ANK Audiokits Have Arrived! Follow the Build Here

That's correct, I always try to differentiate between the ANK kit products and Audio Note UK. The kits are good for what they are, and for the price, but they are not Audio Note UK. It seems with each new offering Brian strays further from AN UK in parts and design.

 

Sorry Dave - I meant assembled by AN Kits (they assemble them as an option but factory built was on my mind) - but this site doesn't let me edit for mistakes after an hour or something.

Anyway - nice write-up you and Andre Belanger got from Stereophile - Herb gave you guys best Audio Demonstration at the show with your new AZ Two D speakers - what does the D stand for (deluxe?) and what is the new tweeter (the picture makes it look like a metal tweeter!! I heard the old ones not long ago in Hong Kong and was thinking about buying them for my bedroom but I made the mistake of waiting till next week and they were sold. Is there an AZ Three D as well? This seems like a price and sensitivity where the are no a whole lot of options so I hope they do well.

http://www.stereophile.com/content/herb-gets-his-stride-rmaf#PoLZHWhw0yI1iFC0.97

 

Vincent Bélanger --- grrrrr - please let me edit my mistakes!!!

 

Thanks, Richard.

The D is a designation used in a least expensive version of the E and J speakers where, rather than all 'round Russian birch ply, the cabinet is a less expensive version comprised of MDF front and back panels and a chipboard wrap for top, bottom and sides. For some time this also meant a vinyl clad cabinet, but for the last year or so it has been upgraded to black ash veneer. The 'D' version also uses the least expensive AN speaker cable - AN/D.

The AZ Two D uses this cabinet make-up, (which, for the AX Two is a step up from all 'round chipboard), and speaker cable and adds two additional improvements. The crossover has been tweaked a bit and, as you observed, a new Audio Note tweeter is being used here for the first time. It's a ¾" soft dome of AN's own design which won't be available anywhere else. All D version speakers come in Black Ash only to keep the price down. (Henry Ford Model T color palette. ;-)

While an AZ Three D could be done and was considered at the outset, I thought the substantial increase in weight due to the MDF would wreak havoc on shipping costs and we chose to start with the Two.

Vincent Belanger and I have been working together for 2 years now, at first casually with Audio Note being one of many exhibit rooms Vincent would play in, but since this past March, when we discussed his wanting to do a solo cello album, it has become increasingly intense and rewarding, at least for me, but I think for Vincent as well. (I was going to continue here, but it's very OT, so I think I will start a new thread in music about the making of this album.)

 

Finally, I have a tracking number for the speaker kits! Will not be long now.

As I am waiting, I am trying to identify any possible pitfalls in assembling the speakers. Do you, Ray, or anyone else who has built them, have any words of advice, warnings etc? Is there anything you would do differently the second time around?

So far I have identified two critical areas:

1. Screwing the crossover board to the cabinet. The attachment needs to be strong enough to withstand forces associated with connecting the cables, but care needs to be taken not to drill through or crack the plywood when screwing it in. I read someone used longer screws then the ones provided. There is not much plywood thickness to work with there. What screws did you use?

2. Sealing the drivers, especially the tweeter. There is precious little room around the tweeter hole, especially around the bottom notch, to fit a strip of blu tac wide enough to be air tight but narrow enough to not ooze out around the driver.

Anything else is likely to bite me on the ass?

 

The speaker kit has arrived! It ended up being the copper coil 02 kit. It looks great except it seems to me the woofers are not hemp as specified on the ANK site, but the older paper style. I thought the hemp ones have bluish tint. I have fired off an email to ANK, but as they are closed for the weekend, I figured I ask here if anyone can identify the woofers as being paper or hemp?

Thanks

EDIT: When looking at the cones with a magnifier, I can see little silver threads in the cones - so they could be hemp, right? The material does look slightly different than other paper cones I have seen, but I cannot tell if it is just fancy schmancy Seas paper or hemp.

 

The ANK site has a picture of the 02 kit with grey/black hemp drivers like the ones you got.

 

Yes, there is a picture of the 02 kit with grey/black drivers, but could it just be an old stock photo?
There are numerous mentions on the web of the AN hemp cones being blue. It seems strange that the hemp cones on the copper coil woofers would be different color than on the silver. Here is the 03 kit version someone sold recently:
http://www.usaudiomart.com/details/...emp_woofers_silver_voice_coils/images/673606/
and they are blue.

Here is the identification I see on my woofer:

A22FE
H1449-04ohm

 

I am pretty sure I got the paper cones.

Here is a quote from the Deco Audio (UK AN dealer) site: "The speakers are now also available with blue coloured Hemp cones as well as the grey Paper bass/mid cones for an extra cost. The Hemp has an effortless sound, with lower colouration and greater midband resolution. Please see the section on the AN-E HE model elsewhere for a description of what I feel is special about this driver."

