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Home » Sponsored » Pi Speakers » Beginners Journal
| Beginners Journal [message #45244] |
Sun, 22 August 2004 08:09  |
Randy
Messages: 6
Registered: May 2009
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Esquire |
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Scrolling through the forum I noticed some questions about trying to decide what to get. Since I finally have some free time I will tell my story. Basically I'm young and growing up and while I was in college I never had enough money to get anything that resembled a quality stereo. My exposure to quality audio is from playing the guitar and various tube amps over the years. So finally wanting a quality system I started looking. I knew off the bat I needed it to listen to music, every genre you can think of, and work in a dvd/movie setup. I thought about a surround system, but thought the media was promoting them so you could buy 5 speakers instead of 2, and a few friends that have the set up I thought sounded phony. So I came to a plain jane stereo conclusion. Now I was still stumped on amp, pre amp and speakers. Since I soon discovered looking at forums and reviews that diy might provide me with the most bang for the buck, since labor is free, I looked at that. With my guitar background I soon thought tube was the way to go. And rooting my decision in the "jack of all trades master of none" philosophy, I decided not to go integrated, I choose a bottlehead foreplay and parmour setup. Now I needed a sensitive speaker that wouldn't break the bank. Not an easy task, but after some search I went with a stuido two pi. On to the speaker build. I have built some simple furniture of my own design but I am not a master woodworker, and I live in an apartment so space is an issue. I went with mdf from home depot and had them cut it. Have them cut it slightly over your needed dimensions their not exactly accurate, I have a hand plane I used to polish off their inaccuracy. Bracing and glue up is fairly simple, my major problem was my cordless drill broke, then its replancment didn't work right out of the box, and now I am no longer a cordless drill kind of guy. I just used finishing nails, glue and a couple of clamps and they could dry on my kitchen table. I went the paint route, and did a couple coats of primer, 3 of color and two spray on marine varnish coats. Hook up of the speakers was easy no problems. All in all easy just waiting for paint and glue to dry makes the build take long. Since it was the first component of the new system, I hooked the up to my old receiver, and was impressed, bass, mid and treble alot more defined from my previous yamaha 10in. But the best came when I finished the bottlehead stuff and hooked them up. Wow, they really deliver the full spectrum of sound from very low volume all the way up. I run a cd, dvd, and vcr through them and it sounds incredible, they really deliver music as well as the movies, great soundstage. No sub or anything like that needed in my opinion. And I am still impressed by how loud they will get from 3.5 watts. With materials and everything I bet I paid right at $200 for the pair, a steal in my book. If you've read this far and are trying to sort through thousand of options out there, I know I was, I think you will be happy with pi speakers. For me I am on a budget and wanted the most bang for my buck and I think these went beyond my expectations. I will have pictures shortly. thanks for ready, sorry if the last part sounded like an infomercial. Now a question, can you add the mid horn on top, sort of the gravy, saw picture of that somewhere and was just curious. randy
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| Re: Beginners Journal [message #45245 is a reply to message #45244] |
Sun, 22 August 2004 11:22  |
spkrman57
Messages: 522
Registered: May 2009
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Illuminati (1st Degree) |
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Randy,
I just love a happy ending to a quest! And the nice thing about the 1 pi and 2 pi speakers is that they are simple and allow some error without screwing up a project. I myself am woodworking challenged, so I use other folks speaker cabinets to try my "breadboarded" speaker systems. Another feature of the pi speaker family is the FREE assistance online from Wayne, and sometimes the others when Wayne is busy. You don't get that at Best buy!!! Glad to hear you are enjoying the "total package"! Regards, Ron
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| great post [message #45246 is a reply to message #45244] |
Sun, 22 August 2004 11:46 |
ToFo
Messages: 219
Registered: May 2009
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Master |
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For all the different system paths we DIY Pi guys have chosen, your post has summed it up very nicely. I have constructed three Pi projects (Theater 3, 4 and Studio 1 Pi's) for my brother myself and a co-worker, and they are remarkably similar considering the huge size and cost variance. The age spread of these users is 21, 35, & 47. That means computer gaming, home recording, movies, surf, ambient, rock, brit. invasion, jazz, disco, punk, classical, new wave, trip hop, you name it.... all from a whisper to blast. My 2 cent on the midrange. Not worth the added crossover in this case. If you want more mids however, you could move them out from the room boundary a bit to reduce the bass and if that makes them sound bright you could pad down the piezo. (piezo caps were just covered a few posts back I think) Just a thought, I could be wrong. Thomas
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| eight π [message #45247 is a reply to message #45244] |
Sun, 22 August 2004 16:46 |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18702
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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Thanks for taking the time to write such a thorough post.The speaker you saw that had a midhorn on top was a seven π cornerhorn. It has a bass unit with a midhorn and tweeter on top of it. If you are interested, you can make an eight π loudspeaker, which uses the same midwoofer as your two π speakers. You'll need a different tweeter and crossover, and of course you'll need to make a different cabinet. But that might be an attractive upgrade path for you.
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