Michi Path MK1 — part 2: 181 pages and an order with a cabinetmaker

Part 2 of my story about building the Michi Path MK1: the planning has become a 181-page handbook. This instalment is about the documentation, the cabinets being made at the workshop, and why I am putting myself through all this.

Read part 1: from an inspiration to a speaker of my own →

It has now reached 181 pages

Perhaps the most extraordinary part of the whole story is the documentation.

Originally, I only wanted to jot down a few technical details and dimensions.

It has now become a handbook of 181 pages .

It is not just about which components I am using. Above all, I wanted to understand and record why they are being used and what effect different decisions might have.

There are chapters on cabinet volume, baffle geometry, resonances, damping materials, crossovers, wiring, positioning and much more.

Then there are drawings, parts lists, cost summaries and specific building instructions.

By now, the whole thing is almost an introduction to how a loudspeaker actually works.

Although, while working on it, the main thing I have learned is this: the more you understand, the clearer it becomes how much you still do not know.

So the handbook is a record of my own learning process, rather than a collection of immutable truths.

And it would probably have been easier simply to buy finished speakers.

But then I would have learned much less.

Is any of this still normal?

That probably depends on whom I ask.

Fortunately, I know a few people who share my enthusiasm, support projects like these and enjoy thinking through questions with me. They even understand why someone might spend days considering a tweeter’s position or the length of a bass-reflex port.

The rest probably just shake their heads.

And I have to admit: when I look at the 181 pages of my handbook now, I can see where both sides are coming from.

The cabinetmaker builds — and gradually becomes a therapist

The cabinets are currently being made by Mr Tschaar, whose website, www.tschaar.de I discovered during my original research into DeVore-inspired DIY speakers.

He has plenty of experience with speaker projects like these. And probably with people like me, too: people who start with an apparently simple idea and eventually turn up with ever more questions, special requests and technical considerations.

These days, I sometimes feel that Mr Tschaar performs a kind of therapeutic role alongside his work as a craftsman.

Because I really can ask him anything. Even things that, with someone else, would first make me wonder whether I was making a complete fool of myself.

What I appreciate is that he understands my questions, responds patiently and has the experience to look at my ideas from a practical perspective too.

I suspect that anyone who regularly makes speakers for enthusiastic DIY builders develops a feel not only for wood and acoustics, but also for the peculiarities of their customers.

And, by now, I probably have a few of those to offer.

In any case, my speakers differ from the usual DeVore-inspired recreations in numerous respects. That does not necessarily make things easier — for either him or me.

While the cabinets are being built, many of the components needed later are already waiting at my home. Some have actually been there for at least a year.

You could therefore say that parts of these speakers are already quite old before they have played their first note.

Once the cabinets are finished, the remaining assembly, damping, driver installation and, finally, crossover tuning will follow.

Only then will I discover whether my ideas really produce the sound I have in mind.

And, of course, I may have to revisit some details.

After 181 pages of theory, it would be rather presumptuous to claim that everything will work perfectly at the first attempt.

It is good to know that I will have someone to ask.

Although we have not yet established whether Mr Tschaar is also responsible for psychological support after the first listening test.

Why I am documenting all this

Apart from the pleasure of working on my own project, there is another reason for the substantial handbook.

If the finished speakers sound the way I hope they will, I would like to make the complete documentation available to others who are interested.

With the components I used, the dimensions, technical drawings and lessons from the actual tuning process.

Perhaps someone will want to build this speaker too. Perhaps someone will take just a few ideas from it, or develop them into a completely different concept.

That is precisely what I find so exciting about DIY: you do not have to stop at what other people have already done.

Of course, I first want to find out for myself whether all these ideas work. After all, a speaker that has not yet been built is, above all, a promise.

But if this project works, I do not want the knowledge behind it to disappear into some folder on my hard drive.

And why do something like this at all?

It is a fair question.

I already have very good speakers. My Klipsch Cornwall, for example, have given me great pleasure for years. There is no real need to replace them with something new.

And if you think DIY is primarily an inexpensive alternative to the costly DeVore speakers, I am afraid I have to disappoint you.

Although I expect my project to come in at roughly a third of the cost of the originals, that still does not make it a bargain.

Once I add up all the components, the elaborate cabinet work, veneer, crossovers and many small items, the total is substantial.

For that money, I could have bought some very interesting used high-end speakers.

And that does not even include my own working time. If I counted that too, the project would probably become impossible to justify financially.

But, at some point, that was no longer what it was about for me.

I did not simply want to own a special speaker. I wanted to understand how it comes into being, why it is designed that way, and how the many small decisions affect the sound it will eventually produce.

To experience an initial idea gradually becoming a concept of my own. To explore things I had barely known anything about before. To watch questions lead to further questions, until I suddenly found myself considering the position of a tweeter, the geometry of a bass-reflex opening or the right damping for a cabinet.

And repeatedly discover that things are more complicated than I originally assumed.

For me, that is an essential part of the hobby.

In the high-end world, it seems you never quite reach your destination anyway. There is always something else you could try, change or supposedly improve.

Sometimes those are understandable technical differences. At other times, you find yourself in areas where science quickly turns into a matter of belief.

Some discussions about cables, plugs and other miraculous improvements to sound make you wonder whether the subject is still electrical engineering or already a particular form of mysticism.

I am probably not entirely immune to those temptations myself.

But that is exactly why I want to understand as much as possible in this project, follow the reasoning and eventually check it for myself.

I do not yet know whether the Michi Path MK1 will sound better than my existing speakers.

Perhaps it will simply sound different. Perhaps it will come particularly close to my personal ideal. Perhaps I will also discover that some of my ideas do not have the effect I hoped for in practice.

That is part of it.

What remains with me

More than a handbook

What I already know is this: I could have spent the money on finished speakers. But they would not have given me these experiences, this knowledge and the pleasure of developing something myself.

For that reason alone, this rather out-of-control attempt at a recreation has already been worthwhile.

Now I can only hope that 181 pages of planning result not just in an impressive handbook, but also in a speaker that sounds impressive.

Otherwise, I will at least have completed one of the most elaborate projects of my life in order to discover why my old Klipsch Cornwall were already rather good.

The story continues. Once the cabinets are finished, part 3 will cover the remaining assembly. After that come the crossovers, tuning and first listening tests.