Releasing my inner Tannoy (Eaton Clones )

[smangus]

IMAG1265.jpg

Measuring up the ply, which seems to be an art in itself. Not happy with the first couple of cuts so need to review what I am doing to make them properly perpendicular, no table saw only hand held circular.

[walpurgis]

Can you not buy the wood cut to size at a timber shop? That's what I've done in the past. If you really want to do it yourself, use a T square (make one if necessary). A fine cut blade would help on a handheld saw. Just do it slow and steady. Any minor unevenness in edges can be sorted with car body filler.

By the way, the Eaton cabinet is not really ideal for the HPD 295A driver. It likes a bit more volume to really deliver. It's a fine unit by the way.

[smangus]

Hi Geoff

Thanks for the advice, I've already bought the board so have to cut it which is something I wanted to try out lol. I have a finer blade and it good for cutting on the board but was not quite straight so the edges were not perpendicular to the face. This would mean that they would not glue to true and would leave more gaps etc which would need filling.

Anyhow I ran a router with a trimming bit along the edges and that's squared them up nicely so now I'll cut slightly oversize and use the router to get to size. Any excuse for some more power tool usage...

As for the Eaton cabs , I thought I'd do something smaller to start so that I could see how the DIY skills came along and then maybe something bigger later on. It's a test build really and a bit of a learning curve to see how it goes.

Cheers Andy

[walpurgis]

Speaker building is a big learning curve.

At first glance it seems simple, but then you learn a bit and that just leaves you realising how little you really know and a vague idea of how much research is still needed to get it right. Not that any speaker is ever quite right. They are all a compromise no matter how fancy or costly.

Have fun!

[montesquieu]

An interesting adventure.
A Well troden path though, so few pitfalls remain.
DO read this though; http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Tannoy_IIILZ.htm
Don't obsess /go nuts on making the boxes into bank vaults.
The audible differences will be slight to none over simple/stupid single layer 19mm plywood.
Ideally drivers should have their Axis at a listeners' ear level It makes significant difference.
Likely more than a crossover mod.
So plan ahead for location and / or height of boxes.. whichever works best for you.

Happy Cobbling

Totally agree on the axis at ear height, it's essential with Tannoys.

Beware the Troels stuff he gets a lot wrong when he dabbles in Tannoys - Paul will keep you right, he's gone into this in far more depth than Troels ever did. (Though sounds like Paul already has ).

Also disagree on the boxes - bracing/damping is essential and going the extra mile to reduce resonances will have an audible and measurable effect.

[walpurgis]

Hi Andy. Your drive units appear to be HPD 295A by the way. If the back of the cone is doped with a plastic damping coating, they are. They are often marked HPD 295/8, Tannoy were a bit lazy about labelling. The original and different HPD 295 was first used in the Chevening speaker and had foam cone surrounds that rotted away, yours look like the excellent and correct rubber items. They should last a lifetime.

You could carefully remove the gauze dust cap from the other unit. Tannoys tend to sound better without them.

What are your crossovers? They don't look like the HPD series units from the Eaton.

[smangus]

I intend to add bracing as per Paul's advice , xovers are from him too and seem pretty substantial!

Have to stop for a couple of weeks now as we are of to France for a bit!

[montesquieu]

I intend to add bracing as per Paul's advice , xovers are from him too and seem pretty substantial!

Have to stop for a couple of weeks now as we are of to France for a bit!

Have fun.

If you want a foretaste feel free to drop over when you get back and hear my RFC Canterburys with Paul's crossovers, I'm not a million miles away off J4 M3 (Camberley/Farnborough).

[petrat]

Have fun.

If you want a foretaste feel free to drop over when you get back and hear my RFC Canterburys with Paul's crossovers, I'm not a million miles away off J4 M3 (Camberley/Farnborough).

Excellent project, Andy!

Seriously, do take up Tom's kind offer. It'll give you a benchmark of what well-sorted big Tannoys can deliver. He's also quite knowledgable on Tannoys, having owned various vintage drivers and cabinets.

[smangus]

Tom

Thanks for your very kind offer, I may well take it up sometime in the future. No idea when I'll have time to do it though. It would be good to hear some big tannoys.

Geoff, the surrounds are rubber I'll post the serial numbers sometime if anyone is interested. I have a spare dust capb it it is darker than the others so may well cut it off.