Dayton knock down speaker cabinets

[Barnaby1]

Just checked on the .56 cabinet and was repromised another month out. So now is late May.

Would be pleased to give Erich some business but he needs to show he can be relied upon to deliver as well. @carbidetooth and others are great for single units but also is an understandably more expensive approach.

That's really frustrating. As a temporary solution could you use the larger 1.16ft3 tower and make two bookshelves? Obviously not ideal, but a relatively simple cut in the middle, and now the only thing you're missing is the bottom of the speaker? Cut in two, the price seems in line with what the .56 cabinets were...I think.

NEW Knock-Down MDF 1.16 ft³ Tower Cabinet

Knock-Down MDF 1.16 ft³ Tower CabinetCNC knock-down cabinets make it easy for the beginner to end up with amazing finished results without all of the time and effort necessary to perfect your woodworking skills, perfect for DIYers without expensive tools or access to a woodshop.During the CNC...

www.parts-express.com

 

[Wolf]

Yeah, that could work.

 

[RickS]

I’ve considered splitting the minitower but and pretty sure the bracing is not the same, but perhaps something may be better than nothing.

 

[RickS]

Now June 1 and still no new cabinets.

Nothing on Denovo sites to indicate he might start to offer either.

 

[RickS]

Called PE again to check on the .56 ft3 cabinet and has now been pushed out to early October.

Am down to 1 and could use a couple more.

 

[carbidetooth]

Called PE again to check on the .56 ft3 cabinet and has now been pushed out to early October.

Am down to 1 and could use a couple more.

Rick, I have a pair of these used when we were messing around with Direcitva R1, I think. I really have no use for them. Would those be helpful?

 

[RickS]

Rick, I have a pair of these used when we were messing around with Direcitva R1, I think. I really have no use for them. Would those be helpful?

Yes, thanks!

 

[a4eaudio]

@Rick Sykora and others,

I have never bought knock-down cabinets because I just make my own. One thing I've always wondered is...if you can make your own flush mounted driver rebates, this implies you have a router and can do woodworking; so, are you looking for knock-down cabinets simply because you don't have a table saw?

Broader questions:

• If there were more options out there for knock-down cabinets, what would would make a difference to you? This is JUST inexpensive MDF, so just price?
• Would more cabinet sizes be appealing, or pretty much matching the size of PE so that others have the easy access to PE's cabinets? (e.g., 0.18cf, 0.36cf, 0.54cf, 0.72cf)
• Would it be appealing to be able to select a baffle treatment...e.g., no roundovers, 3/4-roundover, 45-degree chamfer and choose whether just the sides or all four edges of the baffle are treated?

 

[RickS]

@Rick Sykora and others,

I have never bought knock-down cabinets because I just make my own. One thing I've always wondered is...if you can make your own flush mounted driver rebates, this implies you have a router and can do woodworking; so, are you looking for knock-down cabinets simply because you don't have a table saw?

Broader questions:

• If there were more options out there for knock-down cabinets, what would would make a difference to you? This is JUST inexpensive MDF, so just price?
• Would more cabinet sizes be appealing, or pretty much matching the size of PE so that others have the easy access to PE's cabinets? (e.g., 0.18cf, 0.36cf, 0.54cf, 0.72cf)
• Would it be appealing to be able to select a baffle treatment...e.g., no roundovers, 3/4-roundover, 45-degree chamfer and choose whether just the sides or all four edges of the baffle are treated?

Have a decent table saw but rather avoid the MDF dust if I can. Routing driver cutouts is more tedious and more dust, but is part of custom designs so is my priority when it comes to prototyping speakers.

 

[Ktacos]

The last speakers I made are my last MDF cabinets, the dust is really just that bad even with good collection. The cabs make for much less labor and dust.

At this point I'm considering selling my tools because there are so many CNC places that will cut what I want for cheap, or free. My local library even has one you can book.

 

[a4eaudio]

The last speakers I made are my last MDF cabinets, the dust is really just that bad even with good collection. The cabs make for much less labor and dust.

It depends on your interpretation of good dust collection.
But good dust collection is pretty costly.

 

[RickS]

While have to wonder about PE promise dates, the good news is the .56 cabinet is back in stock.

