I'll be sure to post more pictures as the glue dries, sanding, finishing, and final assembly occur.
Good night,
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Update on the SS-15 Mk II
It's pretty late, so I won't be writing much this evening (morning?). However, I wanted to share that we've inched one step closer to producing our first subwoofer line. My business partner was kind enough to take my design, and hand craft a test cabinet (production units will be milled on a CNC), while I assembled the list of requisite "guts" for the subwoofer. The order was placed. We'll take delivery of the sourced speaker driver, and amplifier by mid-week; and our test mule should be "bass-worthy" by next weekend!
I'll be sure to post more pictures as the glue dries, sanding, finishing, and final assembly occur.
Good night,
I'll be sure to post more pictures as the glue dries, sanding, finishing, and final assembly occur.
Good night,
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Finger Paint
Hi there,
With each step we take toward making our little company real, it becomes more obvious that this is a huge job: What was I thinking?! When I first conceptualized Synergy Spaces, it was an easy 10,000 ft. view of what "could be" in a pretty abstract framework. "We'll make cool Man Caves" was the genesis. Then, each little creative impulse built upon another, which spawned other ideas, and so on. Once we had a more focused vision, it was time to begin laying the groundwork for assembling the resources and identifying necessary steps to execute the plan. At first, I began with some room designs.
I'm a creative guy at heart, so when I couldn't wrap my head around a portion of a legal document, I hit the pause button on my analytical "inner geek", and drew upon my brain's creative right-hand hemisphere to push ahead. Once several draft Theater Spaces concepts were created, we rendered them in software. Only after we did this, did I find that I was completely frustrated with the current models, and literally wanted to start from scratch, preserving only the room's inner dimensions. Being personally, and professionally "financially broke" didn't help the situation. I would think: "Until we pad our bank account, and line up some customers, how could we even hope that our business would be around long enough to build the "Spaces" we're designing?"
Perhaps we needed to first aim for a smaller target. This came to me in a non-glamorous way: "If we couldn't build the fully equipped Spaces right now, maybe we could spool up some of the very accessories we'd planned on selling with the Spaces?" Maybe it's obvious to you, dear reader, but it wasn't to me for almost a year. In hindsight, it only made sense to focus on creating and selecting a core set of accessories, and plans for our Spaces that we could ship as an Internet Direct company. Overhead is a lot lower in this incarnation, and we could begin now.
So, I put the plan into motion, and I decided that our first product would be a subwoofer which is suitable for both movies and music. Sure, I could have just as easily started with a cool set of throw pillows (don't laugh, I actually thought about it), but loudspeakers have always been an obsession, and the thought of designing a subwoofer for the consumer was both thrilling and challenging. In the long term, we have some emergent relationships with a "real" speaker manufacturer who will provide our upcoming ultimate/premium line of subwoofers. However, in order to get started, we decided to utilize our own design as standard trim.
We pressed through a few revisions of the SS-15 Mk 1, and even had a Facebook vote for gathering feedback on some cosmetic changes (social media can make for a wonderful focus group). Along with these cosmetic changes, a structural modification, and a pared down suite of finish options, the SS-15 Mk II was born. It is this model of subwoofer we're hoping to roll into production very soon. It may be simple at first glace, but it's completely rife with decision gates, and design choices that had to be considered. My only hope is that it dazzles the intended customer.
As soon as I was able, I placed some artwork on the website, and worked through inserting my first 3D rendered movie clip as well. The renderings are amateurish, and the video has some defects that I couldn't eliminate with my current skill set, but I was proud. In my eyes, it was good. When I showed off the simple page (which took hours to build) to my partners, I received some unexpected negative feedback. It stung a bit, but their intent wasn't to hurt my feelings; it was constructive. Another colleague of mine is an esteemed web developer. When he looked over the site, I received welcomed praise. It's funny- I explained to my colleague that it meant a lot to hear them speak so fondly of my efforts in web design, and loudspeaker design presentation. Yet, it felt as though I were merely a toddler dabbling in finger paints, showing my primitive handiwork to a well established artist.
