# 4pi basic build x 3



## vann_d (Apr 7, 2009)

What a wonderful time of the year!

I've got three build threads to start! My 4pi build, a basement build, and a IB sub build!

Anyhow, I'll be building three of Wayne Parham's 4pi kits in their standard form. This will actually be the first build I have seen on the interwebs of the kit in its standard form. Most seem to go for the JBL woofer upgrade at a minimum but the extra $750 for three JBLs was not justifiable for me at this point. One reason I decided not to get the JBLs over the eminence was cost (duh), but according to Wayne, the main difference is lower distortion at high SPL over long periods of time. The eminence can be more fatiguing in this usage scenario.

These will be going into built-in cabinets in my new basement multi-purpose (living) room. 

Parts came in yesterday and I must say I am impressed. The compression drivers are massive! I mean, I thought my Klipsch RF82s had some substantial drivers but these Eminence PSD 2002 are huge. Picture a hockey puck with 2x the diameter and weighs 5 lb. 

The Eminence Omega Pro 15s are equally impressive. They are very hefty and the cones seem exceedingly stiff. I'm looking forward to the effortless SPL these babies can pump out!

Finally, the crossovers are incredibly huge. The boards themselves are 6" x 12"! Total shipping weight for drivers and crossover for one kit comes in at 42 lbs.

The kit is an overall good value as I don't think I could buy the components myself from PE for less. We're talkin' about a $200 woofer, a $60 compression driver, a horn, crossover components, and binding posts. Plus you get PCB boards with the crossover pre-assembled and he even includes terminated speaker wire at the correct lengths.

Pics by the Christmas tree...:bigsmile:


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## fusseli (May 1, 2007)

Cool, must be exciting! Feel free to post pics


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## robbo266317 (Sep 22, 2008)

What a great Christmas present. :bigsmile:


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## vann_d (Apr 7, 2009)

Got materials for cabinets yesterday. A local shop has 4' x 8' x 3/4" baltic birch with a pre-finished lacquer on both sides. I thought that would save me some work so I went for it.

Here is the location they will be installed. They are toed-in 20° and should cross just in front of the listening position. The screen will be higher than optimal to fit these underneath but it was a compromise I had to make. I've got a 65" screen taped off for reference. Still completing the framing and electrical...


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## dougc (Dec 19, 2009)

I have been looking at the 2Pi since your recommendation and they really do look like a great value. I will be tagging along for your build for sure, and it is already coming along nicely. Will they be in the spaces there under the "screen?"


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## vann_d (Apr 7, 2009)

Yeah the three spaces are for left, center, right. It will be more obvious when gypsum board goes on.


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## vann_d (Apr 7, 2009)

I've ripped the boards to width and cut a total of 6 pieces to length after spending the better half of a day with the circular saw and table saw today. My pile of mistakes is twice as big as my pile of good cuts so far. Makes for a kind of expensive lessen with the price of this plywood. 

The main issue is that I decided to do miter cuts on the four side panels, which I've not done before. I tried a few different methods and ended up building a new table for my saw so that I could get a 26-1/2" long x 12-3/4" wide cut.

The good news is that I think I've got it figured out and I should be able to finish all the cuts in the next couple days.


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## filtor1 (Feb 10, 2009)

I look forward to seeing your progress. The 4pi is on my short list of must hear designs before I build something.


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## vann_d (Apr 7, 2009)

I've managed to glue together the framework of a couple cabinets. My original plan was to paint them all black because they will be recessed in cabinets anyway but, since I was able to get this baltic birch prefinished, I decided to get fancy and mitre cut all the boards. All I can say is that I don't really have the tools for that and it is difficult to get them to come out correctly. 

My description of the cabinets so far is "good from far but far from good." :sad: Oh well, they will be recessed anyhow. 

I will be painting the baffles black so they draw as little attention to themselves as possible.

In the picture the cabinets are pretty dusty. I haven't wiped them down yet. The finish on the ply is really good although I've managed to introduce a couple scratches already :gah:


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## AlphaG (Jan 6, 2013)

Nice ...

I was contemplating doing a DIY for LCR and am trying to decide between this and a three way active monitor with a coax compression driver in the center. What kind of SPL are these capable of?


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## vann_d (Apr 7, 2009)

AlphaG said:


> Nice ...
> 
> I was contemplating doing a DIY for LCR and am trying to decide between this and a three way active monitor with a coax compression driver in the center. What kind of SPL are these capable of?


Thanks. These will get very loud. I modeled the eminence woofer at over 120 dB with 150W. It is excursion limited in this design. I think the driver can handle 600W thermally. The compression driver is heavily padded to match sensitivity. 

Anyhow, it has more than enough headroom for my basement!


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## vann_d (Apr 7, 2009)

Well, I got a chance to do some more work on them this weekend. Cut the front and rear baffle for a single speaker, got them trimmed flush with the sides, cut the woofer and horn openings an rough cut the port. One thing that is apparent is that I'll need to do a double front baffle because the flange on the Eminence woofer stands almost 7/8" proud when surface mounted! It looks pretty bad. I wasn't really planning of this. Oh well, just more time and effort to get it right...


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

Hey Vann_d - how is this project coming along?


