Overdue update

The last couple of months have been brutal. Mostly in a good way.  I have built, shipped, fixed, modified more cabs, parts and stuff than ever before.  Just relentless.  I would just about get caught up, and another huge batch of orders, special requests, and personal stuff would drop.

Finally the end of last month I took my first real break in about 3 years.  10 days off, 4 in LA, 6 in Seattle/Bellingham.  I pretty much did nothing.  No touristy stuff in LA, I've done quite a bit of it in the past.  A little bit in Seattle, but mostly I just chilled.

I did take some MVWcabinets with me.  A new home audio version for my cousin's house in LA.

Stunning.  One of the most transparent speakers I've ever heard.  She had a little dinner party (she always does when we're there), and they were flabbergasted to say the least.  "They sound alive" was the most pertinent comment.  Still in pre-production, with driver complement and final xover points tbd. 

I also shipped some GC25v's and GC25xt's to my daughter's house in Seattle.  To replace the current mains used by her boyfriend's band, The Bad Tenants.  Pictured is the xt, with rear mounted compression driver. Just one of these is equivalent to a 12" with a comp horn in output, and sounds far better. 

I did a couple small demos for some folks, and missed the opportunity for an important demo with a big player in the industry because I had no signal source.  Shoot me in the head, that will never happen again.  Lepai amp in my bag at all times from now on. 

On the shop front, I have a new tool.  Yes, again.  I am a tool addict, and 12 steps won't help.  A Kreg pocket screw jig.  I used it for the first time and will always use it from now on.  Just about eliminates the nailer.  It's not faster than the nailer, by the time you factor in drilling the holes.  But, and it's a really big but, it's a better, easier, simpler assembly.  No more getting under the cab to shoot brads.  Internal panels, of which practically every cab I build has a bunch, pull down so tight I believe you could build a cab without glue.  And automatically square themselves.  Warped panel?  No problem, put 3 screws in it, fasten one end, push the warp out, drive the next, push the warp out, drive the third.  The only place I'm not using them are on the edge panels.  The screw will whack the router when the cab is rounded.  Most of the cabs there's no way I can access the screws to pull them after the glue sets, so most of those will be nailed.  If I could, I would use them exclusively. on every joint. 

I have a complete MVW cab install in the local theater next week.  10 MinE surrounds, 3 GC45 mains and a pair of RachE 18 subs.  Pics and a report to come.  Considering how MVW cabs image, I'm expecting staggering results. 

Had some fun yesterday.

About 10 days ago I came across a post on facebook about a musicians swap meet in Joplin.  It's about 60 miles away, so I contacted the sponsor, Woods and Wire to see if vendors could come.  They said bring it. 

I work best against deadlines.  I completed a crapload of cabs for customers and this event all at the same time.   Diane and I worked long days to try to get ready and get customer stuff done.  Sam showed up a day early, he had classes cancelled and knocked out a prototype guitar cab to take. 

It was our first trade show with speakers.  I've done many trade shows in the past, as a vendor and a participant.  Kind of rusty though.  It was a good wring out for us to know what we need in the future.  Here's a few pics of the shop work and the show. 

Sam standing on the bench assembling a monster 27 wide t48  for a customer. 

Me with a pile of assembly parts on the bench.

Setup

Tower of Power.  RachE 12 and 18's

Interested folks.  Rockin' our new tee shirts.  And we pretty much stopped the show when we cranked the system a couple of times.  Just the Mine25's and 2 RachE 12's

Dan from Wood and Wire trying out the new guitar cab.  Every guitar player's head in the place snapped around when it fired up. 

My erstwhile assistants

Me and the Missus. 

The new MVW guitar cab is astonishing.  I keep running out of superlatives for these cabs.  It projects and sounds like no guitar cab ever.  All the listeners and players just gushed about it.  We'll get it prettied up and I'll get some pics up.  It was just finished the night before, and we just took it anyway. 

We had a good time.  And got good experience.  And are all exhausted today. 

I have not been slacking

Except for my blog.  I didn't even write a report about the listening party in OK.

