cdmccul
New Member
Hey, thanks for the welcome!
I just posted in the "Realistic Mach 2 mods" thread, and began to put this introduction there... then thought that'd be in bad form, and so here it is!
I was once an active poster at "DodgeIntrepid.net", but it has been too many years since I was on it - and I'm having to re-learn forum codes now for links and images and the like.
My first speakers happened to also be Realistics (we were at Radio Shack WAY too much when I was a kid). They were Nova-16s. They existed up till about 9 years ago when I moved - and I think they went to a kid in the neighborhood, the surrounds were shot and the boxes had gotten damaged with time. Kinda wish I had them now, but oh well - I have to remind myself I don't need them and that sentimental value only goes so far.
The same time I saved up and bought those, I also bought the Speaker Building book that Radio Shack sold in the early 90s.
Gee, look at what's on the cover??
I took that book and rebuilt a set of Panasonic cabinets I had. They were part of an all-in-one 8-track unit from back in the quadraphonic days - SB-300 Thrusters.
They got a Realistic 8" retail box woofer, a Pyle or Pyramid 2" horn Piezo Tweeter (looked like this):
and then used the factory drivers as mids - if I remember right, they were 4 ohm and I ran them in series... Then ran them all through a Realistic cross over. I then used the book to find the cross over points, and calculate the port size and length, and used PVC to make it. They were my prized creation at 12 years old, but I have no idea how they sounded to discerning ears. They eventually found a garage sale and were gone during a move when I was like 16.
After that the only real speaker construction/restoration I've done was to build a 6+1 surround sound (part of a 7.1) set from ElectroMavin.
The center channel speaker (Luxeon wedge-back box with Boston drivers):
The 6 surround speakers (this is with totally wrong drivers installed, these are the original Luxeon speakers before Mavin got some empty boxes and sold kitted speakers, terminals, and crossovers with them... Same story with the center channel originally also):
My two sons and I spent an afternoon putting the kits together. It was a lot of fun to bond over, and they get to enjoy the work with every movie we watch.
Had a great experience buying from them. I really like the Boston center channel unit... but the woofers in the 6 tower speakers they sold me didn't stand up the Harmon receiver, and the wires broke where they sat against the cone. I did cut the dust caps back and fixed them with a blob of solder and glued the caps, but they both blew out a month later so I put Pyle PDMW5 (open back) in it, and I've been very happy with those being driven by my Pioneer 7.1 receiver. I think maybe the highs are little too sparkly, but they are very comfortable to listen to. I'll post up pictures of the actual results of the surround sound speakers if anyone is interested.
My newest project though is the Mach II linked above at the top of the post. I hope to work on them early this spring and begin to break them in soon.
I look forward to sharing my progress and experience here.
I just posted in the "Realistic Mach 2 mods" thread, and began to put this introduction there... then thought that'd be in bad form, and so here it is!
I was once an active poster at "DodgeIntrepid.net", but it has been too many years since I was on it - and I'm having to re-learn forum codes now for links and images and the like.
My first speakers happened to also be Realistics (we were at Radio Shack WAY too much when I was a kid). They were Nova-16s. They existed up till about 9 years ago when I moved - and I think they went to a kid in the neighborhood, the surrounds were shot and the boxes had gotten damaged with time. Kinda wish I had them now, but oh well - I have to remind myself I don't need them and that sentimental value only goes so far.
The same time I saved up and bought those, I also bought the Speaker Building book that Radio Shack sold in the early 90s.
Gee, look at what's on the cover??
I took that book and rebuilt a set of Panasonic cabinets I had. They were part of an all-in-one 8-track unit from back in the quadraphonic days - SB-300 Thrusters.
They got a Realistic 8" retail box woofer, a Pyle or Pyramid 2" horn Piezo Tweeter (looked like this):
and then used the factory drivers as mids - if I remember right, they were 4 ohm and I ran them in series... Then ran them all through a Realistic cross over. I then used the book to find the cross over points, and calculate the port size and length, and used PVC to make it. They were my prized creation at 12 years old, but I have no idea how they sounded to discerning ears. They eventually found a garage sale and were gone during a move when I was like 16.
After that the only real speaker construction/restoration I've done was to build a 6+1 surround sound (part of a 7.1) set from ElectroMavin.
The center channel speaker (Luxeon wedge-back box with Boston drivers):
The 6 surround speakers (this is with totally wrong drivers installed, these are the original Luxeon speakers before Mavin got some empty boxes and sold kitted speakers, terminals, and crossovers with them... Same story with the center channel originally also):
My two sons and I spent an afternoon putting the kits together. It was a lot of fun to bond over, and they get to enjoy the work with every movie we watch.
Had a great experience buying from them. I really like the Boston center channel unit... but the woofers in the 6 tower speakers they sold me didn't stand up the Harmon receiver, and the wires broke where they sat against the cone. I did cut the dust caps back and fixed them with a blob of solder and glued the caps, but they both blew out a month later so I put Pyle PDMW5 (open back) in it, and I've been very happy with those being driven by my Pioneer 7.1 receiver. I think maybe the highs are little too sparkly, but they are very comfortable to listen to. I'll post up pictures of the actual results of the surround sound speakers if anyone is interested.
My newest project though is the Mach II linked above at the top of the post. I hope to work on them early this spring and begin to break them in soon.
I look forward to sharing my progress and experience here.
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