I have done a lot of veneering for both furniture, cabinet work and hifi speakers, including a reproduction mid-century console stereo. If you want to be quick, by all means use contact glue, but be very careful with your choice of veneer. A veneer like Walnut appears to be flat, but will ripple when applied. You can see this in the video. The same goes for Oak and other hardwood varieties. These veneers do not finish well with contact glue because there is no compression involved on the grain and contact glue never sets, it remains tacky throughout its life. It is meant for countertops that have a hard phenolic veneer, that lies perfectly flat. Also, with some wood fillers it will react and cause swelling, particularly if you have screwed the panels anywhere. There is no substitute for cold press veneering using standard wood glue. You just need a fast setting wood glue, a few clamps and some old board to flatten the veneer. Make sure that both the veneer and the MDF have a layer of glue. Two coats of glue on the veneer is optimum. You can do opposite sides to save time. The finish is perfectly flat with no 'float' or softness to it. If you can afford it, buy a trim router with a flush bit - this takes off the excess veneer perfectly. Whiteside also have a bit with a very small head that allows you to trim the cutouts to the depth of the speaker plate.
Can I ask what your opinion is on the iron on veneer method? Do the same pitfalls apply there or should the results in general be similar to cold press veneering? I've previously done the ironing method where I apply glue with a roller to both surface and veneer let it dry, then roll the surface to be veneered again and let dry until tacky. Then use a iron and apply pressure, right after that I use a veneer roller while its still hot and roll until flat and cool. Working from inside out and with the grain. On the oak i had some very minor splitting which after sanding and finishing was not visible. On the ovangkol (the first veneering I did) I did not have this issue. My theory was the the veneer was just not very well cut but maybe my method was just sub par? I would appreciate you sharing your opinion and experience of your craft :)
Looks like a beginner "first DIY adventure " - not saying there's anything wrong with that, but " I was going to ask whether "Next Level " is coming in episode 2 ??? And the wave-guide is seriously NOT flush with the enclosure - 100% creating a response ripple. Since when is basic construction considered "Next Level " am I missing something ??
Some finish tips. In the raw veneer, use a damp sponge to pop the grain llet dry and sand. Then thin the poly and use a rag to put super thin coats and lightly sand between. You can get a glass like finish I have put together gr research kits, and they sound amazing for the price of these diy speakers.
Nice build. I'm glad you know how to solder. So many "experts" online just melt the solder on the joint without heating the work itself. Damn fine job !
I would recommend lining the inside of those cabinets with some sort of damping material. You really don’t want to have bare wood in an enclosure. Beautiful finish however
Very inspiring! I liked that you built it out of the box, with no mods, and I liked your demonstration of veneering the cabinets. I would have liked to see how the veneer wrapped around the radiused corners on the front. In any case, nicely done.
If you want to paint MDF you can use a sealer (2-3 coats with sanding ) then paint or use 1-1 glue /water mix and use the same way as a sealer. Good Work!
I’m currently building a set of these, too! I’m almost finished. I’m using walnut veneer and painting the fronts white. (I was also planning a video on my build 😂)
I'm sure someone else has said this already, but - Acoustic foam (egg-carton-style stuff) to line the cabinet and then some loosely-stuffed wadding will help damp internal reflections. Don't let the wadding obstruct the back of the woofer or the reflex tube.
I already own a pair and have been very impressed from the first day I had them set up. After watching this, I plan on tearing mine apart and putting some money into the veneer, setting up an external crossover with "Hi End" audiophile type componets, using some damping material on the bass driver and cabinet walls and maybe a few internal bracing pieces. Great video and thanks for posting!
Nice build! I found that I had to shim the tweeter out for it to be perfectly flush with the front baffle (something my OCD demanded). I used slightly compressible felt tape to achieve this.
I've built these. My mods include: 1. I routed the inside of the face board to take the woofer from the back. 2. I replaced the elements of the crossover with military-spec, including conductive plastic potentiometer for a treble control I added on the back and capacitors and resistors. Air core inductors came with the kit and I used them. 3. No nails in MDF. I just used glue with corner clamps. 4. Finish is red oak veneer from our friends at Rockler. 5. I used a cup with four-way post connectors to take the wires from the amp on the back. 6. Used wood sealant on the MDF so that it is easier for a good bond for the contact adhesive to adhere the wood veneer. As I love the look of natural wood, I finished over the red oak with seven coats of Varathane. I recommend trimming the veneer with a veneer bit on your router. Using a tacky cloth to take off really fine saw dust can really make the difference in your finish. I like to apply the polyurethane with a disposable foam brush. I built covers using the supplies from Parts Express. My only complaint is that the woofer is not mounted in a routed mount as their intention is to have it overlay the tweeter flange. I think that my build looks better and comes closer to having the focus of the voice coils for the woofer and tweeter line up. I also recommend using the foam seals Parts Express sells to make sure that the drivers are airtight to the face. If you look at the finish in this video, you'll see imperfections, due to the lack of 800 grit sanding in between coats. The more coats you do (sanding and using a tacky cloth in between coats when dry) the nicer the finish is. Spraying it on is really the best way if you have a ventilated area. Pax.
