Ekta Grande, built by Paul
Copyright 2018 © Troels Gravesen

2018:
Hello Troels,
Hope all is well with you and family.
I’m a very slow builder of your designs, as I recently finished Ekta Grande-4 years in the making because of move, house reno, etc, but finally finished. J
Very happy and impressed.
I will take some pictures and email you a better review in a few days, but now the issue on hand.
Thank you for your wonderful work and sharing your experiences with us.
Best Regards,
Paul

21-02-2021
Hello Troels,
Hope you and family are ok and safe in these crazy times.
Couple of years ago I finished Ekta Grande. I have emailed you, but did not include pictures from construction. So here they are.
For construction, cabinets are made of 24mm Baltic birch plywood layers with integral bracing.
Fronts are two layers of ¾” MDF with big chamfering for drivers breathing ☺
Internal walls are covered with bitumen pads and 8mm natural wool felt (except front panels).
Two layers of acoustilux behind each woofer and top of cabinet and 4 layer on the bottom.
 
A friend of mine measured them and he said he never seen speakers with such flat response!
I really enjoy them, especially vocals. They sound very smooth and easy to listen to.
 
Now to the bad part. I do not know what I have done, but they a bit bass shy. To the point of my Ellam XT, build a while back have a little less. Tried different preamp, sources and power amps (powerfull solid state), cables. Not sure if it is my room acoustics ? I usually have them about 1 meter from side and back walls. Even putting them close to corners made little difference. Is this possible that front ports have such effect? Internal volume is 65L less braces and mid enclosure. Is this possible that the way they are build (layered construction) dampen lower frequencies? Maybe my expectations are too high, so should start new build ;-)
Any advice/comment would be appreciated.
Best Regards and stay safe.