# Statement Center completed



## wackii (Jul 13, 2006)

Hi guys,

I haven't have a chance to post here often. I'd like to share my completed Statement Center designed by Jim and Curt from HTGuide - Thanks Jim and Curt and everyone else that help me. It's an awesome center. The mid sounds so sweet and clear (love it). If you don't mind the size, you should considering this center. I'm thinking of building the Statements for the mains, but short of funds and time. Some of you might have seen it in HTGuide (apologize for the repost). I'm really enjoy this center. I've just listen to The Eagles - Hell Freeze Over last night... It sounds so good so that I must spread the words :jump:

Here are some finished pictures:

























































Al,


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## wackii (Jul 13, 2006)

Here are more pictures of the building process (I have a bunch more pictures but don't want to take up the bandwidth here):

















































Al,


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## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

That is beautiful! What are the dimensions and how much did it cost to build?


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## wackii (Jul 13, 2006)

Mike P. said:


> That is beautiful! What are the dimensions and how much did it cost to build?


The dimensions are 24"W x 11"H x 13.5"D. It cost me roughly $530 and lots of time on the finish. I had to redo my finish twice cuz' my nephews screwed up the surfaces the first time around.

Al,


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## jeremy7 (Feb 7, 2008)

beautiful finish, what drivers did you use?


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## JCD (Apr 20, 2006)

Beautiful work!

That's all that needs to be said..

JCD


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## wackii (Jul 13, 2006)

jeremy7 said:


> beautiful finish, what drivers did you use?


Thanks. Drivers are 2 RS180 Dayton woofers, 1 Tangband W4-1337S and 1 NeoCD3.0 Fountek Tweeter. 

Al,


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## mgboy (Jan 17, 2007)

Well, looks AMAZING. 

You now have (one of the) best looking and sounding center channels out there. Be proud.


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## wackii (Jul 13, 2006)

Thanks for the kind words, CJD and mgboy.

Al,


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## thxgoon (Feb 23, 2007)

Wow beautiful job on the finish! Please take up all of the bandwidth you need, I've been thinking of building a set of these myself.


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

Gorgeous work... :T This is one of the finest finished speakers I have seen... very nice job!


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## blast8180 (Jun 9, 2008)

Wow that finish is gorgeous. Would you mind sharing how you managed to achieve it? I'm thinking of building some custom racks and would LOVE to get a finish like that. Did you use a pressurized paint sprayer?


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## wackii (Jul 13, 2006)

blast8180 said:


> Wow that finish is gorgeous. Would you mind sharing how you managed to achieve it? I'm thinking of building some custom racks and would LOVE to get a finish like that. Did you use a pressurized paint sprayer?


Nope. Believe it or not, I only use spray can paint and a lot of sanding. Heavy duty sanding w/ palm sander outside, and wet sanding inside the apartment. I live in an apartment but luckily I got a hallway between the apartments complex... That's my working place  I would say anybody with patience can do this... It took me a little less than 2 months to do it... I've post step by step of how I did it in AVS forum... let me paste it here....


Materials:

Bondo = $10 
Zinsser SealCoat = $10
3 cans of primer = $11
5 cans of gloss black = $20
3 cans of black lacquer = $12
Sand Paper 100,150,220 = had it from previous projects
Sand Paper 400 = $4
Sand Paper 600 (x2) = $8
Sand Paper 800 (x2) = $8
Sand Paper 1000 (x2) = $8
Sand Paper 1500 = $4
Sand Paper 2000 = $4
Meguiar’s Fine Cut = had it
Meguiar’s Mirror Glaze #7 = had it
Meguiar’s G14422 Ultimate Quick Detailer = had it
Gloves = had it

Free stuffs:
About 1 gallon of sweat  priceless
Gain a muscle or two on both of my arms
Free back pain due to bending down for sanding and lifting the cabinet
Free time well spent (2 months of on and off process)

It cost me about $100 or so on materials for this finish. It will cost more or less depends on what you've got already...

Procedures:

Make sure you did a good prep job on your cabinet. Fill any imperfections with Bondo. Sand it as flat as possible… 

1. Use a piece of cloth to wipe the sealcoat on the cabinet (make sure there's no lil bubbles).

2. Apply a thin first seal coat... Wait about two hrs, then apply the second coat (thicker coat). I had a few run-on on the thicker coat which cost me a lot of time sanding it out. It's really tough to sand out the run-on... so if you do, just apply two thin coats and make sure you don't have any run-on. I wait one day before sanding the sealcoat... If I have to do it again, I will wait for 2 or 3 days... It seemed like the sealcoat isn't really dry yet when I did the sanding...

3. Apply first two coats of primer without sanding in between. I did some sanding before the 3rd coat of the primer. Then sand again, and really make sure it's flat. I use my palm sander for most heavy sanding then I use a cut-out piece of MDF as a sanding block for a lighter sanding.

4. After sanding, I wet a piece of cloth to wipe off the particles... and use the dry one to dry it off. I tried to make sure the surfaces are all clean.

5. Apply 3 coats of gloss black. Let it dry for a day or so (the longer the better) then sand it with 600 grits.

6. Apply 2 more coats of gloss black. Let it dry for a day or so then wet sand it with 600 grits.

7. Apply 2 more coats of gloss black. Let it dry for a day or so then wet sand it with 800 grits.

8. Apply 2 more coats of gloss black. Let it dry for a day or so then wet sand it with 800 grits then 1000 grits.

9. Spray 4 coats of black lacquer. Let it sit for 10 days for the lacquer to cure. A little line started to show between the laminated baffles during the lacquer curing process. It’s probably cause by the lacquer shrinking or whatever. Apply more coats if needed so you can sand it flat without going through you paint. I ended up applied 3 more coats of black lacquer because I did sanded through the lacquer coats…

10. Wet sand it with the 1000 grits and make sure you don’t see any more “orange peel” on the cabinet. Smooth it out as much as you can. Sand the rounded edges first that way you don’t see the sand marks on the flat surfaces. Then do the same with 1500 grits sand paper. I did stopped at 1500 grits because my arms can’t hold it no more. You can still see some of the minor scratches on my cabinet, not major enough for me to waste a few more days of sanding. You should carry on through with the 2000 grits sand paper.

