Pipette Speaker Build Thread

Jameson

Jameson

Intern in Chief
Staff member
First, I’d like to point out, Doc, that it’s time for a new subforum for the Pipettes!

My Pipettes are en route to Kansas City as we speak and should land on my doorstep this afternoon. Unfortunately I am away on a business trip through Thursday, BUT I’m really excited to be building another Bottlehead kit after a long stretch going without. I’ll use this thread to capture some steps in the process, post the finished speakers, and discuss some impressions. Stay tuned!
 
Yes, been meaning to do that. In crazy mode before Bonneville so things are a little disorganized. I've been listening to a new subwoofer prototype that Matt and I cooked up - see the photo. Pretty amazing for a tiny subwoofer. I am also convincing myself that the felt diffraction rings do make a difference. Was not sure at first, as I was listening in our dining room setup that is not treated. I now have the setup in the studio and I can dig a lot deeper into what I'm hearing. I am also experimenting with a zobel. It did not have a measurable effect in terms of frequency response, but I think I may hear a subtle improvement with it as well. If it stands up to more critical listening I will provide the parts to the beta builders to see what you all think.

I should emphasize that these drivers really do have a limit of about 5 watts max power as spec'd by the manufacturer. I have bottomed them a few times torture testing them above that level.
 

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I’m planning on the S3X or a Quickie/Quicksand I have laying around. Once funds rebound I’ll probably pick up another S3X or Stereomour
 
Yup, S.E.X. amp and Stereomour2 are right in the sweet spot. Kaiju as well with the application of some discretion on the level control. I've been using some MonAmours this week and they are great too, when used with discretion. I think I have a Quicksand here somewhere. May give it a spin. Maybe on the sub too.
 
Alright, we’re underway! Put a coat of Odie’s on the cabinets. Really beautiful sapele ply. A little rough along the cut lines but I’ll survive. I resisted the urge to stain anything and just put a nice coat of oil on. I think these are going to be beautiful.
 

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Speaker one is built. We had a slight parts mishap I’ll need to remedy tomorrow at Home Depot before speaker two can be completed. A couple thoughts:

  • A little spacer to set the gap between the floor and the bottom of the baffle might make alignment easier
  • I’m almost definitely going to want to take you all up on the custom base to have it stand up on its own
  • I may have overtightened the driver. Is there a way to tell? It’s not sitting proud of the front panel as the instructions indicated it would. Should I pull the driver and reset it?
  • By far the easiest Bottlehead kit assembly ever. Almost too easy, really! (Unless I ruined the driver by overtightening it)
 
A couple more thoughts. The screws on the binding post cup are comically small. I just so happened to have that screwdriver because one of the kids’ toys has a small screw on a battery door and the toy maker provided one, otherwise I would’ve had to buy one. I’d reckon more people would find including a small screwdriver more helpful than including an Allen wrench.

Really love the look of these. Haven’t hooked it up yet but it’s a home run from the aesthetics department.

The manual is good. Could use some larger, clearer pictures for things like the clips and the orientation of the panels. I’m nitpicking, but Bottlehead is famous for its high quality manuals.
 
Thanks for all of this Jameson, very, very helpful. This arrangement is new for us, where we are selling a kit that is about 95% done by someone we are collaborating with. So the process of dialing in the details will possibly be a little different than with the products that are 100% Doc/PJ/PB (with much additional manual editing by Josh Harris in the past).

I have asked Matt to join this forum so he can see what things can use some attention. Wanted to put this manual out there pretty much just as he has written it. That way we can work together on tweaking the details that customers might desire.

And though we spoke about this in an email already - my apologies on the screw count. That was my bad. Not sure what to say. I've been training for the job for 30 years and still 'screw' up...
 
No worries on the screws, Doc. I was voted “Most Likely To Find the Right Screw at Home Depot” in high school and I proved everyone right today. Now I have 84 #6 1/2” wood screws running around to join things together.

The second cabinet is complete. Headed to get the kids into nap time mode and will post more later. One quick note is the second cabinet did not come together quite as tightly. A third set of bolts in the middle of the cabinet could alleviate a little of that gap, I think. It isn’t egregious as it is, though. Nitpicky stuff.
 
Hello Jameson,
This is Matt. I work with Dan on the Pipettes. Lovely to see the Pipettes you made! It was a long time and a lot of effort to get to the point of shipping them. Warms my heart to see them assembled by you.

