Modified Finalists Build

[kentonsj]

I have spent the last 2 weeks putting my Finalists build together. I've linked some pictures of the build, I hope the link will work for everyone.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing

I adapted the design to a tower arrangement. The midrange tunnel was cut out of wood on my home made CNC router. I wanted to mount the switch for the near/far wall resistor in the tunnel, and cutting the tunnel on my CNC allowed me to do that. I'm pretty sure you could mount the switch in the PVC tunnel too, it might require some counterboring inside or a longer switch than supplied in the kit from Meniscus. Kurt kindly sent me large binding posts for speaker box connection as I'm not a fan of the plastic binding post plates. The woofer sits in it's own enclosure that was fabricated to the same internal volume of the original box design, the only difference is the port is below the woofer now on the back instead of behind the tweeter like the original.

My front baffle is 2 layers of 3/4" MDF instead of the 3/4" and 1/2" in the kit, the main reason for this is so I didn't have to buy 2 sheets of 3/4" MDF and a sheet of 1/2". I relieved the back of the baffle around the speakers on my CNC for transitions to the midrange tunnel and for breathing room on the woofer. The front baffle has dados, but the back of the cabinet is a butt joint. Dados where cut on my CNC, it was a 2 sided machining process on the baffle as I used the CNC to countersink the drivers as well.

I'm very impressed with the sound quality, I believe the listening impressions are spot on in the Finalists write-up by Curt and Jim. The speakers initial bass response was fairly weak, but I hadn't broken in the woofer at all, after some break-in I have no complaints on low end anymore. I have a 12" Dayton Ultimax sub in my set-up. It's in a temporary 1.5 cubic foot sealed box. The sub is crossed over at about 60 hz with the Finalists playing full range, I need to tweak this transition a little bit more, but the sub gives the effortless low bass that I enjoy in my listening preferences. The system is my 2.1 home theatre set-up, no real desire to move to a 5.1 for the 2 movies a year my wife and I watch at home. My dad has a set of 12" Tannoy HPD-315's in custom designed boxes. The boxes were designed and commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and where in use in their studios during the 80's. The Tannoys are very pleasing to listen to and I hoped that the finalist would be able to compare. The Tannoys certainly have an edge on low end, but I did prefer the cleaner midrange of the Finalists. The high end on both was very close. My sub more than makes up the difference for the low end I'm used to. The Finalists really shine when turned up a bit, my Emotiva UPA-200 drives them splendidly and there is no indication of strain at higher SPL's.

I had a lot of fun on this build, I'm planning to finish with veneer in the future, but the basement needs to be finished before that happens:)

[Jim Holtz]

Very nice! I'm pleased you're enjoying The Finalists as much as I do.

Jim

[lowpolyjoe]

Sweet - i like how they look as a tower.

[Wolf]

I would not have painted the cylinder black- That is too pretty to not finish au naturale....
Otherwise- that looks great!
Wolf