The E-IXs have been progressing quietly, all four of them. Recall that there are two variants: (1) a wall mount, boundary-reinforced and grilled version that will have in-line drivers that I'm finishing in American Black Walnut, and (2) a free-standing version with offset and naked drivers finished in Sapele.
The ABW will feature a slightly recessed baffle to make room for the grille, and the baffle is currently getting progressively coated with Satin Black enamel paint. Here is one ABW cab (sans drivers) posing with a Tommy Castro CD.
The baffles took a bit of time to prepare. There isn't much space behind them for fixings, especially given that they need to fit flush against the fillets. This means whatever I used to provide anchorage for the driver bolts will need to be flush with the surface. I have decided to use T-nuts simply because there isn't a great deal of material between the cutout and where the bolts need to be for a threaded insert. I also had to trim one leg of the T-nut to avoid fouling the driver chassis. These T-nuts were fitted in a 2mm recess cut with a forstner bit.
The woofer cutout was scalloped to help with airflow. Here is a 15W8530 midwoofer test-fitted to see if the scallops are sufficient to help them breathe properly.
The Sapele, naked driver version features a leathered baffle. Much like the rest of the Ergo series. It's partly an aesthetic reason, but also a functional one. Leather makes a good seal for the drivers without resort to sticky mastic or self-adhesive foam/neoprene tape. The leather was bonded to the baffle substrate with contact adhesive.
With the drivers fitted, here is what a single E-IX looks like.
They're heavy little suckers, and that's before I've installed the XO with at least a pound or two of inductors. Note how the one behind has sunk comfortably into the sofa.
Here are a couple of front, back and side views to show the symmetrical M8 fixings and to illustrate that an extra 90mm of depth (compared to the standard LS3/5a box) is quite substantial.
Mr Tibbs said:
James, would you post up a wee pic showing one of the speakers against a common object so we can get a better feel for the size of them.
How about a standard 750ml bottle of Pinot Noir?
Or, against a range of toys?
They're not big at all, are they. Certainly not compared with the E-VIIIs standing over four times their height.
They're closest in size to the 20 litre E-VIIs. Note how much darker aged Sapele looks.
This weekend coming, I'm hoping to fashion a pair of stands from some scrap Sapele and start the measurement process to derive data for XO modeling. I can only hope there is enough space inside for a relatively simple XO.
James
