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"HE Crate" The Adire HE10.1 In A Crate Type Enclosure

The Adire HE10.1 in a crate type enclosure.

The Crossover

Figure 12. One of the crossovers assembled on a 6" x 9" piece of pegboard. If I was to do this again, I would make the crossover boards 10" wide.
I used hot melt glue to fix each part to the board, and then followed up with wire ties (which also came in the kit). I pretty much followed the Adire layout example, but changed the impedance corrector component locations a bit. The spade lugs included in the kit fit the tweeter, but have to be crimped a bit to stay on the woofer terminals. I later cut them off and just soldered the wires to the drivers. The speaker wire is cut in half (one piece for each speaker) then a 15" length is cut from one of these halves for the connection between the crossover and the terminal cup. The remainder is then cut in half for the woofer and tweeter connection to the crossover (approx. 22" each). Don't forget that the tweeter polarity is inverted!

Figure 13. Crossovers mounted in the cabinets.

Figure 14. A close-up of the tweeter threaded into the back of the woofer magnet assembly.
I used some quilt batting as a dampener underneath them, but carpet padding works just as well. Cut away where the screws are going though, otherwise it will wind around the screw and give you grief. Three 1" drywall screws are used here, one at the top and two at the lower edges. Make sure that they don't pop through the other side!

Line the interior walls with polyester material type carpet padding, use a couple of staples around the driver to keep it restrained, then install the poly fluff that comes in the kit. I tore the poly fluff in half to make the installation in two steps easier.

After that, the ports can be installed. I removed the sharp corners off the ports with sand paper, then covered the internal end with a piece of the panty section of a pair of dark panty hose so that the contrasting white poly fluff isn't so obvious. This was temporarily affixed with a rubber band, and then a couple of wire ties were installed over this to make it more permanent (rubber bands rot after a year or so).

Figure 15. Port (with panty hose) and grille installed.
Finally, the grilles are installed. The grilles I used were from Radio Shack, part number 40-1357. As you can see from the measurement, they don't seem to degrade the sound measureably. I tried playing interstation FM hiss through the speakers and listened while placing the grille between the speaker and then removing it. There was a noticable difference with the Peavey "waffle" type grilles that I was going to use - I thought I could hear coloration and reflection when the grille was installed - but I didn't do any actual measurements with them. The RS grilles aren't quite as heavy-duty as the Peavey grilles, but they don't seem to color the sound, and they should protect the speakers OK.

If you decide to use these grilles as well, use four of the hex head bolts evenly spaced to affix the woofers, then use the remaining four bolts to affix the grille. Thee bolts that affix the grille shouldn't be too tight. The grille itself isn't deep enough to hit the baffle, but is spaced slightly away from it, which is nice. This keeps it from deforming when the bolts are tightened, and also keeps it from digging into the baffle when tight. I used a bit of moretite in between the grilles and the speakers to keep the grilles from rattling around too much.

If I had known beforehand that I would end up using the RS grilles, I would have drilled the speaker T-nut mounting holes in order to locate them at 12:00, 1:30, 3:00, etc. This would have made the hex head bolts line up symmetrically. I think you can see what I mean here in the above figure.

Measurements

Some of the tests performed on the finished speaker are shown below. The data was obtained using Speaker Workshop v1.0 with a microphone, preamp, and testing jig of my own design. The frequency response tests were done both with the grille installed and with it removed.

Measurement 1. Impedance plot, 1/3 octave smoothed data.

Measurement 2. Impulse response with time gates, no grille.

Measurement 3. Gated frequency response, microphone at 1/2 meter on axis, unsmoothed data, no grille.

Measurement 4. Gated frequency response, microphone at 1/2 meter on axis, unsmoothed data, grille installed.

Measurement 5. Gated frequency response, microphone at 1/2 meter on axis, 1/3 octave smoothed data, no grille.

Measurement 6. Gated frequency response, microphone at 1/2 meter on axis, 1/3 octave smoothed data, grille installed.

Measurement 7. Nearfield frequency response, microphone located between center of woofer and port, approximately 8" from the baffle, 1/3 octave smoothed data, grille installed. Roll-off slope between 45 Hz and 60 Hz appears to be around 18 dB per octave.

How do they sound?

They sound great! And for stereo speakers they play quite loudly witout obviously straining. Clear CDs play very clearly through them.

The in-room bass is really nice, not boomy or flabby, and for many critical listeners a sub would not be necessary.

The speakers benefit from some speaker stands so as to get the tweeters up to ear level and the woofer off the floor. I bought a pair of QUIK-LOK S6BK black anodized aluminum stands for them along with QUIK-LOK SC-208 1 1/2" mounting hardware.

Figure 16. SC-208 mounted on the bottom.

I drilled a 2" hole in the bottom of each cabinet with a circle hole cutter mounted in a hand drill. The location of the hole was smack dab in the center of the outer (crating) dimensions, which turned out to be the balance point. The SC-208 mounts were then installed via the T-nuts that came with them, and a roll of Mortite at the corner of the weld (between the plate and the tube) sealed things off. Note the orientation of the mounting holes here. The SC-208 comes close to the back of the port, but not too close for comfort.

Figure 17. The speakers in situ.

These QUIK-LOC stands are a bit pricey at $100 a pop, but there isn't a bit of plastic on them at the joints, which is what you will find on cheaper stands. Nothing but aluminum as far as the eye can see.

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