+1, the finish on the horns is incredible!

 

Strangely enough, The cap head screws is the look I wanted just to give them an Industrial look, and all the fixings are Stainless. An Industrial look may not make sense with the Gold finish, but that is how I saw them in my mind. Anyway as mentioned earlier, These will now be finished in Black and Silver, so they will be more practical. I might get a gig done with them before I change the colour though, and I am going to get covers made. A friend of mine in Southend thought they looked great but would soon get trashed, so I got back and said I wasn't going to use them, they were only for looking at. I know a lot more about Flexi ply, gold paint and Metal flake then I did a while ago which is good because that's what I did it for.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=japanese+transistor+radio&client=safari&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=NYqSUb6IKcGj0QXbs4CgAQ&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1532&bih=963" rel="nofollow - https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=japanese+transistor+radio&client=safari&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=NYqSUb6IKcGj0QXbs4CgAQ&ved=0CAoQ_AU…

Tony, they are beautiful... i'd rather max out my credit card and buy them off you then let you spray those master pieces any other colour. they are unique and would take pride of place any where they are put. as said wen ever theres a shot of a DJ in pictures the monitors are nearly always in shot and just to use them a few times the pictures would go viral with people wanting to know what they are and who built them.

please dont change them.... i'll throw money at you if i have to!

The hardness of the paint isn't the problem. There are two issues. One is that the wood underneath being Flexiply is not as hard as Birch, and although I finished these in Acid Cat, which I used as a propellent for the Silver Metal Flake, I could use 2 pack which would be harder. The cabinets are stiff enough because they are fiber glassed inside. The second issue is the gold paint. It still takes a fingerprint and continues to sink into the ply that I made the speaker grill surround out of. It is more stable on the horns which are Fiberglass, although I painted them with 2 pack before the gold went on. I just need to find a lacquer that won't discolour the Gold. The Gold paint which is straight out an Aerosol can is very strange, It reacts on Acid Cat, which is why I ended up buy 10 cans of the stuff just to get where I'm at. Gold doesn't exsist as normal paint. You can get any amount of car gold paints but they are not the right colour gold. Anyway I will try another idea I have up my sleeve. So it will back to B and Q for the Gold.

The Horns are available, It's the Horn I made for the MX900 a good few years back. It's basically a 60 x 40, except the top angle is 10 degrees and the bottom is 30. It has  a 2"throat. I've always had this thing normal horns that point straight out and half of the vertical dispersion goes above peoples heads into the ceiling. This way for a normal floor standing crowd, with a Mid Hi box above peoples head, more of the HF is aimed at peoples ears. That was my reason for doing it anyway. Even in the MX600, although not usually obvious, the HF horn angles down at 4 degrees. You haven't got to stand too far back before you are looking directly down the axis.

 

I also feel the spekons look really bad. They don't give me a pro feeling or that I've got something that is very well though out for my cash. The gold grilles behind the ports also look cheap and like an after thought. Also don't like the mount that is holding the bass mid driver in place. Looks like a mis match between a car sub and a PA cab. For me its all glame, but I feel there needs to be a mix of complex engineering to go with the glame.

 

Take a look at the riders from the top DJ's at the moment and they all spec 2 or 3 smaller line array midtops on a couple of subs per side. The cabs they are specing have a hi degree of engineering to them so they look hardcore from an industrial perspective yet also have great styling.

 

Treat the design as if it were a tool Tony, but give it a personality.

 

Here's an example of great engineering done with stlye.

 

 

I wouldn't care how that sounds if I were a DJ. I just know I would want that next to me to make me look even better than I think I already am.

 

This example even has curves.

 

Again, I wouldn't want to hear it, but who ever's stood next to that is really going to look like they know what they are doing. It won't let ya image down and shouts sophistication. Its no wonder L Acoustics, Nexo and D&B are on most DJ's riders for monitors. You and me both know theres no way a system like that should be used for monitoring, but when you ask DJ's why they spec it they say its for looks and its a known quantity.

 

If anyone out there can bring sophisticated and glamorous levels of mechanical engineering to a speaker cab its Tony.

 

I have a feeling I'm playing the game on here all wrong and should have lied and said, wow its so amazing. Everyone else I know would have done that.

 

 

Peter, I welcome everyone views on here because over the years I've learnt, as in Government, it's essensual to have good opposition and of course on here it gives me an insight to other peoples ways of thinking.

Here's the points you have missed, I've created what was in my mind, and it was a test bed for materials, that I hadn't used before. Flexi ply, Metal Flake etc. These two boxes are mine and not for sale and they are the only two that I will build.

I work constantly with my rig, that is my test bed for future things, and I don't get presented with DJ's requirements.

I wanted to get a look that hadn't been done before. whether people liked it or not wasn't ever going to be an issue.

I'm usually only interested in Sound and try not to fall into the "Form over Function" syndrome, and when I did the Grill surrounds it was also creating something simple that hadn't been done before. I've always hated the normal round Mesh grills, so I stuck two bits of ply together and started to machine the surrounds to make them look a bit beefier than normal. The shape isn't anything new, Similar shapes exist in the Hi Fi market and acoustically, it makes sense. But, once again it was a first for me, and I had to use some grey matter to figure it all out. No drawings exist for this sort of thing and I made it up as I went along. I achieved what I set out to do without the aid of a safety net. I never set out to impress anyone, only to show what has lately been on my mind.

I would ALWAYS rather stand next to speakers that sound awesome.  I never don't care how they sound.  If they look good too, that is just a bonus.

oh right, wasnt aware that the driver suround was made from ply, could you not make a fibreglass mould  of it? might be worthwhile, sounds like you could have a sale on more of these

The Gold is Plasti-kote. I think it's a superb colour and definitely the best gold I tried out of 4. But Unless I can get a clearcoat over the top that won't discolour it, it will have to go. I am going to try normal cellulose first. If that doesn't react, I know I can spray 2 pack or polyester onto the lacquer. I used to do this with logos on the headstocks of Guitars. The polyester always lifted the letraset logos, so we sprayed them with normal cellulose out of the can and then put the polyester on afterwards. No problems after that. It's going to work out as expensive as Gold Leaf the way it's going.

http://s33.photobucket.com/user/kbhsinger/media/GrillGold_zps36bff81e.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">

If you like I'll get the RAL code for you.

Gel coat doesnt air dry and yacht varnish is the biggest advertising bollocks on the market  it wouldnt last a month in real marine environment

Markie, That looks pretty good I'm with my powder coating people tomorrow. I'll see what they say. I don't want to end up having to buy a sack load just for my bits, Still if it's good, I could have everything done in it. Thanks very much.

What I found was - that the Wood became very taught and ended up with a high resonance that was out of bass range, but I still felt the material was softer than ply and would dent easier. As you might have read, I only used one layer but I fiberglassed the inside. The box does feel hard but I think if you dig your nail in it would feel softer than Birch ply.

Incidentally, When I used to use curves in the Scoops we used to use Layers of normal ply, but it was made easier because we used to run the ply in the grooves.

Before these cabs, I'd only used flexiply when making curved Bar fronts for a club. It's a pity it only bends one way.

+100 Sound comes first. If you want a line array look for DJ monitors, look elsewhere.

You had better attribute that smiley to yourself 

http://forum.speakerplans.com/member_profile.asp?PF=8394" rel="nofollow - http://forum.speakerplans.com/member_profile.asp?PF=8394

Tony