Inexpensive start to a 606 style cab?

[MERDY]

Dont laugh , i have used ikea cupboards in the past as well as old dressers and cabs for speakers for experiments , some of my open baffle experiments were doors with simple t brackets ,during the housing boom there was lots of materials around,
now after the last thread about big boxes for the 604 i went to the city dump and almost picked two deep freezers with the compresors removed, but backed out as i needed to do some homework on the inside construction .(they had a strange smell)
one does need serious cabs for serious listening of course , but this is a cheap way to diy and experiment and learn .

[GM]

Absolutely, I just couldn't believe how cheap these are. Both cost < two 5x5 ft shts. of BB ply around here and it doesn't take much $$$ even in new lumber to brace them and material for a finished top.

NEMA 5-12 (gasketed covers, welded seams) electrical control boxes make great cabs for shop or man-cave, ditto NEMA 4 - 4X composites if you can find them, though these days with so many folks selling metal for scrap I imagine they aren't too plentiful anymore.

GM

[bfish]

...NEMA 5-12 (gasketed covers, welded seams) electrical control boxes make great cabs for shop or man-cave, ditto NEMA 4 - 4X composites if you can find them....

GM

I suspect you'd double-blink at the price of NEMA boxes these days, heck, even NEMA 1s of any size are plum ridiculous...

Big attaboy on the IKEA tip! Just the ticket for those asking for flat-pack kits.

[GM]

I double-blink at just about all prices these days......... I meant in terms of used since most (all?) city codes require new switches, etc. on major repairs/upgrades. Use to, folks would strip out any copper and toss the rest in the trash for us 'dumpster divers'.

Yeah, I just looked up where the IKEA store is locally and they confirm they keep the tall units in stock, so may just have to get a pair for a 511/421 'poor man's' 606 assuming the 421s are still OK after being 'attic/closet queens' for going on 41 yrs now.

GM

[David Yost]

Hi, GM

I have been considering a 2-way with a HR9040 over something -- and this IKEA cabinet might be the something I am looking for.

I have an assortment of Altec woofers available, including 515B's, 416B's and 414Z's. I would like to use the 515's if possible as I love their upper bass articulation, but would like to get by without a subwoofer if I can. Given corner loading, how much reinforcement can I expect? Given my estimate of box volume of ~8.9 cubic feet for the 39" version, would tuning the box to 25 Hz get me relatively flat performance down into the 20's? I will probably use solid state amps and the room is about 17 x 13 x 8 feet.

Lastly, do you think liquid nails or some other construction adhesive would adequately secure any internal cabinet braces and reinforcements?

Thanks in advance.

[GM]

Greets!

Yeah, the 515's extra 'snap' comes through even when XO'd at 500 Hz if HF loading caps are used. My room has no real gain to speak of, but a second 515 in a large enough cab fills in nicely, so assuming your room's construction is rigid/massive enough to get good corner gain (~ +6 dB of a theoretical +9 dB available), a corner cab tuned down around Fs should do well enough.

Note that a room's corner gain curve basically boosts much/all of the cab's BW to a greater or lesser extent, so to flatten it in room usually requires some EQ (often handled by the XO inductor's Dcr or additional series resistance), but always better to attenuate rather than boost.

Hadn't worked out its ~net Vb, but if it's this large, then it's not that far off from my ~10 ft^3 net/driver, so with the 515 up top and a 6" dia. x 6" long pipe or equivalent shelf vent down low ought to get you there with longer being required with shrinking net Vb.

One of the reasons I wanted to get at least one of these cabs is to find out if my preferred PL construction adhesive will work on whatever thin veneer/wallpaper lines its innards without pulling it free from the substrate or flat out melting it since the reason for using it is that I can run a thick bead on a board's edge, push it into place, wiggle it around to spread it/work out any voids and forget about it. For cross tie braces, I add a drywall screw to hold its ends in place to the ridge boards once they've set.

IIRC, Liquid Nails is ~the same product, so if you want to be the Guinea pig........

GM

[Old Guy]

A concern...the Ikea box is only 24" wide and those sides look big...is the front opening big enough?

I use Gorilla Glue...works well.


I have a pair of 60's 1203 cabs that were powered with the 90 watt amps, pre-biamp. They have 4 ohm drivers and an N800F 4 ohm crossover.

Am thinking Brad's vented dome trick in the 416/422 woofs and one of these 36x24 tuned to a 411 for sub? I have it all sitting here. Might be simple enough that I actually finish it.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30187586

[Altec Best]

so may just have to get a pair for a 511/421 'poor man's' 606 assuming the 421s are still OK after being 'attic/closet queens' for going on 41 yrs now.
GM

GM if they been face down without any kind of rotation for 41 years.I guarantee they will need to be reconed.That's what happened to my woofers 416B's that I just bought recently for my project.Bill was having the darndest time getting them right.He determined that they must have been stored face down for a long time cause the coils weren't even close to being in the gap.Spiders were shot,he tried to bring them back "No Sale" with weight on the cone for about a week.So they had to be reconed.But they are identical WRT specs now.He sent a measurement analysis of the woofs when he sent them back.

[GM]

GM if they been face down without any kind of rotation for 41 years.I guarantee they will need to be reconed.

No argument and why I've periodically set them outside face up on concrete on a bright, hot, Summer day till they bottomed out, then drove them a bit with a ~Fs sine wave for awhile before storing them face up for awhile until the old Heathkit died some years ago. Anyway, got it fixed last week enough to work, though I doubt it's all that accurate now, but good enough to work the 421s once it gets hot enough outside and hopefully the ~seven years I've only rotated them in the closet was enough to keep them from needing a re-cone. If not, I'll sell them as is and they will be just one more thing I held onto for too long in a 'penny wise, pound foolish' way.

GM