Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Save about a grand and get a primo HK 730, streaming can be added later.

I like the vibe but if it was me I'd be looking at 80s/90s vintage stuff and add on the digital/streaming separately. Classic olive Naim, sansui, etc etc.

The phrase I wanted was apparently "high flow perforated metal hexagonal" as that yields a 79% open area perforated sheet.

Most of the circle perforations cannot best 60% open area, so hexagonal (honeycomb) wins considerably.

My consideration with wire rather than perforations is that wire being a circular cross-section is probably prone to generating less air turbulence... but hey, it's a speaker and not a fan so perhaps that is dumb thinking.

I thought about suggesting perforated sheet, but then worried that it would resonate like a drum skin and concluded that you were probably on the right track with wire mesh.

Whatever I fit I'll have to add dampening within the mounting to ensure that they don't vibrate or buzz.

Most speakers I've seen have perforated sheets... not sure I've ever seen wire used for this. But my reasoning was that even for a similar coverage (% open) a squared-off perforated sheet would surely come off worse than the natural rounded-ness of wires.

Haven't seen anything really assessing such things, but it feels intuitive that the wires would win. I assume that the biggest reason perforated sheets are in use is because it's very cheap and the usual environment for metal grilles on speakers are things like nightclubs, car audio, beat boxes, etc where knocks are expected... also all markets where cheap factors highly.

So my hunch is still on the wires being better... but the problem there is fewer suppliers for precisely the material and spacing that I want, in such very low volumes (they're clearly used to making 100M rolls of this stuff).

I've been looking at these but I read a review that said that they didn't sound all that, which is a shame because I'm into the aesthetic, does everything that I want and they do a matching CD transport. Ended up getting an Onkyo receiver instated, a Technics 1301, and still just listening to ripped PCs via my Mac Mini

If you look back at vintage domestic table radios and radiograms, you'll see wire mesh, perforated metal and plywood and expanded metal all more or less equally. Clearly any of them works OK, but the HiFi market wouldn't be dominated by open drivers if any of them worked really well.

FWIW, Tannoy in-wall speakers use honeycomb pattern perforated steel on their high end dual concentric models, e.g. this bezel for a 7" DC speaker is 410mm×248mm to give you a scale for the perforation pitch

1 Attachment

Yeah that's what worries me a little. I can get it for £550 which seems like an ok price but the reviews have been mixed. I'm a sucker for the looks though. I'm using a 70's Pioneer atm which also looks, and sounds great but want a separate modern amp. May just go for a better dac and streamer instead, and perhaps a cheaper class-d amp. S.M.S.L?

I had a Nad 302BEE before and there was so much spaghetti with a Airport Express, optical DAC, and phono preamp, but now all of that is contained in the one box. It's even got a line out should I ever want to record.

Brass for the Tannoys no?

That's one of the samples I've ordered.

Love the brass mesh.
Cats are one of the reasons I went with ATC SCM with their heavy metal style grilles, but the night club system look is not for everyone.

.

Got a couple of these - free, collect from SE15. Used, missing the little spikes, unless I can find them. Pm if interested.

1 Attachment

Whilst I still await the samples to be delivered... I came up with a different idea.

The idea is a wooden speaker grille... all of it a single piece of wood.

The attachment shows a mashrabiya panel that would allow 50% openness. I don't need this level of complexity to be an effective cat guard. The centre can be opened a lot more and on the Tannoy that's where the tweeter is. Making the middle hole larger is the goal and pushes the openness to 65% which beats most perforated metal speaker grilles.

So I've sent out a request for a quote for a single piece of walnut CNC'd panel where the speaker grille is actually a mashrabiya design. As it's all a single piece of hardwood I believe that the strength of it would be quite high, and that it won't be possible to be a source of vibrations either.

And if the company is crazy good at CNC then I'll ask them to taper the rear so that the cross section is actually a triangle and it should sound even more transparent. I mean... obviously I'd do something stupid like that if it's possible.

1 Attachment

Doesn't look fully cat proof to me.

Cats enjoy a challenge.

As a scratch post it's now non-trivial.

Cats are also lazy... so now the actual scratch post should win.

it won't be possible to be a source of vibrations

It will still vibrate, but it will be such an ineffective absorber/radiator that you won't hear it.

Bear in mind that if its CNC routed the tightest internal radius of a cut out will be the size of the cutter, probably 12.7mm, so no sharp corner triangles. If it’s laser cut (what I’d suggest) that’s not a problem.

Solid walnut is not a good idea from a cost / durability perspective. Walnut veneer 6mm ply would be better. Veneered MDF would be even more “dead”, and probably easier to source than veneer ply that thin.

The photo of the design is from a CNC company website who make them using CNC.

https://malek.ae/cnc-cutting-solutions/mashrabiya/mashrabiya-square/

But if you look at their photos you see they're not perfectly sharp edges... https://malek.ae/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Al-Malek-cnc-cutting-solutions.jpg

It's good enough though. Especially if the production is relatively cheap and I can have a carpenter provide finishing and detailing.

I’d also recommend laser cutting and I’d also recommend ply or MDF with your hardwood as a veneer. I have some previous experience cutting speaker grilles like this - not like your design but with an Art Nouveau cutout. It wouldn’t have held up with a sheet of hardwood with a grain.

I think with the black edges you’ll get with a laser cut, maybe rout the sides at 45° or 60° and then treat with a coat of satin Osmo oil, it’ll look quite stunning.

Post in this thread: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/156217/newest/

tightest internal radius of a cut out will be the size of the cutter, probably 12.7mm

In wood, you can rout at least 4×D, so in 3mm material you could use a 0.8mm bit to give 0.4mm internal corner radius, which is effectively a sharp corner visually.

if the company is crazy good at CNC then I'll ask them to taper the rear so that the cross section is actually a triangle

I don't think it will have any effect on the sound, but if you rout from the back face with a tapered bit it will give the visual impression of a zero-thickness surface when viewed from the front at angles of less than half the tip angle of the bit

0.8mm cutter is like dental burr territory though. I have some at work around that size for specialist cutting but I don’t know how common they are edit: or even if our workshop has collets that small. And it takes for fricking ever to make any cut with cutters that small.