International Ariel Builders Club
With readership of the Web site about 500 page views a day since the mid-Nineties, I have no idea how many people have actually built the Ariel or ME2's. It could be as few as the hundreds of people who have written me asking various construction questions, or it could be a lot more (I usually only hear from the folks with questions). There could be ten thousand Ariels out there!
One of the most frequent requests is: "Where can I hear them? What do they sound like?" By contacting members of the Ariel Builders Club, prospective builders can contact other hi-fi enthusiasts who live in their part of the world, hear for themselves what the speakers sound like, and exchange construction hints.
The members of the Ariel Builders Club (no dues, no fees) are listed by country or region. If I've incorrectly listed the area where you live, or you'd like to see a new Web-cam added to the list, or anything else of interest, please send me a followup e-mail. If you want to add more comments or pictures, feel free! There's lots of room on this page.
Note: I don't have to tell any of you what a problem Spam has become. It wasn't bad when I created this Web page 7 years ago, but now it's gotten to the point where the last thing I want to do is flood the mailboxes of our generous contributors here on the ABC page. Since the spammers use mailbots to scan newsgroups and Web pages for e-mail addresses, I try to slow down the mailbots by disguising the address by mixing it in with plain text. Instead of a one-click mailto script that points to "billg@microsoft.com", the address is now written out in longhand as "Bill Gates is known as billg at the microsoft dot com site". Pretty lightweight encryption, and a nuisance the reader to translate and re-key into an e-mail program, but it slows down the mailbots and lightens the load of spam that our contributors might otherwise receive from this Web page.
Austria
This stunning JPEG (what a beautiful finish and attention to detail ... note the base of the cabinet) came from Bob Velkov, who is known as Bob.Velkov at the par.univie.ac.at Website.
Denmark Jan Bundgaard is known as janb at the post5.tele.dk Website.
France Julian Vassaux has come to the aid of French speakers with his own Ariel Page, complete with a set of metric dimensions (so 3/4" is equivalent to 19mm wood in Europe!) and a gallery of construction photos. Nice work, Julian!
Vassaux Julian is known as vassaux at the ifrance dot com site.
"I am Jean-Christophe Staub and French from Strasbourg (I work in Luxembourg so my E-mail address is there) and now owner of a great pair of Ariels.
I told myself one day (6 months ago) that as a big all-kind-of-music listener, I should change my old speakers (1 wide band per channel in plastic box). I decided to use the Internet to find information about how a speaker works, what should I verify to have good ones .... then I found the Speaker Building Page. After one month, considering that I was working with a woodworker to get some money when I was young and that I know a little bit about electonics, I decided to build my own. I chose the Ariel project, considering that I could easily find an amp that will suit them (that's still in progress, and I think I will built also my own: SS in Class A?).
I must here thank you for the clarity of your documents. All your advice was justified also .... Especially the one that told "This is not for amateur." Well, the woodworking is very hard even with professional equipment and it took me 4 days just to get all exterior and interior panels matched. Another point of interest are the speaker parts .... Inductors, Caps are easy to find everywhere but speakers were difficult to find here. After considering prices including shipping and taxes, I bought them from Solen Electronics in Quebec (they speak French, great!). But finally, they are a real pleasure to hear for 3500FF (both).
They are plugged on a Pioneer 2x65W solid-state amp in series because their impedance is too low for this amp...the back panel is still screwed to permit me to modify isolation...But even in this poor configuration, the sound is very good ...
One things that frightens me is that even if these speakers please me (what a great clarity!), even if it pleases to my girl friend (dixit: Oh shit!), my parents, my friends, or whoever I know, I am not sure I really achieved the best I could get from them. I was gone into several HIFI shops to hear loudspeakers with my favorite disks to try to hear the difference. But it was difficult to remember how all these sound.
So I borrowed lots of speakers to listen them at home and I can tell, that they are great and that I am preparing myself now to glue the back panel (even with 10 screws, this panel is acting as an horrible resonator but the glued panels are quite silent)...
I must finally say that I am positively surprised by the work you are doing on your server. I really think your site is a reference of clarity and interest. And the idea to make Ariel speakers builders meetings on this site is great. Also you have understood, I want to meet them now, and get my Ariel's builders club cards.
Please, continue to express your skills. People like you are important.
Bye, JC."
From Lynn: I'm glad things are going well for you! Try to find an amplifier which will drive 4 ohms. I regret I have not had good luck with solid-state Class A, and don't know why. Even ordinary Class AB transistor amps sound better.
