[disturbedfuel15]

Hello,

My name is Travis and I live in southeast Michigan. I am a marine corps veteran, an audiophile, and an avid DIYer!

I have a 7.2.4 Dolby Atmos speaker system in the living room (4 in-ceiling speakers, 4 in-wall speakers, front left,right,center, a few dedicated subwoofers and bass shakers in the sectional) and I absolutely love watching movies now. I've hit a wall (pun intended!) as it would simply cost me an astronomical amount of money to upgrade that system further (law of diminishing returns).

So now I decided to get more into woodworking! I decided my first project would be to create a pair of replica speakers, based on the BBC's LS3/5a studio monitors. I've built the cabinets and crossovers, so now it's just a matter of flush mounting the drivers, making the edges look professional, sanding, painting, sanding, painting, painting, sanding, and finally some painting.

I also recently picked up a 1951 ShopSmith 10ER multipurpose machine. I never knew such a thing existed... A multi-tool, sure, but not a multi-tool 300lb machine! These things are cool and I'd suggest looking em up if you are curious!

Lastly, it's probably important to mention which routers I use.
My primary router right now is a handheld Dewalt 20V. The portability is great and it certainly has some oomph! It's fun to use.
I picked up one of those made-in-Italy Dewalt DW625 3-HP Plunge base routers from a for sale ad online for $100. I didn't really think I needed it but that was an awesome deal and now I'm excited to use it for a router table!


See you around,
Travis

 

[Nickp]

Welcome, Travis...it certainly sounds like you're already "into woodworking"...you'll get "more" on this Forum for sure...

Have fun and stay safe...!

 

[Stick486]

Hello Travis and welcome to the forums...

About your desire to learn... We can help as we have put together some light reading for you...
As in, we've put some helpful information together at this here link to help you get up and running in the world of routers... We hope it to be useful to you... Enjoy...
Do take some time and read the safety PDF's... PLEASE!!!
Blood and trips to the ER, we find, are very annoying... Not to mention – expensive...

 

[difalkner]

Welcome to the forum, Travis!

We do like photos so show us your shop, tools, projects, etc. whenever you're ready. We'd love to see the speaker project as it progresses through the stages, btw.

David

Posting photos -
Here are some photo posting tips if you’re taking photos with your phone or iPad – the best way for proper orientation is to shoot landscape (widescreen). Rotate your phone or iPad CCW for proper orientation. If you want your photos to be portrait then open the photo in a viewer on your computer, rotate it to the orientation you want, then save it in that orientation. It will be correct when you upload it to the servers here. If you’re shooting video please shoot widescreen like our monitors, not portrait.

The best way to post photos in line with your text is to use Go Advanced below the Quick Reply window. If you’re starting a new thread then you’re automatically in the Advanced editor. Click on the Paper Clip on the ribbon bar and that will bring up a dialogue box where you can browse to your photos. Upload them and then put your cursor where you want a photo, hit the dropdown beside the Paper Clip, and choose the photo you want inserted. If you have several photos and just want them at the end of your text then put your cursor at the end and hit the Insert All on the dropdown list of photos.

Always post a photo rather than a link; most folks won't click on a link.

 

[RainMan 2.0]

Welcome to the forum Travis

I’m an audiophile myself and wish I built my own speakers for my home theatre . I’m only 5.1 so not nearly as elaborate as yours, but I’m pretty happy . I’m in a small house also , so that doesn’t help.
It’s cool hearing that your making your own passive crossover networks . If I was rich I’d be tempted to try active crossovers like in my car audio days , but probably unnecessary.

I’m still trying to win the lottery, as I want a pair of focals grand utopias . I’d get them now , but tax and exchange,I believe there around $380,000 a pair lol

At some point I’d like to build a custom stand to hold my components,and have the subwoofer underneath the stereo

 

[disturbedfuel15]

Hey thanks a lot everyone for the the warm welcome! What a cool gang here. I'll for sure post lots of pictures. Thanks for all the advice as well.
I actually am going to make a router table as one of my first means of business. Honestly, it's how I discovered this forum. A guy a half hr from me has a few 24"x96" slabs of corian he'll let go for $45 total. Really considering picking that up... Not sure though yet as I have a really heavy, smooth dining table that I could end up using if it makes sense. Perhaps mounting the router to one of the leaflets so it can be taken off/on easily. I'll have to get a picture for y'all so you can advise me!

Rick, I'll post pictures of my living room setup when I get a chance. Trust me, my wife is all into decorating and needing for things to look a certain way (which I understand). Bless her heart, she didn't complain about the extra money we had to spend to get 'good looking' speakers. Ended up with 8 of the 11 speakers being in-wall/ceiling Now she's asking if we really need the from L/R so large with their built-in 15" powered subwoofers. I would be pretty upset if I had to get rid of my trusty Definitive Technology BP2000TLs from the 90s. They were top of the line back then (and still sound amazing)! Anyway, we will see how these monitor speakers sound after the build is complete. If they are truly as exceptional as I expect them to be, her idea of downsizing may not be so far-fetched!

Thanks again folks! Glad to be here!

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

Hi Travis and welcome.

