# Answering request to post my DIY system in this section.



## Mike Cason (Mar 17, 2007)

As per your request Sonnie!

I purchased a pair of Sound Spinter RLP 15's and built a subwoofer, posting it in Soundsplinter's project display section, and was asked to also post it here along with the mains I built with pics and descriptions. 

The subwoofers weigh 235 lbs each and are driven by a bridged QSC 1450 watt amp per sub. I love my music low, loud, and clean at all levels. I incorporated passive radiators which provides a clean and pronounced at the low levels. Just about any design using these drivers will sound good cranked up! I show you how to load the passive radiators on Photobucket that I have linked to at my website.

I first built the mains in '95 with Radio Shack speakers including an 18" woofer and toilet jacks with a 90 degree elbow for my porting. They actually sounded good with my 32" TV until I built my new house and got a 65", and then they didn't match the picture. It's kinda like going to your local movie theater with the sound coming from a pair of old Advent or Kenwood home speakers. The retail outlets didn't have anything close to what I was looking for either. My Radio Shack stuff sounded better. So in 2003, I started studying the internet (spending literally 100's of hours), reviewing others' designs, buying books and software, and many, many drivers and crossover components. I read comments in forums and asked questions. Half of what I read in the forums I discarded like empty coke cans. I kept the same cabinet and kept redesigning them. The finish on all of them are the black slate Pionite (Formica). I built red oak grill frames, and used speaker quality fabric. Each of these speakers went through at least 4 designs until I got the sound quality I was looking for. I auditioned every speaker I could listen to at high end retail outlets, and nothing came close to the sound quality these are giving me. My toughest challenge was the crossovers. My mains' woofers are the Lambdas TD12s, Nick McKinney's handbuilt gems from Florida. Other drivers include Davis Kevlar from France, Scan Speak from Denmark, Morel from Israel, and the HI VI Research planer ribbon tweeters from China.

You can visit the two links in my signature to view the construction photos I have posted at Photobucket and on my Yahoo DIY group. Both links have very good descriptions of my projects. You have to subscribe to my Yahoo group, but I hide your email address and block spammers. You can unsubscribe after visiting.

I sincerely hope you all end up as happy with your DIY projects as I am with mine. I've ended up spending a fortune with the R & D, but it's **** well worth it. I don't go out anymore, and don't need to with this system. I was fortunate enough to have my system photograph and an article I wrote published in the Electronic House Magazine.

On Xmas day of 2008, I started a 4 day project of covering all 13 grills for my speakers because my upholstery man had heart surgery. I decided I needed to learn how to do everything myself, so I bought the right upholstery gun and taught myself the art of the grill covering. It was quite a challenge and more of a surprise how well they turned out. I had them covered over the years by others as I built them, but colors changed and faded due to sunlight and time. Now it is complete and I can move on to another project. Maybe basket weaving. 

Thanks for asking me to post..:T


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## Darren (Apr 20, 2006)

NICE! Now that system looks like it might have a little SPL behind it.


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

Thanks Mike... I'll say again that this looks like a really nice project... :T


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## Mike Cason (Mar 17, 2007)

Thanks Darren and Sonnie....

I have a hand held SPL meter and I pegged 115 db at about 6 feet away, and had more gain left on my main Rotel amp. It was sensless to go any further!

Distortion doesn't live here!

I'm happy I didn't buy my system at the store!!!!!


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## kano32 (Sep 14, 2006)

I don't think your speakers are big enough:rubeyes: .

Great job! I would love to hear your system.:T


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## Mike Cason (Mar 17, 2007)

Thanks Kano32,



kano32 said:


> I don't think your speakers are big enough:rubeyes: .
> 
> Yea....the sales guys at the high end stores slam them by calling them refrigerator speakers but their refrigerators don't sound as good as mine!
> 
> Great job! I would love to hear your system.:T


I see you live right around the corner so stop by on your way home from work tonight and we'll crank em up fer ya....

Seriously, any DIY'ers who live in the area are invited to listen to them.
PM for setting up a time.:jump:


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## kano32 (Sep 14, 2006)

Mike Cason said:


> I see you live right around the corner so stop by on your way home from work tonight and we'll crank em up fer ya....
> 
> Seriously, any DIY'ers who live in the area are invited to listen to them.
> PM for setting up a time.:jump:


Ummmm, I live in Alaska. So I guess I won't be coming over any time soon (unless I'm in Texas).