NEW Knock-Down MDF 0.56 ft³ Bookshelf Cabinet

Knock-Down MDF 0.56 ft³ Bookshelf CabinetCNC knock-down cabinets make it easy for the beginner to end up with amazing finished results without all of the time and effort necessary to perfect your woodworking skills, perfect for speaker builders who don't have expensive tools or access to a...

www.parts-express.com

Note the new catalog number and the price is quite reasonable! It does look as though they changed the joints slightly but the baffle still attaches the same way. Going to order a couple and will post another update.

 

[Ktacos]

I broke down and ordered one of the towers, just going to cut it in half. Been disappointed with the accuracy my tools and it was on sale. $70 for the material and assurance it's all machined straight seems cheap to me.

 

[RickS]

I broke down and ordered one of the towers, just going to cut it in half. Been disappointed with the accuracy my tools and it was on sale. $70 for the material and assurance it's all machined straight seems cheap to me.

As long as you are not looking to get 2 symmetrical cabinets from it, this is fine. As I noted earlier, the braces are spaced differently on the top section versus the lower one. For the minimal price difference, two .56 ft3 cabs is worth it imo. I would rather spend my time on the front baffle.

 

[Ktacos]

Shouldn't be a problem. The tower gets me just under an inch more height on the cabinet which looking at sketchup is a pretty big amount of additional space to place things for my planned speaker.

Who remembers the amazing pre finished cabs from PE? They were super cheap for what you got, though the pre painted baffles didn't make sense and were hard to machine and not chip the paint.

 

[RickS]

Shouldn't be a problem. The tower gets me just under an inch more height on the cabinet which looking at sketchup is a pretty big amount of additional space to place things for my planned speaker.

Who remembers the amazing pre finished cabs from PE? They were super cheap for what you got, though the pre painted baffles didn't make sense and were hard to machine and not chip the paint.

Have 3 pair of the cherry veneer cabinets. Unfortunately, they are smaller ones and one pair still has the Dayton drivers mounted from an older kit. One pair had Zaph ZA5s and so am creating blank baffles out of MDF stair treads to repurpose them.

 

[RickS]

New .56 ft3 cabinets arrived. While they survived, was worried as the box’s condition clearly indicated they were too loosely packed. When I opened, rather than packing material surrounding the flat packs to protect them, it was just used to fill space. One of two flat packs had loose strapping and so the panels were free to flail around during shipment. Fortunately, did not have to travel far so got lucky.

Once out of the box was clear the new panels were not as cleanly milled and used a darker shade of MDF. This reminded me of the C-Note kit panels so seems likely PE went with the same supplier. Need to get some dinner, but will post pics and more details a bit later tonight.

 

[RickS]

Ok, let’s dive deeper. While shadows made this front baffle pic appear a bit different than reality, please see all the pics for a more comprehensive view…

Here is a look at the at the top view of these baffle. Note the lesser roundover for the new cabinet…

Finally, here is a comparison of the cabinets without the baffle attached. Here some more significant differences surface…

As posted earlier, the most obvious change is more complex rabbet joints. One other way the design was changed makes the top and bottom identical. Would consider this an improvement as it is simpler and eliminates a seam. The final change is the brace location. The original cabinet centers the brace vertically and the new offsets it slightly. Perhaps the brace asymmetry may reduce the longer panel modes, but does make it more difficult to locate the brace once the baffle is attached. Have to wonder whether this change was intentional or not.

Overall, despite the darker color, the MDF quality seems comparable and the price is friendly to the hobbyist’s wallet, so will continue to use for now. The relocated brace may force builds using the previous cabinet to update plans. For Directiva r1, I used the brace to more securely attach the woofer to the cabinet. If am to continue to leverage the brace will likely need to reevaluate the r1 driver locations.

 

[Ktacos]

Thanks for the cab review. I'd almost prefer no round over so one can decide what they need. I ended up not picking up my cabinet order as I thought about it a bit and wanted to do a cabinet with really big round overs. Best I heard were some c notes with 4" inch pvc cut in half placed on the sides, did my own new filters. I've considered one big piece with kerf cuts.

Of course then I hooked up a spare pair of kali lp6 and all desire to cut wood just dies lol. How do they make stuff that sounds this good for so cheap.

 

[a4eaudio]

Overall, despite the darker color, the MDF quality seems comparable

Yeah, I think MDF quality is all over the place and not sure it's correlated with color.

I just cut something with some very light colored MDF and it was so much lighter (weight) than some other darker MDF that I threw the light-weight piece away.

I think the light colored (and light weight) MDF, in my case, was from the COVID era when building supplies were in pretty short supply.