What sounds the best of all are vacuum-tube amplifiers, especially the EL84, EL34, and 300B. All you need is 20 watts for a powerful sound. Good luck!
STAUB Jean-Christophe is known as staub at the crpht dot lu site.
Pascal JAPPY is known as jappy at the lirmn dot fr site.
Italy Fabio Arpino is known as arpino at the bitron dot it site.
Netherlands
Joost Emmen is shown here constructing his speaker cabinets. Joost is using the non-sticky Scan-Speak 9300 tweeter in his finished Ariels and tells me he enjoys the 9300 very much.
Joost is known as Joost.Emmen at the nl.origin-it.com Website.
"Hello Lynn, a few weeks back Joost Emmen visited me. He said that his Ariels had a more powerful bass, but on the other hand my Ariels sounded more stiffer in the bass region. Now I changed the amount of long-hair wool and the bass is more powerful.My system consists of the Vifa WP-130 midbass (same type, but with the European DIY-code) and the Scan-Speak D2905/9500 tweeter (Joost Emmen did hear them at my place).
I also saw your design in a beautiful walnut finish at Speaker & Co. You can find them at http://www.speakerland.com
They also have 10 Watt metal film resistors! I don't know if they sell them yet, but if they do I will try them at my ARIELS instead of the common low-inductive wirewound types. I don't know if I can hear the differences, but when I do I will write you about it!
Thank you for putting such a great project on the Net!"
from Cuno Snoeren, who has in a impressive move started a Web page of his own about the Ariel. Visit http://www.ariel.club.tip.nlto see a very impressive addition to the Ariel story. Thank you, Mr. Snoeren, for the new Web page!
"I have the ME2's and filled the small triangled spaces in the back with the sand used in birdcages. This adds about 1.5 kg to my speakers and seems to give them a little more impact."
Anne Steegstra is known as anne007 at the cs.vu.nl Website.
Emile Sprenger is known as aespreng at the euronet dot nl site.
Norway "Hi, my name is Trond Birkeland
I've built some Ariels and a subwoofer and would like to send a picture of them to the ariel builders club ... great sounding speakers ... I am impressed."
If you're curious about the subwoofer in the picture, visit Stig Eric Tangen's "REAL subwoofers" page at: http://www.speakerbuilding.com/amateur/tangen.html
Trond has been busy, he's also built a set of five ME2's for his home theater system ... in rosewood finish! He gets around the magnetic-field problem by putting counter-magnets directly behind the magnets of the (unshielded) ME2 drivers and keeping the Center speaker at least 4 inches away from the TV screen.
"I've built five ME2's for my home theater (surround sound). It's the most natural sounding system I've ever heard in movie sound. If you are a movie lover, go ahead and make these and combine them with a good subwoofer. You'll get thrilled!
Best regards from Trond Birkeland, Norway"
Trond Birkeland is known as birko2000 at the hotmail dot com site.
Portugal Dear Lynn:
First of all, thank you for the high quality and kind free offer of your ARIEL SPEAKERS DESIGN. About six years ago, I have discovered yours amazing Ariel web page and was impressed by the quality of the project you have developed and generously offered to the audio DIY community. I started to read another web projects and none of them, have the appealing quality of yours. So I decided to build my own pair of Ariel speakers, and the difficulty of the work, you announced, was for me as a generic DIY, a very exciting plus of the task.
I started to collect the pieces, having had the cross-over from North Creek, the drivers from a local store in Belgium, and the wood from my own country. I have had a very long time woodworking, because there was many and long interruptions, caused by my work and family constraints.
Finally as a recently retired man I finished MY GREAT ARIEL SPEAKERS. This years long, I was a little afraid, if the end result will pay all the long time consuming work, because I never had heard a transmission line speaker. But when I first heard one of them in the tuning process, I got no more worries and could "see" all you have write is just what I have. These speakers really have the more natural bass, amazing medium and softest treble I have ever heard!
The tweeters are the Scan Speak D2905-93000 with the rear chamber removed, as a Dutch member of the Ariel International Club had made. (You will have no problem to have that easily done, if you saw up the plastic rear chamber in two pieces, with a manual steel saw).
I must confess I am "one of that folks" who dislike to have an independent box for the cross-over. So as you could see in the pictures I am sending, the cross over is in the base of the speaker in an independent box I tried to isolate with cork panels (5 mm) in both sides of the boxy base. I have also isolate all the side inside walls, with the same material (1 mm for the sides and 2 a 5 mm) back of the drivers. As you know, cork is a very typical and natural product of my country, with very good isolation properties, and it seems to me to have had very good results as I don't have any vibration in the exterior walls.
