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Faital-3WC-15, built by Michael, Ireland
Copyright 2024 © Troels Gravesen

Hi Troels,
Hope the weekend was good. I wont bore you with oodles of pictures of the building of the 3WC 15 and just send these of the finished product. It’s only my 2nd woodworking project and lesson learned- orbital sanders burn through the edge stain/varnish far too easy as is evident in some of the shots. The cabs are stained with Minwax “Espresso” if any other builders are interested.
I won’t go into sound – yet, other than it is VERY big in comparison to many sets of commercial and self-built speakers. 80-85dB would have been my previous listening limit whereas its only possible to listen to these above ~75dB for very short periods. I’ll report back again around Christmas when everything has settled and I can give a better overview of the sound. I have at least 100 position, tilt and toe in positions to go before I find “my” perfect and I am sure I will. At present, the tilt is around 4 degrees which has livened up the tweeter and sound stage. Inc feet & tilt, the front baffle is now 111cm high to suit my ear height.
You make it ludicrously easy for anyone considering a self-build. I was going to task an electronically minded pal with the cross over build, then managed it myself- its easier than building Lego sets for my 8 year old!
A massive thank you again for sharing your work and creating amazing loudspeakers and also for being super responsive to my panicked queries.
Warm regards,
Michael.

PS:
Quick update- I found the height Nirvana and WHOOAH! PLEASE tell all other builders to tinker with the height. I’ve seen lots of pics of the speakers with no feet and no incline- they simply couldn’t be getting the best from them.
Warm regards,
Michael.

 

22-12-2024:

Hi Troels,
Hope this finds you very well and ensconced in the festive spirit. As promised, I wanted to drop you a note once the 3WC15's had a few hundred hours on them. 

My wife hopes these will be my last build and, given their sonic abilities, I think they might just be the last. The speakers deliver detail, pace and punch like nothing I have ever heard and taught me a few things about sound along the way. I was surprised by how punchy the bass is given the size of the driver and, despite size, size can't manufacture low bass if it simply isn't in the recording. On the other hand, if it's there, the bass induces bowel movements.
Size also taught me that the perceived harshness of other speakers is actually distortion caused by the cone moving a lot. These speakers don't get "loud" they just get more powerful as you crank up the volume.
The cherry on top was adding Isacoustic feet to iron out some room acoustics that added a pinch of glare on some recordings.
I suspect the speakers have a few more hundred hours left to really open up fully but I couldn't be happier.
Best wishes from Ireland.