Progress on the Tannoy build (and others) is coming along, but I had to take a break from that to build a rack case for a friend's home recording studio. It's a 14U slanted case with casters built out of solid (knot free) pine using miter joints. Just for the pics I mounted my Ashly crossover and Crown D-75, but it will be filled with his outboard gear.







Here is a teaser pic of some Smaller Advent that I veneered in Sapele Mahogany. I will do a proper photo shoot for those shortly, these pics don't do the Sapele justice.




You do great work man, the gear cabinet looks good. I really like the slanting cabinet.

How did you join the wood; pocket hole screws? Biscuits?
 
You do great work man, the gear cabinet looks good. I really like the slanting cabinet.

How did you join the wood; pocket hole screws? Biscuits?

Thank you. I used only glue for these joints. After they're mitered, I lay out the pieces flat on a table, use masking tape to tape the edges together, apply the glue, then fold the box together. Clamps if needed here and there.
 
Geez that all looks great!! I tried the tape and told method and kept breaking the tape? I couldn’t get the box flat on all sides.

My experience is that tightly mitered edges require and excellent table saw with the proper blade type, set up properly, a good fence, and experience running the whole contraption. My Dad's a retired cabinet maker and it still boggles my mind how straight and perfect he could make cuts on his industrial table saw. I break out my cheap little Lowes special, and it's like a two year ran the wood through the saw. Well, I'm exaggerating, but my work was only good for cutting 2x4's to frame out basement walls. Making perfect miter cuts and doing finish work? Not in my wheelhouse. .
 
You are killing it man! Your wood work is top notch.

Thank you!
The Tannoy cabs are in paint. After installing the front baffles and mounting cleats, filling small cracks, applying sanding sealer and sanding everything smooth, I'm giving the fronts a few rattle can coats of Satin Almond. If it comes out OK I'll leave it at that, if there are too many imperfections in the paint / wood visible, I may give it a few coats of 'Flat Clear'.
I'm really not chasing perfection and can't spend too much time on this. I started with 60 year old walnut veneer anyway, so there is plenty of 'character' on these speakers to begin with...





 
Thank you!
The Tannoy cabs are in paint. After installing the front baffles and mounting cleats, filling small cracks, applying sanding sealer and sanding everything smooth, I'm giving the fronts a few rattle can coats of Satin Almond. If it comes out OK I'll leave it at that, if there are too many imperfections in the paint / wood visible, I may give it a few coats of 'Flat Clear'.
I'm really not chasing perfection and can't spend too much time on this. I started with 60 year old walnut veneer anyway, so there is plenty of 'character' on these speakers to begin with...






Nice work - looking forward to the updates!
 
Quick update:
The front baffles are done painted, the rear panels assembled, crossover mounted and one of the cabs all buttoned up and functional. I wanted to listen to one new & one old cab side by side for a while so I can study the sound and be aware of any changes.
The color 'Satin Almond' is a lot lighter than what I was shooting for, so I may change it to something more 'creme beige' like.
I just got done listening to music for a while and the new cab does sound very good, I didn't break it. It seemingly has more bass, but since it's now lacking the factory grille it also has a little treble edge which I need to address. I did notice the same when I pulled the grille off of one of the factory cabs. Either my soon-to-be grilles will remedy that or I'll install some l-pads.
Note that I left the restore of the walnut veneer for very last, so it's a little grimy looking for now with some filler showing and some paint overspray. I'm positive it will clean up very nicely though and I really look forward to sanding and oiling it.

Rear panels








The rear panel is not finished, it's just sealed and stained brown for now, but I was planning on painting it down the road.



Note that I painted the mounting flange of the basket gold, like vintage Tannoy drivers are. Not exactly the right color though, so I'll have to redo that as well.





I mounted the factory crossover in a way that when peeking through the front port, the 'dynamic hf protection' light bulb is visible, so should it flicker when the speakers are being overdriven it will be easy to notice.



The inputs are mounted on a plate painted to match the front baffle, recessed into small holes for looks, but also because I always use banana plugs not spades or bare wire.



During the first listening test, they are in good company...



 
@KrautNotRice Speaker Reconditioning PORN! :) I want more :D:D

You want speaker pr0n I'll give it yerr...







A couple notes about this project just to recap, even though it's far from finished.
I got these Tannoys because they are some of the best sounding speakers I've ever heard. No they're not full range, but from about 90hz and up they're very special.
They're high power handling, high efficiency PA speakers to be used with subs.
The sound:
Very dynamic and punchy, immediate, incredible texture of real instruments, especially strings. They image very well, soundstage is huge and deep with tons of detail. Listening to music on these is a real treat and I'm very fortunate to have lucked into them.

