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Home » Sponsored » Pi Speakers » My 4 Pi Build
| Re: My 4 Pi Build [message #98821 is a reply to message #96988] |
Tue, 02 September 2025 15:49   |
Unity_Coupled
Messages: 19
Registered: September 2023
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Chancellor |
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It has been a challenging two months since my last update, but through all of it I've managed to make significant progress on the project. During that time I was too busy to post so I'll pick up right where I left off:
I should preface by sharing the unfortunate fact that in my entire house, only one area is somewhat suitable for a 2-channel listening arrangement, which is currently occupied by my McIntosh/Altec A7 system. It was never a consideration when my family bought the property and I had little influence on the matter...my dad was hell-bent on acquiring a place with south-facing slopes on which "he" could plant vineyards. Early on he was still working full-time so it was up to my mom and me to plant nearly 5000 vines, as we didn't have enough extra money to hire help. That's a whole different story... Anyway, I digress.
I remembered about some speaker stands I built years ago and dug them out of storage. They don't tilt, but they elevate the cabinets a foot off the floor...plus they look the part. After the kids went home I moved the speakers and gear temporarily in front of the angled living room couch which follows the rear wall with a 135-degree corner. The setup is still far from ideal but it allowed for a comfortable place to sit and listen with some distance between the Pi's without a boundary directly behind them.
It looks a little unusual with the extreme toe-in but the Pi's sound absolutely stellar while delivering a coherent soundstage across a wide listening area, just as advertised. For practical reasons this arrangement was short-lived and everything was returned to the other wall until I was ready to haul the speakers back down to the wood shop for finishing.
I began finishing by applying a few coats of satin black lacquer-based enamel paint to the front baffles and around the recesses for the terminal plates using Mohawk M104-S224. There are some light chisel marks that show through the paint along the edges where I removed excess glue but they're not obvious. In hindsight I should have spent more time sanding and prepping the baffles but any defects are going to be hidden behind grill cloth most of the time.
Iron-on edgebanding was added next and it was mostly straightforward, although applying the strips to the bottom edge with the grill access relief required some ingenuity and a couple of attempts. I ended up using my hot air station (for SMD soldering) to melt the glue and a veneer scraper to press it on.
When I examined it again I wasn't especially happy with the grain pattern on the sheet of veneer I originally bought, so I went back to Tree Products and bought a couple more rolls (one extra to refinish a pair of Cornwalls...someday. You can see them in the photo below.). The selection was significantly better this time around and I found a sheet with some interesting grain patterns. The sections were cut out with a 1/2" oversize. Since the 4x8 sheet was divided into 16" strips I had to splice a couple segments together to have sufficient width for the backs.
Speaking truthfully, I wasn't looking forward to the veneering part since recovering from a mistake here would be exponentially more difficult than fixing an error during any other step of the process. After digesting a few hours of youtube videos on the subject I gained enough confidence to dive in, starting with the backs.
I proceeded to do the sides, then the tops and bottoms.
To my amazement, the cabinets turned out looking pretty good!
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Current Time: Thu Sep 04 20:15:58 CDT 2025
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