DIY Athena Audition Series Bi-Pole Project (1 Viewer)

[Raul A]

I recently upgraded my speakers to an Athena Audition series system consisting of the AS-C1, 2 AS-F2s, and 2 AS-B1s. I've been planning on buying a pair of Energy C-R1 Bi-Poles for approx $300 to use as surrounds in a 7.1 system.

But then I had an idea. If I buy two pairs of the AS-B1s, which are available to me rediculously cheap, then maybe I can build two bi-pole enclosures and use the woofers and tweets from the bookshelves. I figure I can use the wood from the speakers so that they will match in appearance.

Now, I have a friend who is in to carpentry, and another friend who is a cabinet maker and builds custom speaker enclosures for cars and trucks, and they have volunteered to help me build these.

So my question is about what kind of concerns I should have when building a speaker. I know that a lot of you have built your own subs and many have built their own speakers and would love to hear from you on what kinds of obstacles you think I'll encounter and what kinds of mistakes I should avoid etc.

Will there be any materials I will need other than what I'll have avaiable from the bookshelves?

And have you heard of anyone building bi-pole speakers before or know of any websites that chronicle their construction?

Finally, and most importantly, is this a task I should even bother taking on...?

I love the idea of having custom bi-poles that match my system aesthetically, but of course I want them to sound as good as possible as well.

I am a novice, so any help is appreciated, and thanks for reading!

 

[Raul A]

Before I made this post last night I fired off an e-mail to Athena asking if they had any plans to add di- or bi-pole surrounds to their Audition Series line, and here is their response:

Good News!

The athena engineering guys are always on the ball! They are working on just such a product. The target to have it in production is later this year. We're hoping for October. Stay tuned to the athena website, as we will place the model up there about a month before production to build some excitement. The pricing, and exact configuration can't be disclosed as of yet, but just assume its priced as aggressively as AUDITION models, looks as good, and will be very good sounding!

Thanks for taking the time to email us - we really appreciate it.
Best Regards
Joe Fraser
athena TECHNOLOGIES

That said, should I even bother working on this project, or should I be patient and wait for the official release?

 

[Raul A]

*bump*

 

[Allen Ross]

heck always do something that isn't ordinary. give it a whack


i haven't built bi or di poles but i am also interested in design, is there anything dif in the OX? just switch polarity on one driver?

 

[Marvin E]

I am using the AS-C1 Center Channel and two AS-F2 tower speakers for my front soundstage and two pairs of Atlantic Technology dipole speakers for the rear of my 7.1 system. I wanted to upgrade the dipoles to Athena S5 speakers, but I don't like direct radiating speakers in the rear. I heard the S5s in a local Best Buy. It is a small speaker but it has a HUGE bass sound for its size! If the new Athena bipole speakers are going to be as good as the S5s, I would pre-order them today. If you want to build your own, go for it. As for me, I'm going to wait...but it won't be easy.:frowning:
I've used bipole surrounds before and have mounted them on the walls, about two to three feet above the sitting position. Are you going to mount them on stands? If not, the AS B1s weigh 14 pounds each, so you need to consider using wall brackets that can hold the weight. Athena makes B1 brackets, so that would be an additional cost.