So if you think I deserve to be a member of the famous INTERNATINAL BUILDERS CLUB, I will be very happy with the honor!
Best regards
Vitor Cabeco
You can contact Vitor Cabeco at vitorcabesso at the clix dot pt Website.
United Kingdom "Just a suggestion ... if anyone needs any kind of materials in the UK or elsewhere, I would be happy to get them here in the US (I'm in California, not too far from Just Speakers (no, I can't seem to reach them either!) and ship them where ever they are needed. I am not selling anything for profit, so there should not be any kind of export tax to be paid. Let me know if I can help!"
Jeff Phillips is known as Jeff.Phillips at the psygnosis.co.uk Website.
Australia (Oz) "You are already a legend ... In time you will be a folk hero ... spoken of in such revered terms as Davey Crocket, Daniel Boone and the like. I want to send you a design for a very well designed Class A/B mosfet amp....Elektor Electronics...about 20 watts a channel ... Very good design."
Best wishes ... al
Hmm ... can I use the above for the ABC page? That'll get the
attention of the casual reader!!!Lynn
"Lynn ... I will get the plans for the Class A/B amplifier out to you. I was going to put them in a mailing tube so that it could officially be a hybrid amp, but I've stuck with the regular envelope."
"I think that members of the club that we've got that only ever meets in cyberspace ... should bestow upon you the honorable title of "Ariel Commander" ... This is the least that we could do in recognition of your genius and generosity. The speakers sound absolutely wonderful ... We are all very grateful to you."
Best wishes ... al
The inimitable al is also known as oasis at the icenet.com.au Website.
Anthony Roe is known as aroe at the uq.edu.au Website.
Eddy Staarink is known as staarink at the powerup.com.au Website.
New Zealand I live in New Zealand and am looking to have built for myself a set of Ariel speaker boxes. The highly skilled cabinet maker next door to me, is willing to do the project if he can make a minimum of four sets. Would you please pass my email address on to anyone else who may be interested in having the aerial woodwork done for them.
Many Thanks
Robert Willis is known as rwillis at the ihug.co.nz Website
Thailand (Bangkok) Withaya Tangtanaporn is known as Withaya_Tangtanaporn at the chi.leoburnett.com Website.
Korea "This is Cheol Hoe Koo from Korea ... I received your mail last saturday, and I thought very good idea. Because of my job, I didn't start building Ariel speaker, but I will start next month. Anyway, 'World Wide Ariel builder's Club' is very nice and helpful idea for all Ariel builders. Please join me in the club ... "
Cheol Hoe Koo, who is known as chkoo9 at the hitel.kol.co.kr Website.
"I finished my ME2 about 6 months ago and was very happy just for a short while. But in several days, the ME2 was dull, boomy with no soundstaging etc. (Sorry, please bear with me for a while.)
So I started to blame my AN 300B Kit One, 6DJ8 Curcio circuit Preamp, TPC DAC-2, MacIntosh MR71 Tuner. Therefore I exchanged all the tubes including VV300BSL (they were really a fortune to me) and etc. With no outcome, I replaced all the internal wires with Kimber, still no improvement. Then I bought stands for ME2 again in vain to get rid of boomy dullness.
Then I suspected my ears and my listening time got less and less. I even started to regret to have started DIY, and long months passed. Also I re-positioned my listening room, another series of regret.
Suddenly, I re-placed my speaker on top of wooden audio rack in the corner of the room from the steel stands which were in the middle of the room, partly to make my room look clean and to stack up useless audio monsters. AAAnd there was the 6 month answer.
Far less boomy, dull, soaring sound and immediacy, soundstaging and control was present. I realized none of the above were the source of the problem except for the speaker position in the room . The cure was simply: Moving ME2 here and there and Speaker position and the room themselves are very important instead of the 6 months bustle. Of course I, like everybody in the club, knew the phrase but I realised the meaning after the long trial and error.
The reason I am writing this message is , there might be another tweaker who may suffer from this. Therefore if possible, I want you to add such content into your nice article mentiong that Speaker position and room tuning may be more important than the whole system sometimes. If possible, I hope you mention the ABC of room tuning in the article. With this, I am sure everybody in the club may make best out of your already nice Ariel and ME2."
Thank you for your reading this long redundants and all the best wishes.
from JH Nam, who is known as jhnam at the prime.ykgas.co.kr Website.
North American Ariel Builders