HT speakers finished w/ pics

Some of you will remember I asked in this thread a couple months back if I should align drivers down the center of the enclosure, and there were quite a few great responses from the resident pros.  I'm happy to say that the main speakers project is complete and I'm anxious to show off my twin babies. 

This was my original concept drawing that prompted the question:

So  here are a couple pics of the finished product.  Stand together and say "cheese"....

Separated at birth...and trying to make a run for it.

Then promptly put to work.  Hey, don't we have child labor laws?

Those look fantastic steve!

Job well done, now how do they sound?? By the way that's a hell of a tv you got there as well.

It's high gloss red on textured black, and the red is red, no doubt.  That was my wife's request and I was able to put a lot of time and some money we don't really have into these for that very reason.  Solved the SAF factor ;)  But now it's really toned down compared to the full-face red behemoths these are replacing!

Thanks for the comments, guys.  These are so new I haven't had much time to do listening tests, but my first impression was that the mid range seemed a bit loud.  But listening to several types of music through these eventually gave me the impression that they were performing fairly flat as I don't have any EQ correction applied at the preamp.  Notably, the guitar work of Stevie Ray Vaughan leaves me breathless after I listen to it through these.  I only have a Onkyo HT receiver (75 watts/ channel) and a Philips DVD player for equipment, so I'm holding out from getting too critical until such a time that I can give them some truly clean power.

Both woofers are vented to the rear and work as I wanted them to.  I can put the reciever on "large" and play the music source in "direct" mode (giving these speakers the full signal) and there is no flapping out of control with the 6.5" midbass...with very near sub level output.  Otherwise these are crossed to a sub at 80 Hz.  But these are in their virgin day so I'll be doing as much testing as I have ability to do, such as listening to sweeps.  I did watch a show tonight, "CSI", and you notice now that some of the best sound and video programming for 5.1 and hi def is seen in these regular broadcast shows.  So my impression for what these were truly built for, HT mains, is that they worked very well.  I've got a real nice soundstage now.

Steven, these are all Vifa drivers.  The 6.5s are what I am calling mid-bass;  they are the WJ-00 series.  The mids were some 4.5s that I bought for a song from PartsExpress, made by Vifa as OEM for Infinity from what I could gather.  I tried them in the center channel and liked the sound so I bought four more knowing I would do this upgrade one day, and I wanted the mids to be the same.  The tweeter is Vifa D27TG-05.

Now here's the part nobody will see unless I show them.  Accessible crossover.

The center channel gets the next makeover.

The TV stand is the bench to the kitchen table...I haven't found or built one yet.  Probably will go with a simple Shaker style made with pine or MDF and painted black.  I need it a bit higher so the sub will sit upright under it.  I did weigh one of those speakers just before it was done, without the 3 lb crossover, on the bath scales and it came in at about 40 lbs.  Not sure if I trust that as the scales are vintage '60's, but I wouldn't put them at any more than 60 lbs if I were to guess, maybe more if I consider the lbs of paint they have sprayed on them.  Not much weight involved in the drivers, although the mids have bucking magnets.  But there's no big hefty sub involved with these, which adds a lot of weight to a speaker.

I made the speakers at 50" and they stand 51" on the spikes.  My work and family members don't give me much time to listen to them, but with the sneak sessions I've had so far they sound first class.  I'm working on an angle (there's always angles with the wife factor ;) to upgrade the amplifier and CD player and have an amp in mind thanks to DYohn's recommendation (thanks DYohn).  So far though, I can't find anything to complain about.

If you're using paint as the finish, heed this:  no matter how smooth and perfect you think you've filled and sanded, there will be bad spots showing after you get a couple coats of paint on it.  Be prepared to sacrifice these first coats to show you the flaws so that you can prep it some more.

If you want to stick with DIY, there is an interesting rack system called the Flexi Rack (or Flexy Rack other times) that seems to be popular.  A quick Google search under both those names will bring up quite a few projects people have done, some including the build process.   Here's one great example: http://members.cox.net/~tonyptx/homeaudio/flexyrack/

I know what you are thinking, those are for equipment, not the TV.  However I still think it would be a good option if you used a thicker threaded rod for stability.  The advantage is that you could also build shelves for your stereo equipment as well.

One suggestion I recommend to people is to run their hand over the surface before painting.  This is because you can feel those imperfections that aren't visible to the naked eye.  Also a light mist of black spray paint over your primer will show the low spots and high spots as you sand at the 220 grit level.