TB W3-871s hometheater done (pics) (1 Viewer)

[AllanRW]

Wes those look great good work.

Al

 

[VinhT]

Wes, the speakers look absolutely phenomonal.

 

[Jim Griffin]

Wes,

Those speakers look like jewels. You are a lot better with the P-E vinyl wrap than I am.

I'm pleased to provide you a little help on them. I'm sure that your sister will be thrilled with their looks and especially their sound.

Jim

 

[Wes Nance]

Allen,

Thanks for the offer for the pics. I moved them to a new service, hopefully it should be fine. If not, I'll give you a shout.

AllanRW,

Thanks for all the info- your postings and groundwork with these drivers have given us a lot of cool options for fun, low cost DIY speakers. If I have time sometime, I'll have to try a pair in bigger cabs and listen.

Everybody else, thanks for the kind words. They do look pretty good, although if you get really close you can see flaws here and there. The vinyl is a pain to trim around the roundovers. If they were square it would be a piece of cake- Brian Bunge gave me a tip to buy a Bandit veneer trimmer (found one at a Lowes, I think) and it works great on the straight edges, but my roundovers were too small to get around. I also twice nicked an already finished edge with the trimmer as I was trimming the top, so 2 of the speakers have about a 2mm "chip" near an edge that I sort of patched, but I didn't want to try a bigger patch for fear I'd really screw things up. They're on the bottom or the back, so probably will never be seen.

I was *really* surprised with this particular vinyl how nice they looked. A great finish for the money.

For me, these are great "gift" DIY speakers I can make for family, have fun getting better using my table saw and router, and give people a really nice setup for little money. I'm an orchestral musician by trade, so lots of my colleages are checking these out, so I hope to drum some business up for Allan or Brian at the same time, as I'm not going into the speaker business. In the future I'll probably try a sub with the TB 8" driver, but first I have the 2 SVS 12" I bought used to get through. . .

Wes

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Build 'em guys! 2 years ago Brian and I started developing what evolved into his "Micro" model and my "Bozebuster" model. We started with another model TB full-range driver, then on to a second one and finally settled on this 871 as it has the smoothes FR of the 3" TB drivers. Last year I did a HT system for a customer - 2 towers a center channel and 4 871 Bozebusters for his surrounds. He was on a budget, so I did the P.E. vinyl on them (he chose the black ash).
They sound great for the cost, but as Alan said, remember they are small and can't take too much raw power.

 

[Wayne Ernst]

Wes,

Great job. You should make a few more sets on the side to make a few extra $$ to *fund* your desire for HT gear.

 

[NickSo]

Wow, those look sweet...

As for the CSS ELF speakers, how do they sound? a pair of DIY speakers for $90 CAD is a great price, but im skeptical as to how good they can sound.

 

[TimForman]

Unless you're trying to fill a large room a single 871 driver can produce excellent sound. I've built several different designs using them and I'm always pleased with their performance. A true audio bargain.

 

[Wes Nance]

My main HT system is the old standby SCH K0B50 bookshelf and the matching center in a 5.1 setup, that sound quite good for the money, so that is my reference. Not amazing, but better than the majority of the retail stuff out there in my price point. My sub is very good, an AV12 with 2 PR's tuned to 19hz. . .

Anyway, the other day after I'd broken these TB's in for a bit I hooked them up to my system running with my sub, and they sound *very* good. Then I turned off the sub and the surrounds, and just ran the front 3 with my Bela Fleck DVD, and was still very impressed.

I'd say blow the wopping $30 or so and build a pair and see for yourself!

Wes

 

[NickSo]

Cool, ive been lookin for a pair of bookshelves for my (small) room for cheap, i think these may be the ones. How is the cabinet in the complete kit for $90CAD from creativesound.ca? Or would i have to design/build my own to get a decent sound from the drivers?

Sorry for going OT, but this has really got me interested.

 

[Wes Nance]

NickSo,

The kit from creativesounds.ca is optimized for this driver. My guess is that AllanRW has spent more time with these TB drivers than anyone else. That kit will work really well.

Remember, though, that they're tuned a little about 100hz. You may want a small sub if you're looking to fill out the bottom of the sound. . .

Wes

 

[Rory Buszka]

Here's a sub idea:

Dayton Quatro 8" woofer - this
PE 120W plate amplifier - this

 

[RussDAL]

How easily could I pair these with a Pioneer d512 that runs 100 watts x 5. Also how would these compare with the Dayton Home Theater kit. Size is very important to us but I will go up to the larger Daytons if they sound alot better.

 

[Wes Nance]

I haven't heard the Dayton kit, so I can't comment. Basically, these sound very good, especially when tuning/running them from 100hz and up, so you need to be able to cross over around there to your sub.

Shoudn't be any problem at all with that receiver.

Once I get my sister-in-law's system up and running with her Onkyo receiver and the sealed 12" sub with the SVS driver, I can comment in more detail how it sounds. I'm in the middle of the sub now, but won't have time to work on it for a couple of days.

Wes

 

[Bhavesh]

Bloody gorgeous, Wes!

Guys, I'm interested in getting a pair of these for surrounds. Here are my details:
15' by 13' room
Pioneer VSX-D812 receiver (6*100 Watts -yeah right!)
12'' Dayton DVC ported 90L sub
I currently have Axiom Audio M22 as my center channel. Using a pair of tolerable Sony bookshelves for front L&R and some really tiny wimpy speakers for surrounds.
I was planning on getting another M22 pair and using my sony bookshelves as surrounds. However budget constraints put that off for a while.

How would these fit in with my setup. Or am I better off saving up and waiting?
The lowest crossover on my receiver is 100Hz.
Can any firm ship these kits [MINUS MDF], but maybe with the front baffle, to South Africa via USPS airmail parcel post.
Or recommend other places I can buy the components ,[Parts Express maybe?]

Thanks for reading