Sneeker Project. Part 1

Inspired by this thread on the Linn Forum about a request for Linn to build a speaker system / dock, I spent a couple of hours in the garage tonight with scissors, cardboard and sticky tape.

I dug out some old Linn Knekt Diskreet ceiling speakers I picked up for a very small sum several years ago and pressed a SMSL T-Amp in to action.

Just for fun of course.

Here are the build pics:

First off, some tunes are needed whilst working.  Tonight it was FiiO X3, Linn Silver I/C, into Tidsbury Passive Pre-Amp, Linn Silver I/C Linn AV5125 then K20 speaker cable into the Ninkas shown below

The Katans and Ninkas, along with the AV5125 amp are part of another (unfinished!) project to experiment with digital active crossovers

First parts list picture - an SMSL stereo T-amp and its power supply.  This is not the best sounding T-amp and hence it has languished in its box for a long time.  There's also a i-Thing dock in the picture (the white box at the back) but I didn't use that this time - I think phono sockets will be a more versatile approach

 

Linn Kinekt Diskreet "ceiling" speakers in the box they've been in for at least 5 years.  Picked them up on ebay a long time ago for next to nothing, never found a use for them, until now.

Linn Diskreets out of their box

Selecting an appropriate "enclosure" for the mock-up.  Nothing but the best corrugated here!

Getting to work on development of the speaker mounts

Here's the T-amp with the front panel romoved, allowing for the Sneeker enclosure to be clamped between the amp's casing and its front panel.

Creating the aperture for the amp

Exquisite industrial design starting to take shape

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The latest in fabric construction bonding techniques

Mounting the amp inside the enclosure.  Note the nylon shock mounted dual-role dynamic power supply / amp support system  ;-)

Of course, equal length speaker cable was used.  In this case, high purity copper 42 strand from Maplin

Power cable (left), Linn Silver interconnects (centre) and speaker cables all wired up

Sophisticated sound damping added to the enclosure.  The volume of damping was carefully calculated - I used all the bits I had laying around in the garage, then ran out.

Rear view of the completed mock-up

The completed Sneeker mock-up

At the moment, its probably safe to say that it sounds "functional".

Part 2 will cover the upgrades and build into a decent box.  This will hopefully be slightly longer, much more sturdy, incorporate a Linn Roomamp and room to think about streaming technology further down the line.  Suggestion from a fellow Linn Forum member has been to incorporate Raspberry Pi as a streamer, which is an interesting idea and follows along with the very DIY nature of this project so far.