Welp, grad school summer session is winding down, Little League playoffs are this weekend (which means almost over), and the weather's getting nice. It's about time I finished these speakers.
Needs: veneer, bolts, Euro-style connectors, rubber AMT base, fix grilles
I'd recently bought brand new ESS 12" rubber-surround drivers, brand new ESS 12" rubber-surround passive radiators, brand new ESS AMTs. And, as this thread shows, I've already built brand new AMT-1a crossovers to break in. So, minus cabinets and grilles, this is an all new speaker system that currently sells for roughly $4000-5000.
I thought I was good to go with my new parts, but some minor details got in the way. Brand new AMTs don't come with bolts. So I went to my local hardware store, and then two different big box stores, but I couldn't find a 7" or 8" length. I searched online. It looked like a 7" or 8" would suffice, and 5/8" fit between the two magnets in the AMT. So, since they were cheap, I bought both.
WHOOPS.
5/8" fit through the magnets in the AMT but didn't screw into the cabinet. Too thick. OK, so 1/4"?
In case you were wondering, a 7" x 1/4" hex bolt w/20 thread count is the proper size. I bought four stainless steel from
boltdepot.com for $16.
Test fit tonight was a success, except... the brand new AMTs also didn't come with that nifty Euro-style, double-row connector. And when looking at the AMTs, it appears the pink and purple wire gauge coming out of the AMT is thinner (if that's possible, they were thin before!) than the pair I sold on my AMT Monitors. Weird. I wonder if I can change that out to a ticker gauge wire to match the crossover wire I have coming out of the cabinet?
Anyway, after swearing I wouldn't buy from them again, I went back to Allied Electronics and bought new
WECO 4-post, 2-row, Euro-style terminal strip. Those should arrive next week. The cheapest shipping was 3x more than double the number of parts I needed.
I've also already cut veneer. I've also never applied veneer, but here's the cut:
I will tackle veneer in July, if not sooner. Wish me luck!
-jason