Ever experimented with iron on yellow glue method for veneering? Definitely not as quick as contact cement, but allows for easy adjustment and alignment of grain figuring. And for finishing of finer veneers like walnut or Sapele mahogany, aerosol spray bombs of lacquer can look luscious.
I liked that the drivers were made in Taiwan not China. I definitely prefer Taiwan made goods over Chinese, especially in electronics and audio. So two thumbs up Dayton Audio!
Nice video. I see you have some raw MDF showing around the tweeters. I recommend spray painting Black around any recessed speakers before applying veneer. Since yours are complete I would use a black marker or add an additional layer of speaker gasket tape to bring the tweeter forward more.
Nice tip! These were sent to a friend of mine. I removed drivers and painted recess after filming. I was too anxious to get it filmed, that I rushed and forgot!
Nice work dude. Handsome speaker. C-Notes are a great entry level speaker, especially with prices going haywire these days. Better still, you can customize this speaker towards your own sense of aesthetics.
bonjour, vidéo de très belle qualité pour l'image et le son.......... belle fabrication des boites, sauf le placage, il aurait peut-être fallu mieux soigner la découpe du placage dans les angles......... et surtout pas de vernis polyuréthane, juste teinter et cirer...............
@@DIYhyfy I only mention this because I have a pair of Focal Alpha 65 (older ones), and remove the plastic sides and scraped off the stuckon rubber pad. Gave a more open and detailed Sound. Recently upgraded the fuses to Synergistic orange (used) and again much better Sound.
You should have substituted better resistors and tube connectors in the place of those binding posts. Rest of the components are nice, also maybe more bracing and insulation.
Arm chair Quarterback here,uh...if you put both speakers together, you could have an extended surface to run sander back and forth without fear of rounding edge.
Just found your channel. 👍🏻 have you seen the GR Reserch Brutes? I think that would be a fantastic build for you,and could draw allot of attention to your channel 👍🏻🔈
Ive read that they cut the relief for the tweeter like 1/16th too deep, causing the tweeter to sit slightly too deep behind the woofer and the face of the speaker. I guess people use a tiny shim to bring it back to the surface. Maybe you could try it out and see if it makes any difference
The depth is intended to allow the foam adhesive edge seal to make an airtight and non-rattling connection between the flange of the tweeter and the face board.
@@davidsecord6412 Oh, I see. Whatever post I read about it, they said they found the sound to improve, but I'm unsure how exactly they said that was, and I can't remember anything else. I just thought it was odd in one of the angled shots in this video, you can see the bare mdf very slightly around the tweeter which I thought was odd. But if they meant it that way, where the tweeter is actually supposed to be that far back, then that's cool too. I just thought it was odd that it sat back so far.
@DIYhyfy every one are experts they watch a couple of gr research videos and they are armchair s engineers. I stopped posting my speaker designs on diy groups because people get so negative and most people never actually have ever tried to build anything. I am actually sitting in front of an mtm with 2 6.5 designers in a solid wood cabinet on top of mdf it's heavy but I like mass loaded cabinets . They are nice heavy mid woofers for the money
I have these and I used a 1" convoluted mattress topper from Big Lots (dirt cheap!) for lining. I think it clears up the midrange some, but without it, in a "soft room" (like living rooms or such), you shouldn't hear much difference. Half-inch foam carpet pad from a big-box store (the cheap stuff is usually softer) will work fine too. I don't think I'd want to use typical 2" convoluted speaker foam-it would cut the EFFECTIVE enclosure volume too much and hurt bass. BTW, you just need lining on the vertical sides and back at most.
You can VASTLY improve the polyurethane finish if you would employ better application technique, the easiest way would be to learn to apply by wiping on by thinning the poly and sanding and steel wool between coats. You'd be much happier with the results.
@@DIYhyfydon't bother with the wipe on poly, it's just regular poly thinned with mineral spirits, buy regular poly and thin it yourself, it's cheaper and you can control the thickness to suit your situation. Several thin coats with sanding or ateel wool between will give a nice result.
I made my first speaker at the age of 16, in those days these kits don't even exist, personally I don't like the gloss coat you put on the veneer, I prefer semi matte, the woofer is over the tweeter edges and is a bit inside, is better to separate the woofer 1 inch to avoid diffractions, the tweeter polarity should be inversed because capacitor retards the phase 180 degrees, besides everything good job
Has anyone compared the c-notes to the c-sharp, overnight sensation, and sambas? I've only build an 18" gsg marty so Im brand new to the DIY bookshelf speakers. I'm looking to build a pair but I'm not sure which generally sound the best. Im going for more clarity than bass since I'm already in way overkill with bass. Id love to hear everyone's opinions!
If you're after detail, I highly recommend the Hivi Swans 3way. They're a bit more pricey (around or under $300). The c-sharp are just an actively powered c-note to my knowledge. The Overnight Sensations are a go to for many. Lots of good options. These c-notes sounded great for $100.
90% appearance talk, 3% babble, 2% … describing performance. Driver model numbers, xover quality, nothing. The finish really Pops-Sounds like a tv review.