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## Mike Cason (Mar 17, 2007)

Mike, I want to thank you for the two new replacement drivers you sent me. Here is the update on the rebuilds....

BTW for those who don't know what happened. My wife blew out my last two drivers due to switiching to a Jurassic Park movie with the gains still set at full.:foottap: She doesn't mess with the settings on the equipment. I have been running a QSC 1450 amp to each driver. A 1450 watt amp is too much power for these drivers if you don't keep the gains turned back for the rest of the family to use! I over amp to get low bass at low volumes for my music. Since then, I've built a second sub to match, and now am using one amp per sub, bridged with an 8 ohm load being presented to the amp for about 800 to 900 watts, a safe level for these drivers.

I divided the cabinet with heavy partitioning and made two cabinets in one reducing the cubes down to about 2.2 per cabinet, each having their own driver and two passives. Each driver is still being driven by it's own 1450 watt amplifier. It sounded absolutely disgusting. I tried to fix it with polyfil but that didn't help at all. I really didn't think this design would work but that is what this DIY is all about.

I went by your website specs for the cubic feet recommendation of around 5 cubes and removed the partion. I blocked one driver hole and two passive radiator holes and ended up with a single cabinet with a single driver and two passive radiators. It really sounded good, and if I had the time and patience I could have built a second cabinet and had a dual sub configuration in the LR but really don't have the room for the extra cabinet.

Yesterday, I removed the plugs and reinstalled the second driver and the other two passive radiators. Now I'm back to my original design with two active drivers and 4 passives in the single cabinet and the results are absolutely astounding. It sounds so much better. I wouldn't do it any other way. 

One important note on the equipment setup with my design is that I have the preamp set to send everything from 60 hz and lower to the sub. 

For all you looking to buy one or more of these Soundsplinter drivers, you won't be disappointed. If they don't sound good enough for you, that's an indication you didn't build the box right or don't have it powered correctly. I've now had 5 or 6 rebuilds with different drivers and the Soundsplinter still remains the King!

Mike is the best and most responsive driver supplier I've ever had to had the pleasure of working with! :clap:

Cudos to the Soundsplinter products and the awesome support! 

Mike Cason


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## Mike Cason (Mar 17, 2007)

New TV and I rebuilt the mains and subwoofers again....

I've installed 8-1800 gram flat passive radiators in my subs, bringing the tuning down to 20 hz, and installed the Eminenance passives that were in the subs into my mains, 4 per main, bringing the tuning frequency from 30 hz to 23.8 hz I eliminated the ports and the associated port noises and resonance.

I've dropped the center speaker under the new 1080P DLP Mitsubishi with a tilt up to the listening area.

It just keeps getting better........:hsd:

Thanks go out to Mike P. for his help with the graphs... :innocent:

I'm looking forward to the Houston Soundsplinter DIY meeting at my home tomorrow for my audition.

UPDATE 7-29-08~~~~

I received a post from one of the members who attended the meeting and am pasting it here for you to view:

*"The sound and clarity of Mike's set up was amazing. Dynamic and powerful. The visual impression looking at the array of speakers was awesome enough; the impact of his creation was truly impressive. As much as I was in awe of the sub's - the center speaker was the star in my opinion. Listening to the demo disks displayed a whisper as clean and clear as branches breaking and even explosions; there was never a need to struggle to make out any sounds. The sub's fill the room in a wave that's felt before heard - not something that I've experienced in theaters, not to that extent! 

I was excited to see the system in person, but more excited after I left. Truly a successful DIY experience and it was great to hear what's possible "away from retail."

My 2c...

Oh, thx for all the grub. Truly a gracious host!"*


I've had some requests for my center speaker design specs, so I pulled out my old files to double check the values of the caps and inductors in the speaker. I opened up the speaker and wasn't happy with my wiring and some of the parts I used, so I completely re-designed and built a new crossover installing better caps that can be see below in the finished product. 

I have made my full specifications for my center speaker available for free on my website for those of you who would want to spend the money to have a really high end speaker. My twin Davis kevlar drivers are expensive for a center speaker, but very well worth it. This speaker really has a lot of authority! It is so much better than when we auditioned it at the Houston DIY group meeting. 

Best to all,
Mike


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## Guest (Sep 5, 2008)

*WOW*

Wow great build. if i can ever make up my mind what i want i will DIY some speakers myself. btw, i'd love to see some response curves if you have them.


