parts required for this project were as follows.
3/4" plywood. he let me have the regular cheap stuff for free so i used that. usually baltic birch is suggested. mdf can be used but the designers suggest baltic birch. 1 sheet is more than enough.
a 1'x1' piece of 3/8" solid wood for the spacers.
2 drivers (fostex 127e). the cabinet was designed using the enabled 127e in mind however the stock drivers can be used as well.
4 binding posts - 2 red + 2 black
4' speaker cable to wire the driver to the binding posts.
some kind of padding. i had access to dacron padding for free so i used it. its not ideal but if you get something for free it will be very hard to hear the difference between it and something that costs a heck of a lot more. the designers suggested i use 1/2" recycled blue jean cotton fiber.
assortment of screws to mount the driver onto the baffle and screw the back panel in. make sure you have a way to get inside the cabinet if you ever have to change the binding posts or the wire or change how much padding is inside the box.
the driver, posts and wire can all be ordered from madisound.com. great guys with excellent service. if you would like to use the modded drivers then look on audiogon/diyaudio/audioasylum for a used pair. they dont come up that often but i got my pair used so its not impossible. if you would like to buy them new email dave or chris at planet10-hifi.com. dave's email is on there somewhere.
my personal suggestion would be to stick with the design that uses 1/2" plywood instead of the 3/4" because quite a few fonkens have been built using 1/2" plywood. i am a beta tester for the 3/4" design so received the cut plans for free but the dimensions for the back panel, front baffle and top panel were wrong by 2" at worst. a few other things need to be fixed as well so just stick with the design that has been out for quite a few months and a lot of people have already built the boxes with it without problems.
there are a few other tips that came as a result of improvisations that had to be made in the absence of the correct hardware and tools. given the incorrect dimensions of the panels some on the stop decisions had to be made which fixed the immediate problem but caused others later in the build stages. i dont want to write them all out however if you want to build a pair then i will put them down as i have time. i dont mind sharing my mistakes or speed bumps but only if you are actually going to build them as it would be a time consuming task to write them all up.
from my limited time with them i do have one observation to make. they like to turned up. they sound good at low volumes but they come to life with higher volumes. however i am using a t amp right now that was kindly loaned to me by tyrion. perhaps with a better amp that problem at low volumes gets resolved. they seem to be more resolving at higher volumes than at lower ones.
as far as my involvement with the project goes, i basically was taught what all the tools in the shop were and how they were used correctly. then i cut up the panels for one speaker after watching one the gentleman do it. i cut out the holes in the front panel and beveled the back of the speaker mount to give the driver some breathing room (very important). cut up all the spacers. stained the spacers and the insides of the side panels so they didnt stick out as raw wood when the veneer was applied. once the veneer was applied i stained it and applied 3 coats of lacquer and one of clear coating. i think i would like to use some furniture wax for a few coats to make them real shiny but perhaps not. they look nice in an understated kind of way. and finally did all the soldering which isnt really much.
the rest of the building process was done by Vincent (Vince) Conners (owner) and Julio (affectionately called 'huli', the carpenter). their business is called Creations Unlimited.
134 NW 2nd Street,
Boca Raton, FL 33432
[email protected]
561-362-8833
if any established members would like vince's cell phone number please ask me via pm or post here.
i received the dacron padding from a shop behind vince's shop called Boca Canvas Inc. they mostly do canvasing for boats and had older dacron padding lying around. for this pair i used a 2'x1' piece and still have a lot left over.
i went and called around 9 shops and received quotes of over $100 for a 12"x10" piece of mdf with a 4" hole cut out in the center so i could make some open baffles for the drivers. when i called vince he asked me to just come over and that he could just let me have his scrap pieces for free. i went over and had a 4 hour conversation about speakers and different crazy designs for horns and what not. at the end of 4 hours he agreed to build me a pair of fonkens for a price that actually made me speechless. i am not exaggerating here. i actually couldnt believe the number he quoted me. the price for the speakers for any other pairs that he does is up to him so i wouldnt be surprised if he quotes $50-$100 over what i paid as it did take roughly 14 hours of work to get them from a sheet of wood to something that played music. i dont want it to sound like an advertisement but i dont really care if it comes across as one. they are both genuinely nice guys and the prices are about as fair as they can get. building your own pair of speakers is a shitload of fun and i wish i didnt have school everyday or i would have been at the shop helping those guys do whatever they were doing but if you dont have access to tools or the space to tackle such a project, then i would definitely suggest giving vince a call and finding out your options with him. (i speak highly of them because they are great guys and excellent woodworkers, not because of any kind of deal that might be struck between a customer and a service provider to give a glowing review of the product or the services rendered in return for a lower price. no such deal was struck. i just have nothing but respect and praise for both of them.
the schematics are available here -
planet_10 hifi
far too many plans there to even discuss. pick your driver and go with any design. hard to go wrong with any of them.
