These are three way speakers: woofer, mid-range, and tweeter; big, medium, and small speakers. I made them to look like pro-audio, like a guitar or bass amp that you’d see with a live band on a stage. But they are home audio speakers. That means they have excellent sound quality over the entire spectrum (the highs, all the way to the lowest lows) versus pro-audio which is awesome in the middle of the spectrum (guitars, strings, vocals).
The exterior wrap is called Tolex. I also put a few handles on the side, and some metal corner protectors that were also in line with what I recall a bass cab looks like. I think it looks cool!
It’s helpful to imagine the path the music takes. The audio stream starts with Tidal through the internet. Those 1’s and 0’s are converted to an analog signal on the LG V40 phone. From the LG phone it goes to the AUX IN on the integrated amp, amplified (with volume knob), and send to speakers.
I selected the LG V40 for a reason: It’s got a real headphone out output and special DAC. LG paid close attention to their DAC (digital to audio converter) and called it Quad-DAC. It’s supposed to do a wonderful job of making the digital 1’s and 0’s from Tidal into an analog sound signal for us to hear with our ears. The phones are older now, so pretty cheap. More modern phones don’t offer wired audio-centric connections. They’ve opted for a (currently) inferior Bluetooth connection that performs additional lossy compression to wirelessly transmit the signal to a Bluetooth speakers or wireless headphones. Welcome to audiophile land!