I have finally started towards making my Clairtone "Project G"!

I have joined the DIY Audio Forum: http://www.diyaudio.com/ Lots of good information and good people there. My path has lead me to Dave at Planet 10: http://www.planet10-hifi.com/index.html and Mark Audio drivers: http://www.markaudio.com/

Step one is to develop the speakers. I have decided to use the Mark Audio Alpair 12 full range driver. The challenge is the enclosure. The Clairtone had 18" diameter spheres, but there is not design ready for a sphere of 18". Dave at Planet 10 is developing a series of plans for this driver and I am in with the beta development/testing group. I am going to build and test some enclosures that he designs and the designs will become part of his plans offerings.

So, anything that I build will need some sort of reference, a standard against which they are compared. Towards that end I have decided to start by building the Mark Audio Studio Reference Monitor for the Alpair 12 driver, plans for which can be found here: http://www.markaudio.com/plans

The standard materials recommended are 3/4", 18mm Baltic Birch plywood as it is uniform in consistency and stiff for its weight. I am using cabinet grade Birch plywood here, even though it has an Aspen core. As I was originally just going to make some MDF boxes this is already a big step up.

Here are the panels cut and ready for assembly.

And I had to make a circle cutting fixture for my router to cut the hole for the driver. I didn't mind too much as it will be very useful for the guitar building! I made it big enough to use for the 18" globes for the Clairtone.