#bravac

glowing review; brandt/kovac

  From the beginning Benjamin and I knew that what we had chosen to do for our 3 week DIY project was very ambitious to say the least. There were going to be a number of skills to pick up and information that we were going to have to research and pick up in order to make our project a success. Luckily enough I can easily say our combined enthusiasm really helped kick start our creative process from day one.

It was obvious that one of the first things we were going to need to learn was about speaker circuitry and what actually makes a speaker unit/system work. At first I found this whole area rather daunting and I felt as if I was studying for high school exams again. Perseverance really proved key in this area and after a few days of drawing up concept circuit diagrams it all began to make sense. Benjamin and I both share a combined interest in woodwork and working with natural/organic materials which really helped us in the construction stage of the project. Additional knowledge, skills, tools and machinery were provided by my father Richard Hlavac. Having a workshop set up at my home for my father’s furniture business Hlavac Wooden Furniture really served as an ideal place of assembly where Benjamin and I could escape the chaos in the studio and have our own personal workshop space away from all of the other projects. This meant we could really get stuck into our project without any interference or interruptions.

Something we could have definitely done better was planning all of the componentry that would make up the speaker circuit inside of our speaker case. Initially we planned to make our speaker a portable unit. This would include a number of additional components as opposed to a speaker system that is powered through mains. What we found was that our ideal speakers and tweeters needed really powerful amp chips, crossover chips and batteries which would really raise the overall cost of components, money that we unfortunately do not have. It was a shame to scrap the portable speaker design however we still managed to achieve our desired aesthetic and sound quality through using an external amp unit powered via a DC power cable. This meant that our speaker would become more of a semi-permanent addition to a desired space (Desktop, Living room etc).

Another addition that I wish we could have made to the speaker casing was the laser engraving of our company logo on the front panel. We found ourselves getting too caught up in assembling the two speaker units ready for the 3 week hand-in that we didn’t manage to have time to take the two panels when they were separate from the completed units to the 3D lab. This was due to our many trips to and from the workshop at home in Warkworth back to the city.

Both of us were extremely happy with our Vernissage addition to the project due to the fact that we managed to actually finish the speakers. The log book allows for more of a deeper look into the creative process we underwent to get to the final product. A subtle yet extremely effective additional artefact.