Regardless of a bad or good report, keep moving forward. Keep growing, dreaming, planning, and doing! None of us know what in the world we're doing when we take up most new tasks, hobbies, or professions. We may have read about, or even trained for the occasion, but we aren't yet experts. But, that's the operative word isn't it? Start. Wherever you are, start today. Conditions will never be perfect. Start anyway. Take a step in good faith. Know you're one step closer to your goal, and one step removed from your former self.
With each step we take toward making our little company real, it becomes more obvious that this is a huge job: What was I thinking?! When I first conceptualized Synergy Spaces, it was an easy 10,000 ft. view of what "could be" in a pretty abstract framework. "We'll make cool Man Caves" was the genesis. Then, each little creative impulse built upon another, which spawned other ideas, and so on. Once we had a more focused vision, it was time to begin laying the groundwork for assembling the resources and identifying necessary steps to execute the plan. At first, I began with some room designs.
I'm a creative guy at heart, so when I couldn't wrap my head around a portion of a legal document, I hit the pause button on my analytical "inner geek", and drew upon my brain's creative right-hand hemisphere to push ahead. Once several draft Theater Spaces concepts were created, we rendered them in software. Only after we did this, did I find that I was completely frustrated with the current models, and literally wanted to start from scratch, preserving only the room's inner dimensions. Being personally, and professionally "financially broke" didn't help the situation. I would think: "Until we pad our bank account, and line up some customers, how could we even hope that our business would be around long enough to build the "Spaces" we're designing?"
Perhaps we needed to first aim for a smaller target. This came to me in a non-glamorous way: "If we couldn't build the fully equipped Spaces right now, maybe we could spool up some of the very accessories we'd planned on selling with the Spaces?" Maybe it's obvious to you, dear reader, but it wasn't to me for almost a year. In hindsight, it only made sense to focus on creating and selecting a core set of accessories, and plans for our Spaces that we could ship as an Internet Direct company. Overhead is a lot lower in this incarnation, and we could begin now.
So, I put the plan into motion, and I decided that our first product would be a subwoofer which is suitable for both movies and music. Sure, I could have just as easily started with a cool set of throw pillows (don't laugh, I actually thought about it), but loudspeakers have always been an obsession, and the thought of designing a subwoofer for the consumer was both thrilling and challenging. In the long term, we have some emergent relationships with a "real" speaker manufacturer who will provide our upcoming ultimate/premium line of subwoofers. However, in order to get started, we decided to utilize our own design as standard trim.
We pressed through a few revisions of the SS-15 Mk 1, and even had a Facebook vote for gathering feedback on some cosmetic changes (social media can make for a wonderful focus group). Along with these cosmetic changes, a structural modification, and a pared down suite of finish options, the SS-15 Mk II was born. It is this model of subwoofer we're hoping to roll into production very soon. It may be simple at first glace, but it's completely rife with decision gates, and design choices that had to be considered. My only hope is that it dazzles the intended customer.
As soon as I was able, I placed some artwork on the website, and worked through inserting my first 3D rendered movie clip as well. The renderings are amateurish, and the video has some defects that I couldn't eliminate with my current skill set, but I was proud. In my eyes, it was good. When I showed off the simple page (which took hours to build) to my partners, I received some unexpected negative feedback. It stung a bit, but their intent wasn't to hurt my feelings; it was constructive. Another colleague of mine is an esteemed web developer. When he looked over the site, I received welcomed praise. It's funny- I explained to my colleague that it meant a lot to hear them speak so fondly of my efforts in web design, and loudspeaker design presentation. Yet, it felt as though I were merely a toddler dabbling in finger paints, showing my primitive handiwork to a well established artist.
Regardless of a bad or good report, keep moving forward. Keep growing, dreaming, planning, and doing! None of us know what in the world we're doing when we take up most new tasks, hobbies, or professions. We may have read about, or even trained for the occasion, but we aren't yet experts. But, that's the operative word isn't it? Start. Wherever you are, start today. Conditions will never be perfect. Start anyway. Take a step in good faith. Know you're one step closer to your goal, and one step removed from your former self.
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