The Elsinore Project

The Elsinore speaker project is a major accomplishment for designer Joe Rasmussen. Probably the best documented DIY offering on the internet, Joe has probably 100 pages of information on the project at his website, CustomAnalog.com. I was hired to build these wonderful speakers for a client in New Hampshire and as soon as I saw the plans I knew I wanted the job. These were just too well thought out to not sound incredible. Joe sent the kit to my shop and I got started on building the cabinets. The construction is very solid and required two thicknesses of MDF. I used a highly refined material for the best results.

Parts cut to size are ready to work.

The entire cabinet is made from 25mm material, with an overlaid 18mm panel building up the front baffle. Here the two rear braces are applied:

Next the front baffle is assembled.

My client and his wife had chosen a nice Walnut veneer from TheVeneerStore.com and I laid out the flitches to help visualize the seaming.

Here are the rough flitches at the start of the process, and a face applied to a panel.

I was able to get the four sides all book matched alike,

After a few days the boxes were completely veneered and ready to spray.

I sprayed these enclosures with a pre catalyzed lacquer made by ICS. Four coats left a substantial build and I was ready to start stuffing the boxes.

Joe sends a precut pack of stuffing which makes the job much easier. Everything fit with no issues.

After stuffing the boxes I loaded the drivers. This design uses four Peerless 830875 6.5" Nomex cone woofers and a Peerless 810921 HDS Tweeter. The two lower woofers are crossed over for the low end, leaving an MTM configuration sitting above. Joe included an assembled and tested crossover in the parts kit. I connected everything and discovered a blown tweeter element. The good folks at Madisound immediately put a new on into the mail for me and two days later all systems were go.

I didn't have time to take these speakers home and give them a thorough listening to but from what I heard at the shop through my old Dynaco 120A, I could tell they were a real winner. The low end was extremely smooth and after applying the felt surrounds that were in the parts kit the tweeters blended into the sound with ease. Nothing seemed out of place. I suppose coherence is the word I am looking for here. There seemed to be a oneness to the sound which I really appreciated. After some burn in I am confident these will be top notch speakers. The cabinets have just shipped so as soon as the clients report back to me, I will update the project page. Click the thumbnails below for larger pictures of the finished speakers.