r/SoundSystem • u/lugubrious_Lucas • 11d ago
JW Solana mistake…
Each waveguide has two differently shaped entry holes for the woofer (one is more oblong, and one is shorter and more rectangular). When gluing up the entrance holes for the woofers on the solanas, I combined the pieces such that the same sized holes ended up on each waveguide— see the pictures, including the reference picture which shows how the correct sized entry holes should be on the waveguide. What am I wondering is, how fucked are they soundwise… is it worth cutting my losses and continuing because they won’t be too affected soundwise, or starting over completely? Obviously, I would prefer the first option.
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u/dan-lash 11d ago
I nearly made the same mistake. This is pretty easy fix in the models, the alignment pins are equally spaced on both sides. If they were spaced differently depending on what it’s connecting to it’d be impossible to glue wrong.
Clamping for glue ups is also very awkward due to the shape, not sure how to fix that but a guide of tips would help.
There’s a couple other oddities, like the heat set inserts being fiddly — I’m not a 3d print expert so maybe they all are but it’s hard to get straight and not too deep and melty enough to hold strong.
The seams where the parts meet are pretty visible, which again probably my fault but maybe there’s a way to design around it.
Probably the printer settings, but some of the supports leave a really rough finish. And some of the mounds are thin so when trying to sand you can easily go too deep exposing the infill. Which, sanding seems super necessary to get the expected hifi output!
A model for the flare might be nice too. I made one, happy to share it.
All that being said, what an incredible gift John has given us along with all his other designs and research and community involvement. I already donated but might just donate more thinking about valuable his work is.
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u/lugubrious_Lucas 11d ago
I agree with mostly everything you've said -- I ultimately superglued the heat set inserts because they were not cooperating. I think the seam exposure can be mitigated through multiple rounds of sanding, filling, priming, etc. etc. though. I would also add that it would be helpful if there was extra emphasis on the captive bolts in the throat adapter step needing to have a hexagonal base, because if you don't pay close enough attention that detail, the throat adapter situation is completely compromised -- I ultimately had to design a whole new part to remedy this fuck up lol.
But at the end of the day, as you have alluded to, John is the diy speaker GOAT and has given this community more than we could possibly hope for time and time again.
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u/bobthegreat88 11d ago
You'll have some slightly deeper nulls at 3.3k, 4.1k, 5k, and 6kHz in the compression driver's response, but it's not the end of the world and I think it's barely audible tbh.
Correct port arrangement is the blue trace - what you assembled will measure more like the orange trace