Fun and amazing.  2 MinE25's and 2 Rache12's will take a gym to high school dance levels.  And sound freakin' fabulous doing it.  That's a total of 4 5" drivers, 2 tweeters, and 2 12" subwoofers.  Even Doug and I were surprised, and we'd heard them before.  Even, sweet and thumping.   2 GC46's and 2 Rache18's were ridiculous.  Utterly ridiculous.  Actually overkill for a gymnasium.  It's what I'd bring every time :-).

Every person there asked for pricing and availability.  Many of them were gospel groups, and they were really excited about the MinE's.  Small, huge output, great sound.  Just right for the kind of venues and churches they play.   Throw a pair and a single RachE12 in the back seat of a car and you have a system to handle small to mid size events, if you don't need club levels.

That night we went to a local establishment and provided sound for the Jake Moffat Band.  Great band, these boys can play.  We setup 4 Rache18's, 2 Rache 12's, and 4 GC46's.  I don't really know what capacity the bar is, but it's a pretty good sized place.  Dance floor is probably 25x20 at least.  It was gorgeous.  Minimal eq, and the bass from the system had to be heard to be believed.  The bass player for the band is a great player, (as are all of them) and you could hear every note articulated and defined.  None of that muddied up mess that you usually get.  Halfway through we realized 1 pair of the RachE18's weren't even on.  Doug pretty much got to nap in front of the board.  Setup and run.  That's the goal of BigE loudspeakers.  Minimal eq, minimal setup time, very little concern about placement.

A very interesting thing Steve (designer) had warned us about.  As the club filled, Doug actually had to turn the system down.  It got to about 1/2 full, he had to drop the gains 3-4 db.  Exact opposite of what usually happens with those bodies soaking up energy.  As it started to empty towards closing, he had to bring it back up to maintain the levels.  Bizarre. 

On the diy front not much to report new, except I have 18 cabs in the queue right now to build.  That's why I haven't been here.  I will post a pic of a new center channel I just did.  Bent baffle, no joint lines.  I just kerfed the back at the bend points, soaked the joint lines and bent it.  Then I filled the kerfs with a scrap and glued it in place with PL.  Testing was as strong as the uncut plywood. I'm pretty proud of it.  Built so the customer can do the final finish, it's done with mitered corners, practically no fasteners.  Furniture grade. 

Get Togethers

I'm assuming most of you know there's a listening party in Yale Ok next weekend.  If you're anywhere close you need to be there.  Bring whatever cabs you want to so we can run it all.  Bring whatever measuring gear you'd like, we'll set it up and run tests.  Details are here.
From the BigE stable there will be GC46 tops, MinE2x5 array cabs, MA66 bass cab, RachE12 subs, and the big guns.  WT8 line array tops and RachE18 subs.  A full T39 Otop 12 BFM system, and a JBL system possibly.  I really want to see some stuff show up.  We think we can stand with the best gear out there. 

 It is primarily a listening test though.  BigE cabs have proven to be problematic for testing gear.  Working on it, we think we have a solution to actually show what's going on.  Yet to be proven, but it is an AES accepted test method, just not widely used I think because it's difficult.  I haven't waded through all of the white paper yet.

These gtg's are probably going to be our primary venue for launching the line.  None of us have a couple of hundred k for a major ad launch campaign.  There's another tentatively scheduled for the end of April in Seattle, or at least close to Seattle.  I'll be there with as many cabs as I can afford to ship.  If you're having any kind of gig like this drop me a line.  If possible I'll attend or send some cabs.

Been killin' it in the shop.  I have a new assistant.  She's really cute, and does good work.  She's learned how to solder, run a router, and is now the master of filling and sanding, sanding, sanding.















One more new addition to the shop.  Took FOREVER to get here.   Cool as hell.

It's my new refrigerator.  And it goes to 11. 

New tools!

I am always, always on the hunt for anything to make my life easier in the shop.  Over the last month or so I've gotten a few new things that have become pretty much invaluable. The best part of it is they're cheap.

The first one is a Gator Microzip. 

