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Project finished and some pictures

Posted by Steve King (A) on September 30, 2005 at 07:25:34

For those interested I thought I’d post a few pictures and some details about my SE project (Thanks Bas.). But first, a big thank you to everyone here, you’ve all helped because the archives provide some interesting lunch-break reading, but especially to Henry and Russ with the hum problem.

The chassis is 2mm (5/64in) stainless steel and, considering I have no real metalwork experience, it wasn’t too bad to work with. I had to buy a few bi-metal hole cutters and some quality drill bits, but with a little patience and lower machining speeds I found no real problems – and stainless is great, no lacquering, no plating, no painting, and it’s easy to make good any scratches. The brushed finish was achieved using 150 grit automotive foam pads glued to a large block.

The motor-run capacitors (too large to go inside) are mounted in stainless handwash dispensers that were on offer in a home-store for about 3 dollars. The smaller ones are kitchen spice jars (10 dollars for a pack of 6), and the meters and volume control are mounted in the bottom of stainless toothbrush holders - so nothing too clever on my part. A couple of stainless kitchen cupboard door handles and stainless cap/button head screws complete the hardware.

Sowter wound the power transformer and chokes, and the output transformers are Silk. The internal wiring is a cotton/teflon insulated silver-plated litz wire and, while not being convinced that wire type makes any sonic difference, this stuff is great. It bends easily, keeps its shape, and the teflon means it’s impossible to melt while soldering.

What about the sound? Well, it’s difficult to say in isolation because the amplifier/speaker interface can be so important, but connected to my DIY Lowther horns it’s stunning. Forgetting all the usual audiophile jargon, if I had to use one word to describe the sound, it would be ‘delicate’. By that, I don’t mean fragile, but delicate in the sense of being finely balanced in the shape, colour and texture it provides even at the lowest listening levels – it really does charm the senses.

What amazes me most is that someone like me with limited knowledge can, with a little patience (and the back up of you guys) build something that not only works, but also sounds so good. A friend I’ve always relied upon to be brutally honest about my speaker builds says it’s the best set-up he’s heard – and he has some expensive kit. So if there is anyone out there (and we know there are many) who look in on this forum and are still unsure about starting a project, all I can say is do it. Learn to walk before you run, but don’t hesitate to take the first few steps.

Again, many thanks to everyone here,

Steve

More pictures here:

• http://basaudio.net/diyhosting/steve/index.html   (Open in New Window)

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