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I had been searching around for a nice pair of
speakers for a fair price, and all of the in-store
speakers that I'd listened to and read about, were all
what I considered, overpriced. The only exceptions were
the Wharfdale Diamond 9 floor-standers, which I thought
were nice sounding for the price and a set of Dali
floor-standers which I almost bought.
I was also looking at some of the DIY options and the VAF DCX
kits, which from all the reviews I have read, are
supposedly a fantastic sounding speaker, were being
seriously considered along with putting together my own
speakers from scratch using a pair of Fostex 206e
drivers.
During all of my scratching around, I stumbled on the
Loudspeaker Kit forums, and was quite intrigued by the
products and the prices for the DIY kits, which were
well within the range. Since I am based in Perth, and
with the
fortunate, for me anyway, location of the company in Perth, I
was able to go down to the store in Leederville and talk to the guys
and have a listen to the range.
I was able to take my own amp down to the store and
plug it in so I could get a better feel for how the
speakers would sound with my own equipment - I also
bought my Azur 640C CD from the guys there as well, so
it was a real chance to listen to the entire system. I
was mainly interested in the F6 and TL6 speakers, and
after listening to both, I found the TL6 to be more to
my liking, and was soon walking out the door with a set! The Kit
The TL6 is a transmission line design, which yields a
deeper in room bass response than a vented alignment.
The bass is less punchy than a vented alignment, but is
more natural sounding and more satisfying with music
where you want to hear subtlety and musicality in the
bass. The result is particularly satisfying with
acoustic bass.
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The woofers are Vifa WJ17-00-08 Polycone drivers
with fully cast magnesium supports. |
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The tweeter is the Vifa DG27TG-45-06, a fluid-filled
silk dome tweeter which can be found doing duty in quite
a few high-end manufacturers speaker systems. The
technical details can be found on the Danish Sound
Technologies website for those inclined to check out the
specifics. |
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The
crossover is a 4th order Linkwitz-Riley.
At
some stage I will upgrade the inductors and the
green caps.
The current inductors are 20AWG and I will
probably replace them with 16AWG inductors. The caps I
will upgrade to polyprops, probably Solens - I
could go for AriCaps or something really pricey
and exotic, but I don't think my ears are that
golden that I would be able to tell the
difference. :)
<<--- Click for bigger pic. |
Construction
Construction of the speaker boxes was pretty straight
forward and following the instructions as included with
the speakers makes things quick and easy. The picture
below shows all of the parts laid out for a dry run
and to ensure I have a good fix on how it all goes
together before things get serious, and messy, once the
glue comes out.
< -- Click |
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All glued and
ready for the top panel. |
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My trusty aide
posing with the last panel ready to be dropped
into place... I might add that it's a good
idea to have a friendly assistant help out if
you can find, or bribe, one to lend a hand.
My first attempt at a dry run was sans
assistant (I was impatient and didn't wait for
him to arrive) and lead to a mini-disaster. I had
the box together dry and was foolishly trying to
stand it up for some reason *shrug* and in the
process one of the side panels popped out and
bounced onto the floor... off course it landed
on a point which made a nice little bulge and a
ding in the corner of the panel.
I had to make up for my foolishness with some
extra sanding before the veneer. |
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You
may have noticed the crossover mounting - I have
used the speaker protection plugs that came with
the drivers for my M4's as mounting devices. I
simply plugged them into the PCB holes on the
xovers and then glued them in place with the
wood glue.
Both speakers together and clamped
while the glue dries. I've got the tops weighted
down with my dive belt in an effort to make sure
my dinged panel settles in as well as it can.
I left the clamps on for a good 24hrs. |
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The full set
constructed and ready to go. |
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Sanding the
speakers in prep for the veneer. I used a 160
grit on the orbital which gave me nice smooth
joins and also added a bit of rough for "keying"
the glue when applying the veneer. |
Veneering
I decided to finish my speakers using a nice timber
veneer and a good polyurethane finish. I had used a matt
black paint as a finish on the M4s and while I was happy
with it, I wanted the TL6s to have a different and
luxurious look to them. There's a separate page for
the veneering process, just click
the link below.
Forward to Veneering
Forward to Finishing
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