Solana build
Finally finished my Solana build. Big man tings shout out to John for the design and for providing the step files for the low tuned enclosure. Also shout out to @tliptak on this forum for hooking up the 3d printed wave guide. He did it in two parts which made assembly pretty easy.
On the waveguide I used bondo on the seam and build up automotive primer to fill the seams and smooth the surface to 800 grit. Then burple spray can automotive paint and then 2000 satin clear coat for the matte finish. Matte finish looks great and is more forgiving that gloss. It kinda looks like colored leather. I had a little trouble getting the threaded inserts for the drivers to adhere to the PETCF with super glue so I ended up using epoxy on some of them so they wouldn’t strip.
I modified John’s enclosure to accept the Hypex FA253 instead of the FA502. The two 250w channels bridged to one 500w channel at 8ohms, leaving the 100w channel for the CD at 16ohms. Since only 8ohm DH450 are available in the states I got the 16ohm from TLHP out of France. Highly recommend these guys they arrived to the states in like 3 days FedEx with minimal duties.
I had the CNC cut two sets of enclosures in case I wanted to make a second pair or I messed up assembly. Box assembly went mostly smooth but I over sanded a bit in some places. I finished with 3 coats of Osmo 3051 raw to keep them raw wood look.
I ended up buying a bambu P1S for $400 to print the low tune ports. I thought about modifying the step file for the low tuned port with screw tabs so I could swap the port from the inside for the mid tuned version. I might still do this if I don’t build the other set of enclosures. I think if you’re on the fence about 3D printing, it is pretty easy these days I recommend just grabbing a printer and having a go at it.
So far just sticking with the suggested EQ in the plans but will take measurements later. So far I’m incredibly happy with the form factor and the sound quality. I ran these really hard for six hours, touching the limiter a little bit. For house and techno they really sound punchy with great separation for mixing records. The low end is sufficient for a small place and party. But for hip-hop and other bass heavy types of music, you would definitely would benefit from a sub.
Currently wrapping up some Type O 2x12 to pair them with.