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Building the Ergo E-IX mini-monitor loudspeaker system

A little bit of progress today. I managed to drill the front baffles, grill frames and tap the hardwood fillets for M8 bolts; everything is pretty straight too. Also cut the slot for the tweeter's tags, not the best free hand router cutting in the world, I'm out of practise. Found that my countersink bit's diameter is less than that of the M8 front bolts, so off to B&Q tomorrow, failing that Amazon.

Gave the cabinets a quick once over with 240 paper and some white spirit before the first wet coat of Danish oil. I've added a couple more very light coats with a rag waiting 15 minutes before wiping off. I'll leave them overnight to fully dry before I add a couple more rag coats, a quick whizz over with wire wool between them to keep it smooth.

I don't have any pictures of progress, just one of the cabinets drying.

PXL_20240302_165456169 by Garf Arf, on Flickr

The bass/mid driver is due next week along with the cross over components.

I plumped for a dark blue for the baffle.

And a light grey for the speaker grill cloth.
 
Just bare in mind it took my speakers significant time to run in . I am talking several hundred hours before they finally, definitively, settled. In the early days I would find they changed almost daily as they settled, sometimes outstanding, mostly very good but occasionally a bit uninspiring. I also changed the close wall resistor to tame the initial forwardness of the tweeter. After a couple of months I had to change it back to standard as they had lost their "zing"
Now they are just merely very very good all the time.
 
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chiily said:
A bit more effort, slow going atm and I'm still waiting for the mid/bass drivers and crossover components to arrive...

PXL_20240309_143704342 by Garf Arf, on Flickr

It looks a little shinier in RL.

Started waxing the cabinets with Alfie Shine wax today, gonna take a while. The DO had a good five days to dry beforehand.
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I think from memory I had to shave a very small amount from the top baton where the tweeter slides past it, I am talking 1mm or so and it looks like you might have to do the same. Just mentioning it before you get too engrossed in the polishing of the cabinet.
 
Mosquito said:
I think from memory I had to shave a very small amount from the top baton where the tweeter slides past it, I am talking 1mm or so and it looks like you might have to do the same. Just mentioning it before you get too engrossed in the polishing of the cabinet.
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Ah yes. I do have the tweeters and they clear the top baton. I noticed your pencil mark so I checked the tweeters with both cabs and baffles before I started :)

I've not drilled the holes for the 4mm bananas, still toying with external cross overs; I just don't know yet if the Xovers will fit in the cab, or if I want to fit them.
 
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I have been reading around the posts on DIY speaker building. In several threads it suggests spending 1/3 of the cost on the crossover. The current price of the drive units is around £290 per side and the crossover only £50 Has anyone ever tried a more expensive / better capacitor 3.3uF in the HF crossover ?
I was messing about the other day in Humble capacitor test and costed via Hifi collective for the Ergo. I wondered if it was worth upgrading the 3.3uf cap to a Jantzen Audio Alumen Z-Cap . Yep they are £50.11 + vat compared with £18.88 +vat for the price of a Superior . Humble rating 11.5 vrs 10+ Diminishing laws of return accepted
Any views?
 
I have not tried the Alumen Z-Caps, and so cannot comment. I think the Z-Superior are more than good enough, and commensurate with the quality of the Morel tweeter. If you feel the need to upgrade, there is a 18uF shunt capacitor in the LP section that could be replaced with another Z-Superior.
 
I don't know the Alumen Z-caps at all. I have used Mundorf MCaps Evo oil caps, aluminium and the gold ones in a preamp as the final coupling caps and they were superb. I've a pair of Evo Oil supremes kicking their heels atm waiting to be tried in the same preamp. They are physically large for their capacitance.

I've not checked the prices for Mundorf MCaps in the size you need, could be eye watering.

Edit: just looked https://www.hificollective.co.uk/ca...mundorf-mcap-supreme-evo-silver-gold-oil.html £105 each.
 
James said:
I have not tried the Alumen Z-Caps, and so cannot comment. I think the Z-Superior are more than good enough, and commensurate with the quality of the Morel tweeter. If you feel the need to upgrade, there is a 18uF shunt capacitor in the LP section that could be replaced with another Z-Superior.
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Looking at Fatmarley's current advert selling some Superior caps, there is a combination which gets close to 18uf. 10uf and 8.2uf . Is that close enough? Price for a new 18uf is £80 inc vat A pair is £90 from the advert.
I am not unhappy with the Ergo's by any means , Just messing about. Might be the racer in me looking to get best out of any piece of equipment I get my hands on!
 
chiily said:
I don't know the Alumen Z-caps at all. I have used Mundorf MCaps Evo oil caps, aluminium and the gold ones in a preamp as the final coupling caps and they were superb. I've a pair of Evo Oil supremes kicking their heels atm waiting to be tried in the same preamp. They are physically large for their capacitance.

I've not checked the prices for Mundorf MCaps in the size you need, could be eye watering.

Edit: just looked https://www.hificollective.co.uk/ca...mundorf-mcap-supreme-evo-silver-gold-oil.html £105 each.
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Just as well I was sitting down.
 
Mosquito said:
Looking at Fatmarley's current advert selling some Superior caps, there is a combination which gets close to 18uf. 10uf and 8.2uf . Is that close enough? Price for a new 18uf is £80 inc vat A pair is £90 from the advert.
I am not unhappy with the Ergo's by any means , Just messing about. Might be the racer in me looking to get best out of any piece of equipment I get my hands on!
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Personally, I wouldn't bother. But if you must, just check those two caps wired in series will fit into the space the 18uF vacates.
 
S-Man said:
My own experiments with bypass caps didn’t correlate with TG’s ratings. His ratings seem to have a direct correlation with the cube root of the price 🤔.
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I have always been skeptical about the efficacy of bypass caps. Seems too good to be true. A bit like eating a handful of Kale with your fish and chips and thinking that you're eating healthy.
 
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