11. Clean up the cabinet with water, wipe it dry with a fine cloth (careful to not scratch anything)

12. Apply the Meguiar’s Fine Cut Cleaner; buff it out using machine or hand. (I’m doing it by hand). I did 1 coat of that. If you have more patient you should do like 3 coats for better result.

13. Apply the Meguiar’s Mirror Glaze #7; buff it out… apply as many coats as you feel like it shines enough for you. (I did 1 coat due to my poor arms yelling for mercy).

14. Apply the Meguiar’s G14422 Ultimate Quick Detailer coat (1 coat for me).

15. Done. Knock yourself out with some whines/beers for a job well done…



Al,


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## Bob_99 (May 8, 2006)

Once again, I can only echo what the other posters have said. Beautiful work and thanks for posting all the details.

bob


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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

Really great job. The finish is beautiful, and the drivers all look great too. It looks like a high end professionally assembled speaker. It just really comes together right.


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## Bob_99 (May 8, 2006)

Al,

Is there a design for the surrounds that go with the Statements? I checked out the post and it wasn't obvious to me if they use the mini Statement as the surround.

Thanks.

Bob


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## Guest (Sep 10, 2008)

It looks really good guy! You should come and work for me and build speakers haha


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## wackii (Jul 13, 2006)

Thanks all...

Bob_99, yeah... you can build the Monitor Statements and use them as surround.
http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?t=29605


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## Bob_99 (May 8, 2006)

Thanks Al. I missed the monitors and was looking at the smaller tower. The monitors look very impressive and make this a very, very tempting DIY project (L/R,Center,Surrounds). Especially if a person could get the finished look of your center!

Bob


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## BrianAbington (Mar 19, 2008)

They look nice. How do you like the midbass from those daytons?


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## wackii (Jul 13, 2006)

SQCherokee said:


> They look nice. How do you like the midbass from those daytons?



The RS180s sound nice and very tight... I was supprised at how much bass it came out from those two lil RS180s :T

Al,


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## keelay (Dec 11, 2008)

Nice Work. Admiration of your skill.


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## BrianAbington (Mar 19, 2008)

are the midbasses ported at all? also is it one common chamber or is the midrange isolated can't really tell from the pics


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## brijenjas (Apr 27, 2006)

Ported cabinet, yes.

The midrange is an open tunnel to the back lined with 1" foam.

http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?t=27552

http://www.geocities.com/cc00541/Statements_Center_Channel.html

Back view, top hole is for the port, bottom is the mid tunnel.


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## Usil (May 19, 2008)

If I were you I would be very proud of that project. Beautiful. That is what DIY is all about.

Usil


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## Guest (Jan 9, 2009)

Thanks for the tutorial on the finish. You did an amazing job!
I have a pair of DIY speakers here that are going to benefit from your instructions.


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## tcarcio (Jun 27, 2007)

Great job, it is gorgeous. I just built a sub and used some of the same materials but your procedure looks alot better. Next time I will do it the way you did to get that beautifull finish.:T


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## wackii (Jul 13, 2006)

Thank you all for the kind words. I did not have a chance to visit here the last few months. I'm glad that my lil instructions/procedures can help out the DIY communities. After all, I'm learning it from you guys  I love this center speaker. The sound is beautiful. None of my friends believe that I built it 

I love this finish but it required lots of hard work... compared to the veneer job that I did for my mains 4 years ago. I'm so tempted to upgrade my mains to the Statements... It never ends...

Al,


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## Jason Schultz (Jul 31, 2007)

Hi ,I love the design. Can you tell me what frequency do the daytons xo to the TB driver and the tweet please.


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## Quake25 (Dec 31, 2008)

Truly amazing, Great Build! :thumb:


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## brijenjas (Apr 27, 2006)

Jason Schultz said:


> Hi ,I love the design. Can you tell me what frequency do the daytons xo to the TB driver and the tweet please.



mid 330 Hz

tweet 4700 Hz the TB is considered a full range driver..http://www.parts-express.com/pe/sho...848&FTR=w4-1337&CFID=5263818&CFTOKEN=92967593

Build info and specs are here;;
http://www.geocities.com/cc00541/Statements_Center_Channel.html


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## utahsaint (Jul 2, 2012)

Great job on this I am going to have to look through this thread more closely. Very interested in building a new center channel myself to go with my diy scanspeaks.


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## orion (Sep 18, 2009)

WOW I am impressed at how nice that looks. What center channel did you have before that you can compare it to. I am in the hunt for a different center channel as well.


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## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

also check out the ZD3C .... it is on the zaph website in the description of the ZDC build.


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## PC509 (Nov 15, 2012)

That is an AMAZING finish. Very surprised to hear how it was done. Very very impressive! 

Beautiful center, too. Great work!


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## GPHammer (Feb 2, 2011)

Very nice work, what brand of spray paint and lacquer did you use.
I completed a set of full size statements, mini's and the center last summer but have not put a finish on them yet.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

You did a awesome job on your finish!!!


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## Code Red (Dec 12, 2012)

Man, that finish is sweet. Im planning some new mains and center and am looking for that quality of finish. Good job, really well done.


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