Hello Troels, I have my Illuminator 4's up and
running after 5 weeks in my workshop and a visit to an auto spray shop
for the painting. These are the 5th speakers I have built this last
year; the others were Wilmslow Audio (WA) Rondo (amazing sound from a
small cabinet, aided by the excellent Scanspeak 18W8531), IPL SM2 (very
underwhelming IMO), WA Eikona (full range aluminium drivers), WA Allegro
with upgraded caps (lovely detail but just a little light on the base).
The workshop experience acquired from the earlier builds made building
the Illuminators a pleasure rather than a chore, probably enhanced by my
anticipation regarding the sound I would ultimately hear from them. I
started building the simple version of the cabinets but once I had
finished them I didn't really like the appearance of the tweeter cab
sitting on top the mid cab so I added the 'surround'. I think the result
looks much better.
My initial impressions were that the bass tones were a bit muddy and the
high end was rather muted - all relative to what I was used to of
course. I started with the input resistor on the tweeter circuit on the
mid resistance but quickly switched to the lower value resistor to lift
the treble. Recognising the need to run in the drivers I have run them
all day, every day, for a week now and now there is a significant
difference to the sound. The bass has tightened up notably and the mid
tones seem a little more detailed. I should probably play with the
tweeter input resistor again and see what I think of the sound at
different values.
So how would I describe the sound? Difficult in words but here is my
take on what I hear:
They make me smile! I think everything I listened to so far has been
fantastic. The bass is tight but not boomy and the detail is wonderful,
not surprising to hear all sorts of things not heard before. I note
particularly that stringed instruments sound very real - Guiliani Guitar
Concerto No 1 by Pepe Romero and the Academy of St Martins in the Field
is fabulous. Piano trios are some of my favourite listens; Spacebound
Apes by Neil Cowley, and v2 by Gogo Penguin (if I could only have one
album this would be it) sound great with excellent piano notes. Another
of my all time favourites, Guitars by Philip Catherine, sounds lovely
though I think the recording isn't as good as some from the 70's (Steely
Dan being good examples). Of course, poor recordings are shown up for
what they are.......
Rather than attach a lot of images of the build to this mail I send you
this link to my Flickr account:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/74614447@N02/albums/72157661968508368
Thanks for doing the design of these speakers and making them available
to us DIYers, we get fantastic value for our hard earned cash by self
building and it is much appreciated.
Regards
Gordon
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