OK, I think the speakers are basically finished. I finished the stuffing today. There is a lot more stuffing now, which cured the internal ringing from mids down through bass. It is slightly stuffier, but the annoying ringing is gone, clarity and control is excellent top to bottom and the efficiency is still excellent.
I also discovered some loose screws between tweeter and waveguide which allowed them to clang together, which could be responsible for the edgy treble I heard before. It is gone now, but could have just needed break in. Overall, the speakers sound awesome, much, much more than I expected when I started. They play huge, with great mid tone, and tuneful, punchy bass all the way down. No reflex smear here.
They can play very loud for hard rock, organs and symphonies, and they still sound great at medium levels for compressed music. Bass is very physical. I would estimate it plays solid down to 35Hz, with lowest organ fundamentals easy to hear but not as strong as my old Legacy Focus 2020s. But they had a fun 6dB boost in low bass...
Whenever I put a loud, clear cone speaker in this room a midrange spike appears in the room acoustic. It is really singing now with no treatments on the walls. I am pretty sure it just the room though. It feels different in my head than the speaker sound does, must be the arrival time difference. Anyway, there is a lot of acoustic treatment up on deck next. I am looking forward to that because it is easy work. But I have 100 degree weather all week! The speakers put too much energy into the room without room damping. It's getting very damped in here! At least 160 sq feet, if not 250+ if I have the time. It has to look good so that goes a little slower.
Still remaining to do on these speakers is proper feet, which elevate the bottom of the speaker off the floor to allow the internal horn to exhaust past the edges. I have been using a loose stack of 3 square blocks at each corner. That has been inconvenient to say the least in the tuning where the speaker was laid over numerous times. I guess I should have done the feet first, but still not sure how I want them to look or function. Blocks will remain until I figure it out. I will need solid footing in place before the witch doctor Carlman can come over here and put his magic voodoo on the positioning.
Wood finishing is all that remains. I plan to do a nice rosewood oil stain and satin urethane from General Finishes. It has worked well for me before without spraying or a booth.
