Rod H's Oak MMG stands

Oak MMG stands from the front

If I did this right, here's a link to a photo of one of stands I just completed for my MMGs.  The one pictured needs a few more coats of oil, but you get the idea anyway.

They raise the speakers 5½" and hold them vertical, which is perfect for listening on my couch.  They are now very stable, and easy to reposition for experimenting.

The piece that is flush with the speaker is ¾" oak veneer plywood.  The two side pieces are solid oak, with ¾" grooves dadoed into them to accept the middle piece.  I used two plated “gold” colored screws on either side, plus wood glue of course, to hold them together.  The screws match the ones holding the side trim on the MMGs.  The speakers are held to the stands with solid oak 10" long 1×2s (¾"×1½" actually).  They are glued and screwed to the base, and use the original mounting points for the metal brackets.  I countersunk the holes to use the original metal bracket screws, but if you don't have a special bit for this it would probably be easier to just purchase longer screws.

Hint:  drill the 1×2s and fit them to the MMGs, then carefully line them up on the stands and glue/screw them to the bases.  This way you know the 1×2s will line up.  I placed a metal ruler between the MMGs and the bases temporarily to give a small clearance while fitting them and glue/screwing the 1×2s to the bases.

Yea, I didn't like the look of any of the stands I saw either.  Fortunately 5½" works well for me.  That places the middle of the panel at ear level when I'm seated on my couch.


MMG stands from the back showing XO mod

I've only had a few hours to evaluate, but so far am very happy with the results.  My MMGs had 1st order crossovers and I switched to 1st/2nd as in the early MMGs.  I used 24uF Sonicaps for the tweeters, 2.25mH steel laminate core 15 gauge Sledgehammer (Madisound) inductors, and paralleled 12uF Carli mylars with the factory yellow PP tweeter capacitors to use as the 24uF shunts for the woofer panels.

All the parts fit in the crossover cavity, but I made bump outs to increase the compartment depth by ¾".  This was achieved by taking two pieces of ¾" MDF 4" tall by 9¾" wide and cutting a rectangular hole in each about 3" tall by 8½" wide.  I then glued a 4" × 9¾" piece of ⅛" Masonite to the back of the ¾" compartment spacers, painted them satin black, and installed the original terminal plates to them.  The plates were totally gutted and I installed a sets of gold binding posts to them.  I carefully cut just enough of the grilles away to install the crossover parts, then screwed the bump outs to the backs.  This is just barely enough depth for the inductor, but everything fits.

About the sound though… They sound great!  Top to bottom the response sounds smooth.  The highs no longer sound prominent and the mids are no longer recessed.  Obviously I haven't had time to listen to a lot yet, and fully appreciate what's going on, but so far they just sound “right”.


Oak MMGs with matching TLs

I just added a picture of my MMGs with the TLs. The TLs are based on plans I got from Roger Sanders a long time ago.  The original ones were 4' tall, but I stretched mine to 5' tall for a few more feet of line length.  Originally I used Meniscus/Eclipse 12" woofers, but several years ago I switched to P.E. 12" DVCs when they were the deal of the day for $75 each.  The vent at the bottom of the TLs is 4.5" tall, but the grilles make it look like there's a second woofer down there.  I didn't plan it that way, but when I calculated for the ¼" oak veneer plywood to laminate to the cabinets, I discovered that I'd need to buy another whole sheet if I wanted the additional coverage to make the lower grilles shorter.  I had plenty of grille cloth, so…

I'm really enjoying the MMGs with the new crossovers.  Yesterday my wife was helping me break the Sonicaps in by watching movies all afternoon.