Adire HE12.1's finished (floorstanders) (1 Viewer)

[KyleGS]

Finally finished my ported HE12.1's for those interested. I have ~ 70h of break-in and they continue to sound better. I'll wait a few more weeks to give a more detailed review of critical listening sessions. The bass gets smoother and deeper everyday so I think a few more weeks should do the trick. I have taken them outside and used them in a "concert" type setting and let me say that the output and extension was very impressive given they were played in "open air" with no boundaries. They can easily be mistaken for pro audio speakers outside just due to the bass response and output; yet inside they are tame and detailed. I'll just say one more thing about their sound... my Tempest has not been on since I've set them up. I don't need it at all on any of my music and rarely see a need for it on movies.

I deviated a little from Adire's design. I made them a hair taller and used extra 2x4's for bracing. I also tuned ~2 hz higher and used a 4" flared port vs. the supplied 4" port. Made of 3/4 mdf with ~5 coats of Dupli-color truck bedliner. I Kilz'ed and painted flat black before the bedliner. Sides and top front are rounded. Feet consist of 2x4 blocks with PE spikes mounted in them.

Here is a link to the pictures. There are two pages.
I'll chime back in soon and give a more detailed review.
Page 1
Page 2

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

Good idea trying them outdoors in open air. I was wondering what you're powering them with too?

I've been waiting patiently almost 2 weeks for a pair of full range Jordans to arrive from Creative Sound. Soon I should be putting a review out for those as well.

I was also wondering, is the cone of that Eminence untreated paper? If it got wet from outside, that could be bad for the cone. (Not that you'd leave them outside, but perhaps I'd leave the sprinklers on or something)

I was also curious where you got that 4" flared port.

Thanks for posting the pics seeing how adire doesn't have many.

 

[Michael R Price]

Yeah, it's interesting since the HE12.1 is such a great idea (high efficiency and low cost kit) yet not so many people have built them. Don't they sound better than the other Adire kits?

 

[PaulDF]

I've been looking all over for pics of the HE12.1. I expected to see a tweeter on the front too, is it really behind the woofer cone?

How do the mids and highs sound?

 

[KyleGS]

The "open air" listening session was all of 35 minutes. I have been powering them with an H/K pre-amp mated with a Yamaha M-70 dedicated amp (200wpc). The cone is treated, yet it would not seem a good idea to leave them out overnight much less in a sprinkler :p. Port is from partsexpress. The compression tweeter is threaded through the rear of the 12" driver. The driver dust cap is "mesh" like and lets the horn info shine through. I have not heard the other Adire kits but this one is amazing as compared to many $2000+ main speakers (retail) I have auditioned.

 

[Allen Ross]

oh i need the money and the time and i will build to my hearts content


Now i am seriously considering to build a pair of those later on after my first 2 projects

 

[Dean-P]

I sure would like to hear the review: now I am interested in building these. Do they actually compare to $2000 units?
What units would you compare them too? Klipsch,Paradigm,Energy?

 

[Saurav]

Looks good. I spent several months very happy with my (sealed) HE12.1s, and then embarked on a series of tweaks that is still continuing. I think mine sound quite a bit better than stock now

 

[KyleGS]

I compared to Klipsch, Def Tech, and lots of JBL speakers from the 70's to current also compared to Pioneer HPM series. What kind of upgrades are we talking about Saurav?

 

[Saurav]

Well... what I'm playing with now is crossover tweaks. Dan Wiggins suggested changing the value of a resistor to add some sparkle to the top end, and I'm experimenting with different values. Other than that, I've:

* Cut off the bug screen on the 12"er
* Painted the cone with a coat or two of shellac
* Stuck polyfill strips on the insides of the basket legs
* Wrapped polyfill strips around the woofer and tweeter magnets

And I'm running these high-passed at around 70Hz or so. I remember reading a post by Dan where he said he preferred doing it this way, and the AudioXpress review/test of the HE10.1 reported increased IMD as you got to 50Hz or so, so I decided to set up my system that way.

Pictures of my HE12.1s (they're a flat black now, my wife didn't really like that Parts Express fake veneer stuff). I'd post a link, but my ISP recently changed things so that I can't link to a folder that doesn't have an index.html page.

 

[KyleGS]

I've also talked with him about lowering the R2 value to add a brighter top end. I figured I would try it with the 20 ohm first. After hearing it with the 20 ohm R2 I don't think I will be lowering the value any. My top end is plenty forward enough for my taste. I have a warm pre-amp, bright source and neutral amp so if I get a new source I may need to drop R2 down to 10 ohms or so. BTW how's the extension on the sealed version with no low end filter? Can you get cleanly down to ~40hz? I want someone to tell me that it was worth it to build 128L mains!!! They are 52 inches high!! ouch... But I have high SAF... go figure

 

[Michael R Price]

It was worth it, but not as much as building a 256L subwoofer.

 

[Saurav]

BTW how's the extension on the sealed version with no low end filter? Can you get cleanly down to ~40hz?

Hard for me to say because I have a huge room hump at 35Hz, and a dropout at around 70Hz. My tiny 88dB monitors could "go down to" 35Hz in my room (with a slight hole between 40 and 60Hz ). 40 Hz... maybe not, but I think it did low 50s easily. It's been a while since I had them running full-range.

I had R2 at 20, then at 10 for a while, and now it's at 0. That's really bright though... I'm leaving it that way to see if I end up liking it, but I don't think I will

Have you done any frequency response measurements on your speakers? Some tweeters were mislabeled, so if you see a big dip around 2400Hz, reverse the tweeter connections. The AudioXpress review had this problem, and apparently they did the subjective listening review with miswired speakers.

Also, I have slight dips at 8KHz and 11KHz, and that's what I'm trying to improve now. I don't really know what's causing them though, I'm still experimenting. Overall, the speakers are pretty flat from 600Hz to 4KHz or so, which I like.