This thing is awesome.  It's just soft enough to hold well, just dense enough that it doesn't flex unless you try.  That way you won't screw up a flat surface.  For reaching in horn throats, easing edges, anyplace you need either fine control or small size.  The 80g paper cuts PL and BB like butter.  It has saved me so much prep time it's crazy.  About $10.  Probably any hardware store, I got mine at Ace.  They'll be on my website before too long.






Next up is a Porter Cable 23ga Pin Nailer.

  How did I ever build without this?  Blows my 18ga
out of the water.  Fast, light, small, fabulous. There are a jillion brands of nailers out there, I'm just partial to the Porters.  They just feel better in my hand, and are much quieter than the others I've used.  This little puppy barely goes pffft when you shoot the pin.  And the best part is, no nail holes to fill.  It's so small it's hard to see it.  3/4 is just right for 1/2 ply, they hold tight enough for the PL to cure.  That's what they're for.  If you need a structural connection, it ain't the tool.  Plus you can edge nail into 1/8 bb and not split it if you're good.  Into 1/4 is a no brainer.  When Sam is home we fight over it in the shop.  Loser has to use the 18ga. 
Anywhere from $30 at Harbor to probably less than $100 for a name brand.

Finally, a new saw blade.  From Amana
American Steel, American made.  I like that. 
No pic, you know what a saw blade looks like.  I've always been a Freud user.  They make a quality product.  I like this better.  It's slightly thicker than the Freud's in the body of the blade.  Still 1/8 kerf.  But the carbide is about an inch thick. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but it is about twice as thick as the Freud.  You can have it sharpened til the cows come home.  The cut is so smooth you'd swear it was sanded.  Even after many many board feet of ply it's still smooth and never splinters the edge.  I got mine from Ballew Saw and Tool in Springfield MO.  They sharpen all my bits and blades, and recommended this blade to me.  It was about $50 IIRC.  I highly recommend Ballew, they are knowledgeable, friendly, competitive pricing, and have real industrial stuff you won't find at your local big box.  I've bought 3 Saw Stop saws from them.  You do have your Saw Stop don't you?  If you value your fingers you do. 

On the subject of fingers, one old tool.  If you don't have a Saw Stop, you MUST have this.  Even if you do you must have this.

I've been using them for at least a couple of years.  You can make impossible cuts.  I ripped a 1/2 dowel in half the other day on the table saw using it. You can make standard cuts in complete safety.  It looks like a mess in the pic, complicated.  It's not. Setup for odd cuts takes about 10 seconds. Figuring out sometimes how to make the cut takes longer than setting it up.  I leave all the stuff off of it for most cuts. Just grab it and go.  The cut marks in the bottom of mine attest to either my ability to screw up and cut my push block, or at least some of them to the fact that it saved my ass. I have actually stopped the blade on my Jet with this when a board got in a bind and was threating to kick back.  I just bore down on it. The riving knife on my Sawstop has cured those issues though. 
 Btw, I sell them.

On the speaker front, a long term project has finally come to fruition.  I've been messing with a 2x5 BigE design for a while for use as studio monitors.  I brought in some really fine 5" peerless drivers that got me most of the way there.  Very low fs,  I have strong response to 35hz.  They don't need subs for nearfield.  Hell, they don't need a sub for anything less than 10-12ft.  But I just wasn't happy with the upper mids and high end I was getting from all the tweeters I tried.  Mike Arnopol suggested some Vifa's, that he's using in a 4x5 bass guitar cabinet.  Says it's the sweetest thing he's ever heard.  And he's right. I installed a couple in one yesterday and it blossomed.  I didn't even mess with the crossover to adjust for them, just stuck them in at about 4k.  The best BigE cab yet.  And that's saying A LOT.   I'll optimize the xover point this weekend.  They would make a killer bookshelf speaker.  Or mains in a small room HT setup.  

Special shoutout to Matt Goodwin.  He has revolutionized my Facebook page.  Go buy his music.  The Bad Tenants.  Thank you to all of you for the new likes and followers. 

Getting very close

It's been a long haul to get the BigE cabs done for the local theater.  I thought I was done in Dec, but then realized there were 10 surround cabs.  I wasn't willing to do a partial system, so we started in.  Had to come up with a design first, then prototype and build. 