 

[Semipro]

Hello and welcome to the router forum Travis

 

[RainMan 2.0]

Travis , I suspect having a T800 in the living room wouldn’t go over to well with your wife , or most wives for that matter .
You can probably tell I’m a Terminator fan

 

[DesertRatTom]

Hi Travis. Welcome. Do read the pdfs Stick posted. Really important information. Do get yourself some hearing protection when working with power tools (safety glasses too). You don't want to damage your hearing! Glad you joined the fun.

 

[Herb Stoops]

Hi Travis. Welcome. Do read the pdfs Stick posted. Really important information. Do get yourself some hearing protection when working with power tools (safety glasses too). You don't want to damage your hearing! Glad you joined the fun.

I thought all audiophiles had hearing problems, when they go by my house they shake the dishes in the cupboard.


Welcome to the forum,Travis, and thank you for your service, do they give you hearing protection in the service, they didn't when I was in.
Herb

 

[marecat3]

Welcome to the forum

 

[disturbedfuel15]

I thought all audiophiles had hearing problems, when they go by my house they shake the dishes in the cupboard.


Welcome to the forum,Travis, and thank you for your service, do they give you hearing protection in the service, they didn't when I was in.
Herb

Thank you for your service, Herb!
I was one of the lucky ones in my unit not to get tinnitus, as they always had me in a spot where I could actually hear and respond over the radio
Most of my buddies from my unit suffer from it. At least they get paid a disability rating because of it.
They did supply us with 3M ear plugs, which I used exclusively when firing. Of course, there were always situations where I didn't have time to put em in and I could tell after each gunshot I lost the ability to hear that frequency ever again. Oh well!
The little bit of hearing I perhaps lost is minute compared to the fact that I have a bachelor's degree with 0 debt

Thanks again everyone for the welcomes.

 

[OutoftheWoodwork]

Welcome to the forum Travis

I’m only 5.1 so not nearly as elaborate as yours, but I’m pretty happy .

OMG I need more coffee this morning! I read that as "I'm only 5'1" so not nearly as elaborate as you, but I'm pretty happy." I'm thinkin: "Rick can't be that short!!!" SMH

P.S. Welcome to the forum, Travis! S.E. Mitten here, too.

 

[Bushwhacker]

OMG I need more coffee this morning! I read that as "I'm only 5'1" so not nearly as elaborate as you, but I'm pretty happy." I'm thinkin: "Rick can't be that short!!!" SMH

P.S. Welcome to the forum, Travis! S.E. Mitten here, too.

I did the same thing Barb, I have scrap wood longer then 5:1.
Good morning to you.

David

 

[Danman1957]

Welcome Travis

 

[tulowd]

Welcome Travis, glad to see another audio guy in the group. My woodworking skills are Neanderthalean at best, but I'm a car, car audio and somewhat of an audio junkie. I used to build Pioneer's demo car fleet back in the 1990s and have built hundreds of passive crossover setups, incl lots of 3 channel passive mono sub designs that really propelled car audio forwards in terms of install complexity and tuning. Home audio/home theater setups share some things with car builds and it is interesting for sure to play and tune.

Your Def Tech 15" subs caught my eye - the last big home theatre I built in the 90s included a pair of those, along with 7 Paradigm Veritas speakers, both inwall and bookshelf fronts in a custom big wall cabinet, which I did not build lol. I recall arguing with the electrical contractor why we needed a 100A sub panel for the home theatre......lol

Of late, I am having a lot of success with Dynamat and Dynaliner products for sound deadening/damping. You may find that to be useful in the speaker cabinet building. For cars we use MDF board, typically 3/4" but sometimes 1" or even doubled up panels, depending on the power and baffle areas. I know real speakers tend to use baltic birch multi layer ply, which how my Pioneer Elite towers are built, I think..... we did build a few dozen car subwoofer cabinets that way when we bought a truck load of birch 1"x4x4 ft panels...something like 150 of them.....back in 1989.

I also worked with Axiom out of Lake of Bays, Ontario and really liked Ian's idea (verified at the NRC in Ottawa) regarding angled side walls to disperse some of the standing waves inside the cabinet. This allowed him to use inexpensive raw drivers to achieve remarkable sound quality. Obviously this would work well with any kind of mid and low frequency drivers as well.

Now...to your upcoming build.......does your wife know what a transmission line is? Asking for a friend, lol.

Lookin forward to seeing your build and hearing your thoughts.

Below are some pics of systems I built, incl a single 2 channel high current amp running app 1 ohm mono and 1 ohm stereo simultaneously. Need a lot of damping factor and good current/power delivery to sustain that kind of output.

 

[sreilly]

Welcome to the forum Travis. And thank you for your service. As you can see some are more versed in wood working than audio terminology. Forgive them for they know not how blasphemy they are .

 

[thomas1389]

OMG I need more coffee this morning! I read that as "I'm only 5'1" so not nearly as elaborate as you, but I'm pretty happy." I'm thinkin: "Rick can't be that short!!!" SMH

P.S. Welcome to the forum, Travis! S.E. Mitten here, too.

When I saw that I thought, gosh, is Rick sayin 5' 1" high, or wide? I know he's been talking about losing weight but wow. (I really did think "gosh")

 

[DaninVan]

Hey, Travis; welcome!