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## Mike Cason (Mar 17, 2007)

*Re: WOW*

Thanks for the compliments. I've worked very hard to acheive what most would say is the best they have heard, ever.

The only graphs I have available can be found on my website. I only use my ears for testing as I'm not equipped or have the REW setup with another computer to measure them. Those numbers would change anyway when moving them to another room with the new room responses.

I have full build specs on my center speaker and the Scan Speak mids are no longer available for the mains, but the Revalator series, which is a bit more expensive will work and we'll have to tweak the crossover.


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## dradius (Sep 10, 2008)

Wow. Your setup looks (and I'm sure sounds) awesome. Nice!


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## Mike Cason (Mar 17, 2007)

[MOUSE][/MOUSE]


dradius said:


> Wow. Your setup looks (and I'm sure sounds) awesome. Nice!


Thanks,

I'm anxiously waiting on Hurricane Yike, I mean Ike. I want to hear what they sound like under water. I'm next to Galveston Bay.....:yikes:


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## dradius (Sep 10, 2008)

What's the hurricane news? :hide:
We felt the winds pretty good all the way up here on the Kentucky/Indiana border.


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## Mike Cason (Mar 17, 2007)

dradius said:


> What's the hurricane news? :hide:
> We felt the winds pretty good all the way up here on the Kentucky/Indiana border.


I went through the middle of the storm. Very rough. Mostly tree damage as I built my own house and all is well.

Thankx


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## jwesenick79 (Sep 25, 2008)

good to see you made it through the storm ok. Excellent setup you got there!!! I love it!!!:T


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## Mike Cason (Mar 17, 2007)

As with any audio project, most folks are always looking to upgrade their system to have the best they can. 

My Rotel receiver still had some decoding problems even after a factory rebuild and upgrade so I stepped up to NAD's T-785 AVR. I love the processing unit that NAD has designed. It's awesome. I'm hearing decoding as I've never heard before! This is the next generation of NAD's receivers. Boards simply come out for upgrades by removing two screws on the rear of the unit and sliding out a board, inserting another and updating the firmware. I'm not sure if NAD will allow end users to do their own upgrades yet, but the next 4 boards are scheduled to be released in late January. I'm also happy with their HDMI switching. My 2003 Rotel didn't have the feature.

I missed Rotel's robust and powerful amplifier's sound even though NAD has a great amplifier section at 120 watts Full Disclosure Rating; 7 x 120 watts per channel. I'm driving some difficult loads too.

I did some hard searching and found a five month old Rotel RMB 1095 5 x 200 wpc amp and am using the NAD as a processor for this amp and am only using two of the NAD's amps for my center back speakers. 

I've got my Rotel's sound back with even more power and the soundstage is even better. The RMB 1095 was introduced in 2000 and is still in production, making a statement that this is an incredible amplifier. I'm not sure, but I don't know of any of Rotel's products have ever been in production for so many years in a row. This one has upgrades since their original design and is so clean in all of the frequency ranges. I thought I'd throw in a picture of the equipment in my system now.

After several years of rebuilding and building more speakers, the grill cloth colors have faded and changed depending on the upholstery shop's cloth order. I bought enough material for my new upholstery shop to cover my 13 grills and he had a heart attack so the grills sat as his shop for 4 months. I picked them up a month ago and Xmas day I started re-covering them myself after purchasing the proper staple gun and scissors. I hope to have them finished today. I'll post a final pic. The mains now have side grill covers like the subs.

Mike


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## Mike Cason (Mar 17, 2007)

Hi Sonnie... it's been a few years (6) since I moved to the Philippines from Houston. I came back to the HT Shack to browse around and participate when I can.

Hope all is good with you and Mike Paulton. I wonder about you guys from time to time. Been divorced since 2011 and pretty much gave and sold everything I had to move here.

Hope this message finds you guys all doing well. The forums look great!


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## stevenarova (Feb 25, 2020)

I'm sad to report that Mike Cason died in the Philippines on February 18, 2020. Aside from the extensive audio knowledge that he shared on this and other forums, until his health declined Mike chronicled his adventures travelling throughout the Philippines on his YouTube channel, My Philippine Journey.


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## stevenarova (Feb 25, 2020)

stevenarova said:


> I'm sad to report that Mike Cason died in the Philippines on February 18, 2020. Aside from the extensive audio knowledge that he shared on this and other forums, until his health declined Mike chronicled his adventures travelling throughout the Philippines on his YouTube channel, My Philippine Journey.


My Philippine Journey


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