The Workbench

Re: Penta "Project Twins"

cooldude — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 08:56:35 GMT

IkeA:

Anybody tried AV 7000 for sound only rather than a AV system?

I was using one sound only for a couple of years. I upgraded to a beosytem1 this year.

Re: Penta "Project Twins"

IkeA — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 21:13:37 GMT

egoh:

maybe another pair for another room? :)

No kidding.
Since I saw how good these look and heard how good they sound (IMHO better than my Beolab 6000s) I have been scouting for another pair for a complete Penta surround sound system (Logitech calls this"Stereo x2) in the family room. I recently scored an AV 7000 that I'll try to make work as my Front and Back as well as L and R balancer. Right now I have to turn the BL 6000s around, pointing to the wall to get enough damping to sound as fake surround (the delay is obvoiusly missing!).

Anybody tried AV 7000 for sound only rather than a AV system?

Re: Penta "Project Twins"

IkeA — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 21:02:36 GMT

egoh:

BTW, brillant idea to refinish the copper with the veneer!

This copper decoration is "Peel-N-Stick".

It has a durable plastic layer on top of it to prevent the actual copper strip from oxidzing.
The complete tickness of the strip you see below is ~0.009" or 0.23mm, without the protective film and backing (but including the durable layer). Unfortunately you can only buy it in 2' length increments.

I bought one of their "remnant" rolls and have enough to convert a complete Beosystem 5500 to shiny copper instead of the dull aluminum... Maybe I should apply the copper to the base to cover up the ugly grey? Hmmmmmm

Re: Penta "Project Twins"

IkeA — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 20:39:13 GMT

Leslie:

...picture of the whole Penta including the labs and the base.

Your wish is my command...

I hope this shows what was missing in the previous pictures.

Re: Penta "Project Twins"

egoh — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 19:24:45 GMT

BTW, brillant idea to refinish the copper with the veneer!

Re: Penta "Project Twins"

egoh — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 19:22:19 GMT

IkeA,

Thanks for the kind words. I really do like the silver cloth as well. If you really want black, maybe another pair for another room? :)

With regard to the crossovers, can you snap a quick picture of yours? A ask because my MKI Pentas have MKII crossovers. If you have the MKII crossovers, I'm more than happy to give you the list. That said, if I do another pair, I'm going to use non-polar electrolytics like B&O used. It's hard to find PP caps that fit well. Most of the ones at Parts Express are pretty beefy with 250V-400V ratings. The extra voltage rating means they are huge and very, very difficult to get in cleanly. Keep in mind that a change to PP caps will change the sound. Better or worse, you'll have to be judge.

Re: Penta "Project Twins"

Leslie — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:50:47 GMT

Looks great! Would be nice If you could show us a picture of the whole Penta including the labs and the base.

Re: Penta "Project Twins"

tournedos — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:01:02 GMT

IkeA:
Your color combinations look so good I might redo my cloth and bases in black.

DO NOT! They look amazing! If you want black (well the originals are actually really dark gray), perhaps you should rather try & work out a swap with somebody!

Re: Penta "Project Twins"

IkeA — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 01:21:17 GMT

EGoh, Beautiful work on those Pentas!

Daeng! The black cloth with the "New" black bases look fantastic! The elimination of the lips on the skins would have saved me BIG $$$. Instead I ordered the skins from B&O and replaced the worst pieces (5 in total).

Sorry I dropped off the edge of the world... Found my way back from the island and finished my Pentas as well.

Your color combinations look so good I might redo my cloth and bases in black.
FYI I probably need to work on the Xovers and would appreciate if you could post or email me the Cap list you used and the Parts Express #'s you used.

Here are a few shots of my Penta 1's with the "silver" cloth.
You can clearly tell how B&O was correct in their argument that the speakers would blend into the room, see how the speakers pick up the color of the walls and the surroundings as you walk around them.

The copper trim adds a welcome highlight to these speakers. I did use the alsacorp.com copper "veneer" cut to size with a picture framing knife set.

Re: Penta "Project Twins"

Nickyg63 — Sun, 29 May 2011 10:52:33 GMT

They look brilliant, thank you for sharing!

Re: Penta "Project Twins"

Step1 — Thu, 26 May 2011 17:08:24 GMT

Great thread and I really like white Pentas!

Re: Penta "Project Twins"

Leslie — Thu, 26 May 2011 16:47:39 GMT

I think you're quite right about minimalism and do respect that. On the other hand I like to copie B&O as much as possible to get the original result. Please continue your excellent thread (with pictures)

Re: Penta "Project Twins"

egoh — Thu, 26 May 2011 16:22:18 GMT

Sorry, no CAD drawing. I carefully pulled a top piece and brought that to the local shop for measurement. It's a little easier in case we ended up switching thickness, etc.

In the end, I decided to not to do the little edge bends. The shop could only really do about 5-6mm lip and the design of the speaker can only allow for about 3mm max. We had a number of schemes to resolve it, but I decided it wasn't worth the trouble (or expense). The lip is helpful if you want to mount the panels easily. A good result can be achieved without the lip, but the panels must be glued (since the tape would add a gap). You need lots of clamps and weights to make sure the panel has a tight final fit.

I didn't tape off the panels at all - everything was painted. The raised printing still shows a little, but I don't anticipate changing the settings ever. I'm a minimalist, so I don't mind. I even considered taking the B&O logo off but decided to leave it. I like how B&O discreetly put their logo on the Beolab 8000s...that's more my taste.

Re: Penta "Project Twins"

Leslie — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:55:05 GMT

Superb job Egoh! The bending of the panels has been done by a professional, must be! Have you got a Cad drawing for these panels? Btw, you painted the 5 side panels of the labs, what did you do with the text on the switch panel? Did you taped them off?

Re: Penta "Project Twins"

egoh — Thu, 26 May 2011 11:02:35 GMT

Thanks so much everyone for the kind words. I do need some help though.

I can't get the displays to work with my Beocenter 2300. However, they work perfectly with my Beomaster 4500. I've wired up an adapter just like the one IkeA bought from B&O:

Left side:

Pin 1 -
Pin 2 - Outside of RCA
Pin 3 - Center Pin on RCA
Pin 4 -
Pin 5 -
Pin 6 - Pin D
Pin 7 - Pin C
Pin 8 -

4 pin RCA from solder side:
    o    A not used
-----    B not used
o o
C   D

Right side:

Pin 1 -
Pin 2 - Outside of RCA
Pin 3 -
Pin 4 -
Pin 5 - Center Pin on RCA
Pin 6 - Pin D
Pin 7 - Pin C
Pin 8 -

4 pin RCA from solder side:
    o    A not used
-----    B not used
o o
C   D

I've traced all the connections and this connector should (and does, with the 4500) work. I either have a fault with my 2300 (which I have no other speakers with a display to test with), or some incompatibility.

Any thoughts?