crappyjones123 Posted October 29, 2009 Report Posted October 29, 2009 so fucking happy right now even with the t amp at 15% they can fill up my office beautifully. was skeptical about the 1.8 watt decware amp but all reservations have been removed. yes i know the drivers are mounted sideways but theres a brace directly behind the driver and thats the only way the driver would go in without damage to driver posts. i did about 15% of the work in building them. rather happy with the outcome. the guys who built them did a beautiful job. pictures dont really shop the texture all that well.
Voltron Posted October 29, 2009 Report Posted October 29, 2009 Maybe a few inches but not much more for a near-field setup. Enjoy CJ.
crappyjones123 Posted October 29, 2009 Author Report Posted October 29, 2009 thanks both. the stands need to be shortened by about 1.5". the drivers are around the top of my ears. a little over infact. the imaging is fantastic. i just moved them about 6" apart and now they image even better. no shrill top end. clean to about 45hz. usable low frequency is probably around 60-65hz perhaps. but has no problems reproducing a 45hz test tone at -6db.
cetoole Posted October 30, 2009 Report Posted October 30, 2009 Cool crappy, definitely curious to hear them when down that way. Have a buddy who has been Fonken this, Fonken that for the past several months. Just dont blow them up before 12/5.
GPH Posted October 30, 2009 Report Posted October 30, 2009 I need some pointers please. string* wtf = new string;
Dusty Chalk Posted October 30, 2009 Report Posted October 30, 2009 I think he wants to know where he got the (a) parts; ( idea for the project/schematics; © who his friends are that did the other 85%.
crappyjones123 Posted October 30, 2009 Author Report Posted October 30, 2009 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.
mrarroyo Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 Nice work there! Sure hope you enjoy them.
zippy2001 Posted October 31, 2009 Report Posted October 31, 2009 Congrats CJ, they look great. I'm glad you're enjoying them.
eugenius Posted November 2, 2009 Report Posted November 2, 2009 Thanks! That's just what my new amp needs.
n_maher Posted November 2, 2009 Report Posted November 2, 2009 Thanks! That's just what my new amp needs. You're exactly 1 post away from gone.
n_maher Posted November 2, 2009 Report Posted November 2, 2009 A good percentage of his posts do read as spambot.
grawk Posted November 2, 2009 Report Posted November 2, 2009 Yah. His longest post was 8 short lines 6 months ago. I'm not sure why I bothered with time out...
Sherwood Posted November 2, 2009 Report Posted November 2, 2009 Seriously. That guy's been riding a thin line for months now.
CarlSeibert Posted November 6, 2009 Report Posted November 6, 2009 Most excellent, CJ. You gonna have them at Mike's meet? Or maybe we should do a Fonken vs Metronome FE127e shoot out.....
crappyjones123 Posted November 6, 2009 Author Report Posted November 6, 2009 fonken vs metronome shootout can certainly be arranged anytime after dec 9th as long as you have time. if i can make it to mikes meet i can bring them with me. you can just take them with you and i can come by after the 9th or sometime to have a little mini meet and take them with me after we decide which speaker wins i wish i had some time these days to do the casework on the decware amp. the only things that remains are the panel mounted components. i still need to order the volume knob, speaker posts and rca sockets. hopefully i get some time over the next few days to finish that so i can have it at the meet. if you can, please bring that little 10watt amp you had with the metronomes when i came over. the decware doesnt have enough grunt in stereo to power both fonkens. in mono it sounds excellent.
CarlSeibert Posted November 7, 2009 Report Posted November 7, 2009 Can do. Just let me know before the meet if you'll make it.
Dominatrice Posted November 13, 2009 Report Posted November 13, 2009 (edited) ya, bring them to the meet, im curious as to how they sound...look nice though, good job crap. i was going to build the flood standing ones with Fostex drivers. Same plans for the enclosure though. Edited November 13, 2009 by HighLife
crappyjones123 Posted November 13, 2009 Author Report Posted November 13, 2009 if you are going to build a pair of floorstanders then go for a pair of bib's (if you want to go cheap) or a big ass complex horn (curvy chang or dallas 2 etc but that will cost a lot more money).
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