The cabs they came in are ugly, so I wanted to make them look better without changing the sound. The Tannoy owner's manual stated the cf to be only .56, elsewhere online I found out that the port tuning is 70hz.
I cut up some old 1960s Fishers for the walnut, it was a clean kill and honors Eywa.
Vintage Altecs were the inspiration for the rectangle front port. I wanted the new cabs to be as tall and wide as possible, to get the driver up high so that the stands can be as short as possible. Since the net internal volume needed to be only .56cf the cabs just turned out shallow front to back. The shape is also kinda reminiscent of the vintage Tannoy Little Red Monitors.
All of the internal bracing, mounting cleats for front & rear baffles and port displacement, speaker displacement is accounted for so that the net volume is .56cf. The port is tuned to 70hz.

The plan is to build bespoke stands for these, also out of old stock walnut from gutted speakers (Eywa will feel so honored) and grilles with vintage style fabric. There's also a set of Dayton 15" PA subs new in boxes lurking about, many more power amps and an electronic crossover, so the future looks bright.
These speakers are absolute keepers.
 
Last edited:
You want speaker pr0n I'll give it yerr...







A couple notes about this project just to recap, even though it's far from finished.
I got these Tannoys because they are some of the best sounding speakers I've ever heard. No they're not full range, but from about 90hz and up they're very special.
They're high power handling, high efficiency PA speakers to be used with subs.
The sound:
Very dynamic and punchy, immediate, incredible texture of real instruments, especially strings. They image very well, soundstage is huge and deep with tons of detail. Listening to music on these is a real treat and I'm very fortunate to have lucked into them.

The cabs they came in are ugly, so I wanted to make them look better without changing the sound. The Tannoy owner's manual stated the cf to be only .56, elsewhere online I found out that the port tuning is 70hz.
I cut up some old 1960s Fishers for the walnut, it was a clean kill and honors Eywa.
Vintage Altecs were the inspiration for the rectangle front port. I wanted the new cabs to be as tall and wide as possible, to get the driver up high so that the stands can be as short as possible. Since the net internal volume needed to be only .56cf the cabs just turned out shallow front to back. The shape is also kinda reminiscent of the vintage Tannoy Little Red Monitors.
All of the internal bracing, mounting cleats for front & rear baffles and port displacement, speaker displacement is accounted for so that the net volume is .56cf. The port is tuned to 70hz.

The plan is to build bespoke stands for these, also out of old stock walnut from gutted speakers (Eywa will feel so honored) and grilles with vintage style fabric. There's also a set of Dayton 15" PA subs new in boxes lurking about, many more power amps and an electronic crossover, so the future looks bright.
These speakers are absolute keepers.

"...it was a clean kill and honors Eywa." Too funny! Well, it was worth sacrificing the Fishers. These are looking great. Fantastic woodwork on the new fronts and backs. I really need to learn about building cabinets, tuning ports, etc. It's all black magic to me at this point.

I see a fairly good sized crossover, but only one speaker, why is that? Is there a tweeter in the center of the woofer?

Also, I like the cream/white color you've painted it. Looking good and I can't wait to see them finished.
 
Those are metal domes, but yes they are concentric

The Tannoys are metal domes, surprised me when i read that in the manual. Not that metal domes can't be smooth, it's just very rare.

The manual also states that the metal mesh grille is 58% air flow, which explains the big difference in sound with the grilles off. The new grilles were supposed to be just fabric spanned over 1/4" mdf frame, but I may add a hidden layer of metal mesh under the fabric if needed.
I found different varieties of mesh stock at mobilesolutions.com
 
Last edited:
This is such a cool looking listening space! I'm enjoying following this thread.



Like the wall decoration and that awesome wood on the front of the table.

40847331320_98abbdbc3e_b.jpg


Seeing those ADS speakers makes me nostalgic about my first stereo setup, freshman year of college a long time ago.

IMG_0841_zpsfyaj1aop.jpg
 
Last edited:
This is such a cool looking listening space! I'm enjoying following this thread.
Like the wall decoration and that awesome wood on the front of the table.
Seeing those ADS speakers makes me nostalgic about my first stereo setup, freshman year of college a long time ago.

Thanks dizzyorange. The rug on the wall does wonders for the soundstage plus, you know, it really ties the room together...
The burl wood on the sideboard is pimento pepperwood burl.

I found this fabric I'm gonna use for the Tannoy grilles:



And I may in time splurge on some fancy Tannoy badges, I like the big metal ones, but they're spendy...
 
Back
Top Bottom