Building 2pi Towers - COMPLETE!

Whew! They are done except for some minor touch-ups. I hooked them up and I could tell they were out of phase, fortunately it was not wired wrong internally, so I just corrected the left speaker and it was fixed.

A snag I ran into was that the wiring that goes from the binding posts to the driver was not long enough for where I put the binding posts. I had to extend the wires by 23" to make them reach the drivers. That's what really scared me about them being out of phase. I didn't want to have to take them apart to find out I wired them wrong. I guess the wiring included in the kit assumes that the binding posts will be about two feet off the ground. I wanted them at the bottom, it looks better to me.

So how do they sound? They sound very nice, I was expecting more volume since they are more sensitive than the speakers they are replacing but there is an improvement there. I am trying to see if I can get away with having no pre-amp, just a volume control on a tube amp. I'll have to put the pre-amp back into the mix until I build a more powerful amp.

There is far more detail in the sound, I played quite a few favorite tracks and I was picking up a lot more detail in the music that I never heard. The 'reality' of the sound is impressive, the instruments sound much richer and, well, real. The bass was sorely lacking, not sure if this will come with break-in time or if it has something to with the my amp, it is a 6BQ5/6CG7 PP amp.

The imaging was not as 'crisp' as I was hoping, this may be due to finding the right speaker placement through experimentation.

Overall I am happy with the results, break-in/speaker placement/amp changes should cause even greater happiness.

So what is the final tally for labor and parts? It cost a total of $210 for the kits, shipping and materials. It took a total of 26 hours to build them. I spent $130 on tools but that is 'off budget'.


Kit+shippng 120.00
MDF........ 33.00
Glue....... 8.00
Primer..... 7.00
Insulation. 9.00
Screws..... 5.00
Paint...... 17.00
Sandpaper.. 8.00
Braces..... 3.50
TOTAL...... 210.50

Labor - Speaker Box 1 - 16.5 hours
Labor - Speaker Box 2 - 9.5 hours

Tools:

Saber Saw.... 40.00
Circular Saw. 50.00
Carbon Blade. 40.00
TOOLS TOTAL.. 130.00


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