The ANK site clearly states the 02 kit comes with hemp cones. That's why I ordered it, otherwise I'd have gotten the o3 kit. This does not look good... I'll have to wait what ANK says next week. I was so looking forward to building them this weekend. Bummer.

 

They are the paper drivers. The latest hemp drivers are a darker blue than the earlier hemp driver cones but still definitely blue. Must have been a mixup somewhere.

 

I'm sure you are correct, unfortunately .

 

The ones you have clearly look like the ones on the site for the 02 version (black/copper) The more expensive silver version are the blue colored. Probably time to decide if you want to spend more and wait for the blue ones.

 

The pictures are out of date. BOTH the 02 kit AND the more expensive 03 HE silver kit are pictured with black cones. But BOTH also state the cones are hemp:

The o2 kit:
http://www.ankaudiokits.com/e-shop/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=278
"Built, tested and calibrated crossover with matched copper voice coil tweeter and 98dB efficient hemp cone woofer* with copper voice coil."

The 03 kit:
http://www.ankaudiokits.com/e-shop/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=285
"Built, tested and calibrated crossover with matched silver voice coil tweeter and new 98dB efficient hemp cone woofer* also with silver voice coil."

(*Emphasis mine)

I don't care what color they are as long as they are hemp.

 

I know it's easy for me to say, but I would wait for the model that you really want. That way you don't have any regrets later.

I'm sure that ANK will correct the situation as quickly as they can.

 

I certainly will do all I can to get the hemp cones (unless AN changed the color of their cones recently and these already are hemp). It is too much investment in money and effort to do anything else. The hemps seem to be universally praised for more relaxed midrange, which is what I am after.

Unfortunately, the best case scenario is to pack the entire kit up again and ship it back to Canada and wait months for a new kit to be built in Austria...

 

Did you get that confirmed? That is utterly ridiculous that they can't swap you a couple drivers, IMO. Logistically, that just shouldn't be hard. I hope that doesn't pan out to be the case, Alex. I'm pulling for you - waiting in this hobby is the absolute.worst.

 

Thank you!

Swapping the drivers is unfortunately not an option. The AN crossovers are individually matched to the drivers and to the other speaker in the pair. So new woofers require new crossovers and tweeters also. That pretty much constitutes the entire kit (besides port tubes, wadding, a bar of blu tack and a bag of screws).

 

Alex,
I am sure those are paper cones but see what Brian says. I always thought that the 02 was paper, but the site says hemp.

Once you get this sorted out, I will give you my phone number and will talk you through the build.

 

Ray, that's extremely kind of you. It does look pretty straightforward overall, but it would be nice to have the experience of a previous build. I have tried to dry-fit the speakers to the cabinets and it all looks good, all holes and threads line up.

The only real problem I found so far is that the port cutout hole on one of the cabinets is about 1mm too large in diameter and the port tube does not stay put by friction, so I'll have to figure out some way to affix the tube to the cabinet. See a short video snippet demonstrating the issue:
http://www.khain.org/priv/port.mp4
It should be possible to seal or glue it somehow. I'll ask Brian about it, too.

 

This just goes to show what a quality person Ray is. I really hope that they can just swap some parts. I am sure that it is just your basic human mistake. That being said, take advantage of Ray's experience! I can't guarantee anything in this life, but if I could, it would be that you will love these speakers. Honestly, I would love to tweak mine in a slight manner, but I keep forgetting what that is after listening to some music. Seriously, the AN-E SPE HE speakers are very musically rewarding! When I think about what I have owned over the last three and a half decades, I can't believe how revealing these speakers are. You think that they barely meet the resolution of your current system, and then you make a large upgrade and the speakers let you know right away! I have done that three times now. They really are special!

 

AN hemp cones are blue, period.

The ones you've shown are paper.

AN uses both.

 

Alex,
The build is fairly straightforward- the hardest part was applying the veneer and finishing them. Are you planning on doing any finish to the cabinets?

Other than that inserting the wadding was the most complicated part, but even that was not bad.

 

That does, unfortunately make sense Hoping they can expedite it for you somehow.

 

As far as the port goes, a wrap or two of Teflon tape around the tube should tighten it up. Of course maybe not an elegant enough solution for you.

 

Great minds think alike . That was the first thing I was going to try. Elegant enough, there is a flange in the cutout, so the tape would not be visible. There is a substantial gap to make up, so it will have to be many wraps. Hopefully it will stay put during install and will not dislodge afterwards by vibrations. Another possibility is to glue the tube in, possibly with construction adhesive. That would be bulletproof, but it is a bit too irreversible to be my first choice.