Greenie512

Chilli Chang (of Moose BVR)

Here’s yet another Scott and Dave design see - http://www.frugal-horn.com/spawn-plans.html for “spawn” family and design

Have just spotted - ignore date stamp on photo’s must have set the camera wrong; day is correct but it’s the 10th (October) not the 3rd (March)

Tools - Although you pay way too much for Festool tools I’ve got to admit there really good. Ripping full MDF sheet was always done outside to mitigate the dust factor. Dust collection on Festools is second to none and connected to the shop vac, a bit drops below the board but I’d say 97% is captured

Not specifically on Dave’s drawings but I’m now a convert of front-back-driver bracing.

Almost ready for the second side.

Cabinet on the left - only glued up a few hours ago so clamped just for final hold!

Review

So after a week or so for listening to the Chilli's what do I think.

Well initially I was disappointed, the usual FE 167 was there but they sounded slightly flat. I really knew what this was as I'd installed acoustic material either side of my vertical front-back brace for the full depth. And I know Scott uses this very lightly. No problem I ripped half of it out and that tightened the sound up dramatically.

However I still thought the cabinets were bass light and the two other mates that auditioned them came up with that straight away. So I've just removed all acoustic fill out of the box. So all that’s left is foam carpet underlay (?) to all internal surfaces except the back and brace.

Now that’s a lot better, suddenly there's bass. See below ...

Even this amount of fill ruined the bass? (ah - see addendum No 1 below ...)

Well, that really didn’t do much and then just by chance I decided to fix some legs/spikes to make the cabinets more stable on the carpet - POW.

Good god, what a difference - raising them off the floor and connecting them direct with spikes has absolutely transformed this is to a great speaker. Now they’ll never be bass demons but there’s bags of low detail here. These are definitely staying in this system.

And painted VERY dark green ...

Appendix No 1 (Driver coating) ....

Mmmm errr .... this project is a “tweaker” so I bought some Mod Podge (Puzzlecoat - aka Planet10) and gave the drivers a light coat of the stuff. Now this didn’t radically change the sound of the driver but it does have an effect of tighten things up a bit and I think I’ve got a little more “zing” at the top end. The reverse means I have lost that “soft” and perhaps “fury” sound I rather like from Fostex!

In hind sight I don’t think I’d bother with this mod ... but to continue the tweaking I put back the above acoustic damping. Now that seems to have softened the sound back a bit - so all is not lost here.

Appendix 2 (Phase Plugs) ....

Now this was definitely more scary I'd never attacked a driver with a scalpel before and could just imagine the damage I was about to do? Well actually if you follow Dave's pictorial installation and you haven't had 5 bottles of vino the night before it's rather easy.

Final result - WOW - what a different driver - mids are just soooo crisp, defined and smoooth. I always liked the original drivers voicing but with the phase plugs this sounds a whole heap better still! Now this qualifies Appendix 1 above …. with the clarity of the phase plugs the about coating comes into play and that "zing" in the top end  just adds the shine up there? And the phase plugs have brought back that natural sound of voice but allows the coating to better control the cone and so adding to the overall improvement.