Ariel Speakers

I am a proud owner/builder of superb Ariel speakers designed by Lynn Olson. This is an updated copy of my submission to the Ariel Builders Club that Lynn has created. See the Ariel web page for more details. For a larger picture of the Ariels click here

Sound

These are great sounding speakers. I was somewhat worried about the limited bass output from such small woofers. To my surprise these speakers do not sound lean. And although the bass is not very deep the quality more than makes up for it. As for the the other aspects of the sound, great clarity and detail without at trace of harshness. Very natural sounding. Kudos to Lynn Olson for a great design.

The North Creek Kit

I purchased the Ariel kit from North Creek. The kit was more expensive than I had anticipated ($649) but the quality of their components was most impressive. The caps and inductors are all matched to 1% and they even hand match the 1% ohmite resistors. The crossover plans use some excellent techniques. I would suggest getting a copy their wiring guide ($5.00) even if you don't buy the kit.

The kit was complete with everything you need except for the wood (screws, stuffing, wire, etc.). The only thing other than wood that I had to buy was the hardware for attaching the base. I think that the kit is a good value and highly recommend it. The parts quality is top notch and it is a very convenient way to assemble all of the parts. If the cost is a problem, they will soon be providing a "budget" version of the kit with less exotic crossover parts.

Construction

These are difficult cabinets to build! Even with fairly good equipment I had trouble with inaccurate cuts and had to do a lot of re-work. I built the cabinets with walnut over MDF and used solid walnut on all corners. With a wood veneer everything is a lot less forgiving. A painted cabinet would probably be considerably less difficult to build

I figured out a way to make the large radii with a table saw. You make a series of cuts with the saw blade angled at 4 degree increments. Start with the blade set at 4 degrees, then 8, 12, 16 and so on. For each setting run the panel through and then rotate 90 degrees and run it through again. This results in a total of 41 angled cuts that with a little sanding makes a nice rounded corner.

The secret to this method is being able to make very accurate settings for the fence. As you can imagine each of these cuts removes only a small amount of material and very small errors will be a problem. To get sufficiently accurate adjustments with my table saw fence I made a jig that clamps to the table surface and has a set-screw against the fence. This made it easy to make very small and accurate adjustments. To make the adjustments you will need to find objects that are 1-1/2 and 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Just place the correct diameter object against the fence and adjust the fence so that the blade just touches the object. It took me about 2 hours to put the radiuses on my cabinets.

Grill covers have always been a bit of a compromise so with the Ariels I decided to just dispense with them. Fortunately the Ariel drivers are fairly attractive and don't look bad without grill covers. Even my wife likes the way they look with out covers. However, without grill covers the circular recesses for the drivers need to fit exactly. I made a circle cutter base for my router to make the recesses. A circle cutter is fairly simple to make. It's just a piece of 1/4 inch plywood with a slot and an adjustable pin (bolt). Take a look at the pictures of the top and bottom of the circle cutter to get the idea.

Tweaks

I also constructed the Ariels with the top section and a small portion of the front baffle filled with sand. I was able to listen to the speakers before and after this tweak. Contrary to my expectations the improvement was quite small. Subtle enough that I am not sure it really helped. Since this is a simple tweak it is probably worth the effort anyway.

Amplification

For some time I used a 6B4G single ended amp with zero feedback to drive the Ariels. I was surprised at how well only 3 1/2 watts works with these speakers. With only 3 1/2 watts dynamics were compressed but the sound level was adequate. It seems that 8 to 10 watts would be sufficient unless you like to listen at painful sound levels. I am now using a single ended 845 amp of my own design with the Ariels. With 20+ watts the dynamics are strong and the bass has a lot more punch.