Puma Cat
Well-known member
- Thread Author
- #1
Some of you may remember my AmpCamp amp project posted here in a recent thread in August.
Part of that project was to build up a pair of GR-Research X-LS Encores as speakers.
Well, I had a total hip replacement August 10th and have been recovering from that the last six weeks.
As I got clearance to resume normal duties from my orthopedic surgeon with an A+ post-op exam on Tuesday, I decided to finish up the X-LS Encore project.
Some of you may remember the photos of the cabinets in the ACA thread, well, those were damaged irrevocably in shipping, so the cabinet maker made me up a pair in "birch red" to match the Dynaudio Special 40s.
Here's a shot of one of the cabinets:
Doesn't look like much in the photo, but this cabinet has 4 internal braces and a cross-brace, and it is very stiff and heavy for its size. Its so stiff and strong that 4 of them under each wheel will support a 4X4 pickup truck.
Here's a pic of the crossover I put together. The resistors, SoniCaps and MiFlex copper caps and Mills resistors were part of the upgraded "parts" kit. The inductors are large-diameter wire and air-core. Everything is wired point-to-point and soldered with Cardas solder.
Once I had the cabinets lined with No-Res, the crossover and drivers installed, I have to say for what is an approx. 1.2 cubic foot box speaker, these speakers are heavy! The cabinets are very stiff and also well-damped. I have beefier pair of speaker stands coming for them.
The on-axis frequency response measurements at the refence point is excellent, with a max deviation of 1.5dB across the entire frequency range and considerable portion within 1 dB or less.
The horizontal off-axis at 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 degrees off-axis is also very good.
The vertical off-axis performance is also very good:
And, finally, the cumulative spectral decay (aka waterfall plot) is, with essentially no ringing of any significance from either driver.
My cost including built, veneered and stained cabinets, and speaker premium crossover parts and $45 sheet of No-Res: ~$915. This included the trick components in the crossover, like the Miflex copper caps (which are pretty pricey).
And...here they are!
I have say, listening to them immediately after hooking them up, I am REALLY impressed.
After 300 hours on them for run-in, they should be "on the cam" as we say in motor racing...so, stay tuned, listening impressions to come over the next few days as they run in. The woofers certainly need running in and crossover needs to be burned in.
But so far, I am VERY impressed.
Part of that project was to build up a pair of GR-Research X-LS Encores as speakers.
Well, I had a total hip replacement August 10th and have been recovering from that the last six weeks.
As I got clearance to resume normal duties from my orthopedic surgeon with an A+ post-op exam on Tuesday, I decided to finish up the X-LS Encore project.
Some of you may remember the photos of the cabinets in the ACA thread, well, those were damaged irrevocably in shipping, so the cabinet maker made me up a pair in "birch red" to match the Dynaudio Special 40s.
Here's a shot of one of the cabinets:
Doesn't look like much in the photo, but this cabinet has 4 internal braces and a cross-brace, and it is very stiff and heavy for its size. Its so stiff and strong that 4 of them under each wheel will support a 4X4 pickup truck.
Here's a pic of the crossover I put together. The resistors, SoniCaps and MiFlex copper caps and Mills resistors were part of the upgraded "parts" kit. The inductors are large-diameter wire and air-core. Everything is wired point-to-point and soldered with Cardas solder.
Once I had the cabinets lined with No-Res, the crossover and drivers installed, I have to say for what is an approx. 1.2 cubic foot box speaker, these speakers are heavy! The cabinets are very stiff and also well-damped. I have beefier pair of speaker stands coming for them.
The on-axis frequency response measurements at the refence point is excellent, with a max deviation of 1.5dB across the entire frequency range and considerable portion within 1 dB or less.
The horizontal off-axis at 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 degrees off-axis is also very good.
The vertical off-axis performance is also very good:
And, finally, the cumulative spectral decay (aka waterfall plot) is, with essentially no ringing of any significance from either driver.
My cost including built, veneered and stained cabinets, and speaker premium crossover parts and $45 sheet of No-Res: ~$915. This included the trick components in the crossover, like the Miflex copper caps (which are pretty pricey).
And...here they are!
I have say, listening to them immediately after hooking them up, I am REALLY impressed.
After 300 hours on them for run-in, they should be "on the cam" as we say in motor racing...so, stay tuned, listening impressions to come over the next few days as they run in. The woofers certainly need running in and crossover needs to be burned in.
But so far, I am VERY impressed.
