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The Uglies Tower and Surround Build Log
I am Getting ready to build a new Home Theater Tower Speaker and Rear Surrounds. You may be wondering why no center. Well, I plan to use a third tower, since I have an acoustically transparent screen. However, if these are well received, I am sure I could be persuaded to build a center speaker. Each tower speaker will consist of two W8-2096 midwoofersand each surround will contain the W6-1721. I am still undecided on the tweeter, but am leaning toward the Peerless Corundum 1″. I was leaning toward the Wavecor, which are one of my favorites, but I am really trying to keep the cost to around $600. And that would push me closer to $700. Plus the Peerless can take more power (more on that later). Let’s look at the drivers and talk about them.
For theater speakers, I want something dynamic, that can handle bass. If you can’t tell, these can handle bass! I put a picture of them next to a GRS 8PF-8. Which is an 8″ woofer.
These are massive in comparison…and heavy! But that is the reason they were chosen. Each of the W8’s have an x-max of 8.5mm! That is better than some 8″ subwoofers. In fact, it is only 0.5mm less than Dayton’s reference sub. Looking in WinISD, it looks like you can easily tune these to 36hz (F3 of 35) and still give them max 250 watts before they hit their mechanical limits of 17mm. This should give you plenty of headroom when big dynamic bass scenes come on the screen. Which should really benefit those who cross their mains low or run them full-range.
The W6 was chosen for the rear to match the dynamics of the front. Unfortunately a ported cabinet is probably out of the picture due to the size the enclosure would have to be, but I am still thinking about it. So we may do sealed. But even sealed can give an F3 of around 69hz. Add in room gain, and you got a very formidable rear speaker.
Now all of these speakers will be able to take a lot of power. So having a dedicated amplifier seems to be best for these, but I will test them both with a dedicated amplifier with headroom and an AVR to see and hear the difference.
Dowload the FRD and ZMA Files here:
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62 Replies
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*Note I picked the Name Uglies, because I am hoping that even if they are the ugliest speakers in world…once you start playing music/movies on it…people will be so blown away, that they won’t care about the looks.
How’d you like that run on?
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I am looking forward to this as I am doing the same thing one set at a time so far my center then the surround last the towers because I have already did the sub.
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That is awesome! What did you end up building? I would love to see some pictures.
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Well I have 1 picture lol.
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Uglies Update. These sound amazing! Wait let me backup. I went ahead and made some braces for the inside and cut out the port. The fort is actually really small when you think about the size system. The bottom woofer is only handling subwoofer duties, which makes this a very powerful speaker. In fact it really does a fantastic job for movies. I need to get these sanded so I can get some frequency response charts to you guys. But my dad was here listening to them and he was amazed at the sound quality. Because it has that bottom end bass, but still the high-end clarity. This can often lack when people try to put too much bass in their system. I really think these will be very good theater speakers. The only problem is the impedance is going to be too low for some people to be able to run. More on that later.
*The impedance changed due to the crossover changing. I ended up changing this to a two way and ended with a nominal 8ohm load. That way they woudl be easy to push with any amplifier.
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I cant wait to see how these turn out. I am interested in building a set of towers to replace some aging Klipsch Ref IV RF82s. I would love to pick your brain on these once you have them completed.
Keep up the good work.
LionelC
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Definitely pick away. I am always in the mood to teach. Lol, well when I can. I’d be happy to help if I can.
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Any update on the surrounds?
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Not yet. I just finished my move to TN and made an offer on a house. I am hoping to finish the towers in the next week or two. I really wanted them done about a month ago, but my house ended up selling the first day it was on the market, so it through my world in a tailspin. But thankfully, things are starting to straighten themselves out again. I am thinking of even building a center speaker. However, I might just build a third tower for the center. I haven’t decided yet.
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Hope you decide on a center speaker.
If you did, I might be interested in buying the plans.
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Finally got to pick this back up. It took a while, but it’s worth it. I decided on a slot port and put some dampening material in as well.
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First tower ready for paint. I ended up porting it to 27hz. They go incredibly low without port noise. Ended up being a nominal 8ohm speaker. Currently I’m driving them with my Ice amplifier..
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The Uglies are being primed. I can’t wait to get paint on these. I did use new primer. It’s oil based so perfect for MDF. It also goes on thick and is sandable. So far, I’m loving it. We will have to see how it goes from here. But I’m thinking this might be my favorite primer for MDF.
EDIT: The primer took forever to dry. It might have been the weather, but the jury is still out on whether or not I really like it.
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Looking good!