I now have 14 of the crazy things sitting around the shop. 2x5.  The surrounds are pretty much wired.  4 of them are going to be monitors for a couple of friends who record. They require much higher fidelity than the surrounds.  Still playing with the correct tweeter for them.  I've tried a couple of different woofers with really good results.  I had some closeout sonys that I started with.  Really good, great mids, good bass.  Then I dropped in some very low fs long xmax Peerless drivers.  The bass is stunning.  You'd swear I have a subwoofer running with them.  But it did cost some mid quality.  Playing with tweeters and moving the crossover point around to fix it.  I like running the mains full range, but I'm pretty sure with these I need to install a low pass to  roll them off and let the tweets take over about 2.5-3k.  I have some Faital 5's coming to give a go also.  They're what Mike Arnopol uses in his 4x5 bass cab, and it's his favorite cab in the BigE line. 

In other news I just keep cranking out the fEARful flat packs.  Dave has really  hit a home run with these.  Traditional designs, optimized for the new generation of drivers available.  I'd really like to do a FEARLESS, but nobody's ordered one.  (Hint).  The 2x15 and the F112 are blowing up.  The other builders are doing lots of them.  BNA has a booth at Namm this year with fEARfuls and FEARLESS cabs in it.  You should stop by if you're going.  Mark's a great guy. 

Twist the knife.

TBH, not going to the Danley shootout took a huge load off me.  I was killing it getting the RachE 18 subs ready.  I had two prototypes done, and then Steve and Tom figured out a very simple change that altered the output radically.  So I was building two more cabs. 4 sheets of 3/4bb later, they're done, but not all prettied up.  And worth the effort. As much output from a single as we were getting from 2 of the original design.  I need bigger amplifiers.  My 1k digmoda just makes a DeltaPro18c just start to work hard, it's a 500w speaker.  It's breaking your building at 1k, and will obviously take a LOT more power.  I ordered in Impero 18c's for the final installation.  They're a 1200w driver, I'll wager they'll take way over 2k before it's all said and done. 

Here's why I think that about the power.  I have a 2x5 cab (actually a pile of them) that are going in the local theater for surrounds.  My test driver in them is a sony that's rated at 10w.  A PE closeout driver.  I have them in series for a 10ohm load.  I can easily dump 150-200w into them without complaint.  For extended periods.  My digmoda is 500w at 4 ohms, so that should be in the 150-200 range.  I can bump the +5 db meters on my board with no ill effects.  And my system is properly gain set, should reach the limiters .at the 5db led on the board.   

So anyway back to the shootout.  The original questioner said one of his criteria was vocal projection.  That was the knife twist.  It's hard to describe vocals from these cabs.  It sounds like you're wearing headphones.  My daughter is a trained opera singer.   When she heard them her comment was singers were going to have to step up their game.  She could hear every breathing flaw and vocal control mistake they were making. 

A friend of mine who is true blue recovering audiophile (he calls it an addiction) stopped by at my request to listen.  He's the only guy I know in town who's listened to and owned truly high end home audio.  About 30 seconds in he started grinning.  At the end of "Behind Blue Eyes" he told me it's one of the finest systems he's ever heard.  Imaging, placement, huge sound stage, all the things I was hearing. His comment was "It was like a live performance".

Shop stuff. 

If you're not doing dust collection, START.  I emptied my big collector a couple of days ago, and it's astounding.  Both the fines and the main collector were full.  If not for it, I'd have been breathing all that stuff.  And the fines are the bad boys.  I also have a Jet Hepa that will change the air in the shop in about 2 minutes on high.  I run it on low all the time, kick it up to high when sanding or routering.  I vac from the sanders, but they still kick some out. 
At least hook a shop vac up to your tools, and wear a mask. 

I also tried out a new blade.  Ballew Saw and tool in Springfield sharpen my router bits and blades.  They  recommended I try an Amana on my table saw.  It's a heavier blade than the Freuds I've been using, but has a crapload of carbide.  It will probably sharpen a dozen times. And it cuts smooth as silk, smoother than my Freuds.  Recommended.