter for example Spendor, of which I am a great fan. My SA1s are some of the most musical I've heard. Of course at the other end of the spectrum you get YG Acoustics and Magico, utilising aluminium.

[Wyatt Earp]

Look at these...Sonus Faber constructed out of solid wood. They cut the wood in strips then glue them with the grain opposing....

 

 

 

I have these at home

 

It's a Cremona Auditor cabinet that, not the Guarneri.

Edited September 20, 2012 by Dangle

[dev null]

Dangle

 

Give me that address of your's. I need to do some midnight shopping.

[Kona Kula]

I have these at home

 

It's a Cremona Auditor cabinet that, not the Guarneri.

 

Nice! Well impressed.

[Tubeless]

I do miss this little guy. Sold the system from my study to help pay vets bills earlier this year.

 

 

Powered a set if KEF IQ10s

 

Still have mine like that Nad 3150. going strong.

[DR ◣◢]

The day I sold it I actually hooked it up in the lounge onto the DLS speakers. It was a very very sad day

[BigGuy]

This makes the daily grind in traffic bearable.

http://www.caronline.net/Images/Uploaded/10179044.jpg

[Wyatt Earp]

On these guitar amps the box and wood used most of the time is for aesthetic appeal.

Most of these amps get used at home or in small venues.

The impact on the sound of these will rather improve using valves and better design topology.

 

For years designers have been trying to get rid of the BOX.

The Quads which were a major reference for most was a great alternative, yet most of the mega systems also uses subwoofers as in AKA's home system.

 

Franco Serblin set things on fire with his designs.

Starting off with the Sonus Faber Snail and later moving on to some incredible award winning designs.

He figured out that by changing the cabinet and manipulating the shape, you could almost isolate the drivers.

The real brains behind their success today.

 

The Snail:

 

http://www.soundstage2.com/tours/sonus_faber_200708/snail_600w.jpg

 

Laurence Dickie with B&W loudspeakers found another way around this with the Nautilus posted on here, besides isolating each driver they also put the tweeter in a tube and sperated this from the entire system itself, giving a very sweet and detailed top end.

In steps Vivivd audio and Laurence Dickie does his magic yet again.

 

Electrostatics which have now become very popular for their open midrange an involving sound still had the one downside, bass.

 

In step Martin Logan loudspeakers.

With their ESL panels and subwoofers they could achieve both these goals in a hybrid design.

Their bass drivers are driven with digital amps and Vojtko crossovers.

Boom......... magic.

 

http://www.martinlogan.com/images/trim/speaker/vantage_dark_cherry_black_alu.jpg

 

So many other companies step in and start doing some incredible things to get rid of that "box sound"

 

But none like Magico.

 

By bracing their cabinets and building them like "puzzles" they have managed to unleash the most incredible sound from their speaker called the Mini.

 

http://www.soundbysinger.com/UserFiles/Image/Magico%20Mini%202%20Bracing.jpg

 

http://www.goodsoundclub.com/Site_Images/Magico_mini.jpg

 

 

 

 

The final real alternative will be Horns.