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## vann_d (Apr 7, 2009)

ALMFamily said:


> Hey Vann_d - how is this project coming along?


I've got two of them built and have been listening to them for a couple months. Not real proud of the finish but they sound great! I was in a rush to get them functional before we had our new baby girl, who is now 9 weeks. When I get some time I need to rebuild the front baffles, sand, and re-paint the enclosures. I'm also kinda thinking about just drawing up the plans in SolidWorks and taking them to be CNC'd at a local shop. The panels on these things are pretty large which makes things difficult for a novice woodworker like myself. I do have them built in to my screen wall, however, so they're not too offensive. 

I've got them running as front L&R in my basement theater/living room. I've only been able to get one quick measurement session in but preliminary results indicate they are behaving quite well with Audyssey XT engaged on my Onkyo 809.


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

Nice mate! :T

I saw the 4 Pis at LSAF and was wondering how they would be to build. I would like to put your build in the newsletter DIY section - would you like me to wait until after you redo the front baffle or is it ok to link to it now?


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## BD55 (Oct 18, 2011)

What if you just made some frames with speaker cloth for the openings for your L/C/Rs? Then you don't have to worry about sanding, finishing and all that. Unless you're wanting to be able to see the drivers?

Congrats on the new little one!


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## Wayne Parham (May 5, 2013)

Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to let you know there will be CNC-cut front baffles soon. Possibly full flat pack kits too.

I asked the shop to price out raw panels so we could offer them to kit builders. Should have them listed in the next few weeks.

Traditionally, the cabinet shop has only provided finished cabinets for most models, not flat pack kits. The only exceptions were the 12Pi hornsub and the midhorn used in our constant directivity cornerhorns. Those were worth doing as flat packs because they have angles and fitment that wasn't always easy to do. But the cabinets for rest of the line are fairly straightforward, so I have always suggested kit builders have a local cabinet shop make the enclosures. My thought was the panels were relatively large, so shipping was not cheap. The shipping costs saved by building locally would allow the builder to afford a better wood finish, or to just save money. But there has been a lot of interest in baffles and flat packs, so we'll be making them available soon.


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## vann_d (Apr 7, 2009)

ALMFamily said:


> Nice mate! :T
> 
> I saw the 4 Pis at LSAF and was wondering how they would be to build. I would like to put your build in the newsletter DIY section - would you like me to wait until after you redo the front baffle or is it ok to link to it now?


Thanks man! Well, like I said, I'm not real proud of the finish but I guess this could be a good motivator to get things cleaned up. If you want to put them in the newsletter that would be cool with me. If you thought it would be better to wait a month I could have them cleaned up quite a bit and have more content in this thread (pics, measurements, etc.) It's still an ongoing affair...



BD55 said:


> What if you just made some frames with speaker cloth for the openings for your L/C/Rs? Then you don't have to worry about sanding, finishing and all that. Unless you're wanting to be able to see the drivers?
> 
> Congrats on the new little one!


Thanks! Yeah, I plan on doing grills. I bought some nice grill cloth from Parts Express but haven't built frames yet. It's always nice to pull the grills off and look at 15" woofers though! :flex:



Wayne Parham said:


> Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to let you know there will be CNC-cut front baffles soon. Possibly full flat pack kits too.
> 
> I asked the shop to price out raw panels so we could offer them to kit builders. Should have them listed in the next few weeks.
> 
> Traditionally, the cabinet shop has only provided finished cabinets for most models, not flat pack kits. The only exceptions were the 12Pi hornsub and the midhorn used in our constant directivity cornerhorns. Those were worth doing as flat packs because they have angles and fitment that wasn't always easy to do. But the cabinets for rest of the line are fairly straightforward, so I have always suggested kit builders have a local cabinet shop make the enclosures. My thought was the panels were relatively large, so shipping was not cheap. The shipping costs saved by building locally would allow the builder to afford a better wood finish, or to just save money. But there has been a lot of interest in baffles and flat packs, so we'll be making them available soon.


Thanks for the info Wayne. I think it would be a nice addition to your product line. I like doing things myself and could not afford the fully finished version of these speakers, which is why I gave it a go. An MDF flat pack kit would allow a great time savings for the DIY'er without the expense of a fine finish. I feel that many would finish theirs in black paint or Duratex or similar. This can be accomplished for very low coin with good results.

Honestly, I think my problem was that it was a rush job. I was doing a basement finish, a dual subwoofer build, and these 4 Pi's all at the same time. As they currently sit, I've got a very functional and awesome sounding set of speakers. No doubt I can pretty them up a little too :bigsmile:


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

vann_d said:


> Thanks man! Well, like I said, I'm not real proud of the finish but I guess this could be a good motivator to get things cleaned up. If you want to put them in the newsletter that would be cool with me. If you thought it would be better to wait a month I could have them cleaned up quite a bit and have more content in this thread (pics, measurements, etc.) It's still an ongoing affair...


I will wait to put them in the July newsletter - looking forward to watching you finish these up!


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## vann_d (Apr 7, 2009)

ALMFamily said:


> I will wait to put them in the July newsletter - looking forward to watching you finish these up!


Cool, thanks!


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