Cabinet

The whole cabinet is made of MDF, a stable cheap and easy material to work with . I could keep the thickness relatively thin as the cabinet is an open system, less prone to resonate. It has two 108mm. skatewheels For smooth rolling mounted on the base and a big handle on top. It is angled back for monitoring purposes. Total weight will be around 25 kg (55 lbs) of which 11.5 kg is speakerweight.

First time

I hooked the cabinet up to my Denon PMA-80 stereo (80 watts) and started listening. The array has no filter, just a simple capacitor. The sound blew me away and my bose hifi speakers with it.
I put on AJA (Steely Dan) and heard details I did not know were there for the past 25 years!
First thought; I want two of these! ( and donate the Bose to someone else willing to waste 25 years missing out on what Steely Dan really has to offer)
The sound is very clear and balanced totally lacking the boomy and metallic sounds you get from small PA's at these soundlevels. The Monolith is a full range cabinet 25-25.000 HZ capable of handling almost a kilowatt program.
Knowing the (very loud) volume at 80 watts program I feel confident that 400 watts class-D amp will satisfy my needs on stage.
Next on the list is a soundtest with my Tune 4 string bassguitar.

Tools

You need tools to make it happen.

Here's a picture of mine. I suggest you buy at least 4 powertools:

screwdriver, sander, saw, small routertable.

There are some very good websites about woodworking to assist you making the right choices. And Martin Kochs e-book i use is a very good guide to start out with.

The Laterre Monolith

Two cool pics of the speakers mounted on the front plate.

The Amp

I came across the UCD 400 class D amp from Hypex. It is a 90+% effective amp as small as a cigarette package and weighing no more. They have perfected the concept to a degree it can now be found in high-end stereo amps and in mono bass amps. You can look up these amps and read much more at the website of HEVOS, an outstanding manufacturer of bass amps. Basically they combine a 12AX7 tube preamp with a class-D amp into a top of the bill lightweight rackunit. It is a very nice product with a reasonable price which makes it very tempting if you're looking for good gear. I have bought all the components for my amp in rotterdam at Speaker & Co, who were very helpfull. The tube preamp I bought is of the shelve and does a good job as I am already using it for a couple of months now. Originally I was going to integrate the amp into the Monolith but have now decided against it in favor of a rackmount unit.

Front

On the right there's the front plate with the 210 array. I have bought two OEM 10 inch 400W 4ohm speakers from CIARE and a 1 inch 125W tweeter for it. Oh yes, this is my personal sanctuary, still needs a pirelli calendar to make it perfect :-)

Monolith or not?

I chose the name as a tribute to Stanley Kubrick and hope you can appreciate this thought looking at this one. If not, go watch the movie!

Wanna rub my back?

This is the rear of the cabinet with the two venting ports on top. You may think it has a nice round shape but it serves two goals; stiffnes for the cabinet as a whole and secondly elimination of standing waves or resonant frequencies as common in rectagular boxes. I think it looks immensely cool and I have had several reactions ranging from 'nice waste bin' to 'darth vader's returned!'. Eventually i will add blue or red led's inside and underneath to get the neccesary stage presence. Note the mickey mouse ears for added stability!

This project simply proves it is hipper not to be square as far as bass rigs go.

killing time

Sitting on my couch waiting for my ankle to heal here's some news on the project:
on the bassguitar I haven't done anything yet. I am still to scared to ruin the body by routing it wrongly. Once the money is there I will play it safely and outsource this task to a pro! So I turned to the basscabinet I told you about. Spraypainted it and mounted the speakers. It is a TL-cabinet in a D'appolito setup with specific features added to optimize its acoustic performance at high volumes. I have made some photo's to show you what i am up to with this contraption. Keywords to keep in mind here; better, better, better!
The goals i have set are to get the best possible hifi sound, smallest footprint on stage, good monitoring qualities, ergonomic design for transportation and handling and finally an exiting design that will add to my stage presence. And as you will appreciate at a price that puts shame on the Eden, Trace Elliot, EAD and SWR boxes out there.