Xpress Speaker DIY

X-onken Xpress - 8 How far back was it that we embarked on this hands-on DIY exercise? Hmmm... how time flies, but aren't we glad we have come to the audition stage! In this concluding part my intention is to share the experiences of some of the early builders and experimenters and also give out some tips for those who are still on the DIY road. I am sure many have "tasted the pudding" and found it to their liking. But then who doesn't want to throw in some of his own garnishes?! That surely is what makes a good dish great! To Supra Baffle, or Not Many builders have tried out a variety of drivers, some of them being small 3.5 inch full range units (much coveted as mid drivers in rather expensive three-way speakers). One or two have gone in the other direction, squeezing in 5 inch FR drivers onto the miniscule baffle. All had reported that with the X-onken enclosure it was easy to spot the good and not-so-good characteristics of the drivers, while at the same time gett...

X-onken Xpress - 7 Ummm.. it sure looks yummy, and certainly smells good. But don't we all know that the proof of any pudding is in the eating! Unless, of course, you take the chef's culinary magic for granted. I urge all my DIY friends to take a good helping of the pudding and taste it ... oops! test it, in detail with their own discerning palates. Tasting ... Testing ... Testing I have a feeling that the test audition has left a delectable taste in your mouths, and you have some amount of trust in the chef and what he has cooked up for you. Let me go back a bit in time and recall our own "full-scale testing" here some time back. The little X-onken was placed on top of my medium-sized Wharfedale towers, the sound of which in my home setting was quite familiar to most in my personal group. Amplification was Death of Zen class-A, and a recent build of the Trans-Nova class-A monoblocks, with twin floating power supplies and floating speaker. (Later JLH class-A was also ...

X-onken Xpress - 6 Haven't we reached the half-way point? Surely calls for a mini-celebration. No need to break out that bottle of Champagne yet, just a couple of glasses of fruit juice is more than enough to energize you, if you ask me! Be proud of the way the cabinet looks -- as if crafted by a seasoned carpenter, no less! A coat of spray paint and nobody will be able to tell it apart from the real McCoy! This, in fact, is the charm of DIY. Many experienced builders with power tools had no difficulty finishing builds using MDF. Some others used plywood and finished with vinyl wall paper. A few others got the panels ready cut by CNC shops -- this ensured precise cuts with right-angled edges, and made for easy and Xpress assembly. But I'm happy that many followed the multi-wood example. Most of them told me that they never felt they should build another box from wood or MDF or plywood, as the multi-wood prototype served the purpose well. This was my experience too, and I would ...

X-onken Xpress - 5 You're gumptious DIYers! Ah, everything is ready, the panels are cut and corrected and you are rarin' to go! Great! Now the assembly of the cabinet begins. Hands on ... The first step is the preparation of the Onken side panels. This has two stages (refer to the drawings and the build photos -- these are photos of a later MDF build ). Take the Onk-out panel, mark 2.5 inches from the back and draw a line. Also, put the top and bottom battens on the panel and draw lines. Then divide equally into thirds with the other two battens and draw lines on both sides of the battens to mark their positions. Now fix each batten with its rear end touching the (2.5 inch) line, and use panel pins to fix them in position. Separate the battens slowly, spread glue on both the batten and the Onk-out panel, fix the batten back, aligning the pins, press and hold for about ten seconds. Move to the next batten. In a short time all the four battens will be affixed to the Onk-out panel...

X-onken Xpress - 4 "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. " -- Michelangelo Carving something with your own hands is easy -- once you have a clear picture of it in your mind. I am reminded of Sakuma San meditating for days in his cafe, until the circuit concept of his amplifier gets etched clearly in his mind. The rest is merely giving shape to what you saw in your mind. So the first step before embarking on the X-onken build is to get the concept clearly etched in your mind. Ready? Put on the imagination cap. Onken - Top View We need to get a 'picture' of our micro-Onken build. Study the various Onken photographs and the excellent sketches of Hiraga from L'Audiophile that introduced the Onkens to the western world. Be warned though -- no need to be scared by the measurements! They are substantial, as they are of the giant "Sumo" Onken, not our little 'baby' X-onken. First, check out the view from the top. On both sides w...

X-onken Xpress - 3 "It is better to travel hopefully, than to arrive", so goes the wise old adage. Google will tell you that the phrase is attributed to the Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson, and the idea is that your focus should not just be your end point, but you should also enjoy the way you get there. Ah, there lies the point! And Google Maps has finally agreed with that timeless wisdom, and come up with 'scenic routes' in its algorithm. If you are in no particular hurry, choose not the fastest route, but the scenic one, enjoy lots of eye-candy and the pleasures of a slow drive. The Long Slow Road to Fidelity A DIYer is in no particular hurry -- as far as I know. They take their own sweet time getting where they initially set out to go. Building speakers too should be suffused with the art and lore of the bygone era. Today when you attempt to re-do the Onken, it should more be as a tribute to the Old Master than anything else. Money could buy many things....

X-onken Xpress - 2 First Celestion Speaker - c.1925 Hello there! Been gallivanting west for the gritty, and east for the nitty, and chasing after pixie dust left and right ("All you need is faith, trust, and pixie dust." - Peter Pan) took me to strange climes and faraway shores. Rather than bore you with a blow-by-blow commentary, let me distill things to the essential minimum. Back to the Past Any thoughts on modern hi-fi audio are likely to lead back to that legendary name -- Jean Hiraga (1943 - ) Born to a French mother and a Japanese father, his life took a really enviable path. It was after completing his education that young Jean decided to move to Japan to join his father. It was that journey which transformed young Jean into the Godfather of modern hi-fi and the torch bearer of audio DIY. Jean Hiraga (pic courtesy - 6 Moons) Post-war Japan in those days was in extreme flux in every field of human activity and endeavour. We know how one-man start-ups like Yamaha, Sony ...