We will switch to #6 screws for the binding posts.  Easier all around. Thank you.
I will check how the driver sits (proud or not) in that batch of fronts and let you know. It may have something to do with the gasket that comes with the drivers.

If you have a little time I would like to have an email discussion about your baffle spacer (gap) idea and the possibility of a middle set of bolts. My email is matt@mattyblue.com.

BTW the Odie's looks great.
     
 
mjabloner said:
Hello Jameson,
This is Matt. I work with Dan on the Pipettes. Lovely to see the Pipettes you made! It was a long time and a lot of effort to get to the point of shipping them. Warms my heart to see them assembled by you.

We will switch to #6 screws for the binding posts.  Easier all around. Thank you.
I will check how the driver sits (proud or not) in that batch of fronts and let you know. It may have something to do with the gasket that comes with the drivers.

If you have a little time I would like to have an email discussion about your baffle spacer (gap) idea and the possibility of a middle set of bolts. My email is matt@mattyblue.com.

BTW the Odie's looks great.
   
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Matt, sorry for the delayed reply. It's taken a few days for me to find enough time to get these into my office and hooked up to a S3X. I'll shoot you an email soon, but I'm not actually convinced the problem I thought I saw is really there. Might have been late night hallucination or wood movement. No idea. I'll take a more detailed look after I log off and get the kids to bed and report back.

I'm going to let these burn in before I give many listening impressions. My initial impressions are that these have a ton of detail in the high/mid-range and could use some oomph from a sub. This isn't a negative; they sound as good or better than the Orcas (which I think is a relatively decent comparison point given they're both single drivers). I'm hearing the same songs and the same notes in the songs that I normally hear, but I'm definitely hearing them differently. Early impressions are very positive. I'm sure they'll only improve with age.

tl;dr for those considering Pipettes in future runs: very fun little kit that requires no soldering and can be assembled in a couple hours (omitting finish drying times). They sound great and look great.
 
Is your S.E.X. amp wired for 4 ohms? If not, do try it. I found a nice improvement compared to an 8 ohm secondary. I agree, the sound is a little different than the Orcas (maybe a bit less mid, a bit more treble off axis) and a subwoofer crossed over at about 70Hz is beneficial (probably with flipped polarity). You can't really fight the physics of a dinky driver and these guys don't do a heckuva lot below about 70Hz which, IME, is similar to the Orcas. I'm really enjoying the new sub we cooked up, even with its power limitation. I do think you will find that the Pipettes mellow out a bit with break-in of the surrounds.
 
Yeah, want to be super clear that I’m liking them so far but the sound is definitely different in a big way. Slippery People by Talking Heads was different enough that I thought I was listening to a remaster. I will have to check on my regular system later to see because it was so different. The vocals were pushed waaaaay back in the mix.

The SEX is wired for 8 ohms. Would I notice a negative difference on the Orcas if I changed from 8 to 4?
 
I have not tried the Orcas on 4 ohms. But I agree the speakers sound different. I find the Orcas have that Fostex/Lowther high quality pulp cone presentation of a prominent sense of presence that adds some excitement to the original tonal balance of a song and can indeed emphasize frequencies in the vocal range. It's likely that a 4 ohm setting might emphasize this a bit more, but you just have to smoke it and see. To my ear the Pipettes are oriented to a more laid back, perhaps more wideband presentation more typical of metal cone drivers. They can get a little full in the upper bass on 8 ohms and the 4 ohm secondary can help eliminate this.
 
I went ahead and made the change last night. Two things jumped out: 1) I agree with your assessment. The mid-bass is less prominent in a way I appreciate. 2) it turns out I was listening to a remaster of Speaking In Tongues and so the bad things I was afraid of when listening yesterday are 100% attributable to a crappy remix.

Liking these speakers!
 
I checked the driver position relative to the front- does it sit proud or recess? It sits, when using the gasket that comes with the driver, flush to a little proud.

I changed the manual and put some guidance on how to tell when you got the driver installed secure.  Not too tight or too loose. 
 
I sent an email last night, but I didn’t include the gaskets since the manual said they were optional (and because I missed the first one so I decided to skip the second). If the recommendation is to have the gaskets on I can add them.
 
Being as it is a pipe speaker and hence it is not quite so critical in terms of being air tight as other cabinet types you can leave the gaskets out and probably be just fine. My handwaving theory is that along with sealing the flange the gaskets might create a bit of a squishy/lossy layer between the driver frame and the cabinet that could help to limit the energy transfer between the driver and the box. So I used them on my pair.
 
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