Thanks for the "welcome back" bigboss. Yeah, it's been long while since I've posted here. Life got "real" for a bit. And thanks for all the kind replies.
For anyone curious about the painting process:
1. Removed all drivers and crossover in back.
2. Pryed out rubber grill grommets from front of speaker.
3. Cut circles out of paper plates to cover driver holes. Used a compass to draw circles. Plates stayed in place just with friction. Cut some index cards to cover the port opening at the bottom. Used a piece of cardboard cut to size to cover the crossover hole in the back.
4. Taped off the PMC logo using an exacto knife. Same for PMC label on back of speaker.
5. Used some wood filler to fill dents and nicks in cabinet. For the grill grommet holes I stuck some disposable ear plugs in the holes first to fill most of the hole. You know the kind that you scrunch up and stick in your ear and then they expand in your ear. Used the same principle here and stuck them in the grommet holes. Then wood filler over the top.
6. Sanded the entire speaker with Medium grit followed by Fine to knock off the old finish.
7. Sprayed both speakers with grey spray paint primer. Just from a can, I don't own any fancy painting equipment. Each speaker was set on a single brick for ground clearance. 2 coats. Stuff dries fast so 2 coats could be done same day.
8. Sprayed both speakers with Krylon stone fine texture paint, granite color (pic below). This was done in multiple thin coats as the directions recommend. Definetely requires patience not to try and get it all on in 1 or 2 coats. I probably sprayed 6 thin coats easy over the coarse of a weekend. Dries fast and new coats can go on after only 30 minutes if the temp is warm. I ended up using 6 cans of spray paint but probably could have just used 4.
9. Reinstalled all the drivers and the crossovers. Applied some sorbothane feet.
I had actually purchased some aluminum bars that I was going to epoxy to the bottom that would stick out an inch on each side and then have the sorbothane feet stuck on those but when I did a dry run with the aluminum bars I liked the look of the speakers without them better. Just a cleaner look. So I stuck the sorbothane feet directly to the bottom of the speakers.
Really thrilled with the results. I am a huge PMC fan but even with my high expectations I was blown away at how good these Gb1i's are. I know some people even prefer the old "i" series to the new twenty and twenty5 series and I can't settle that debate but I can say these Gb1i's are ridiculously good and to get such a "big" sound out of such tiny speakers is an engineering marvel. When the speakers first arrived at my home after the ebay purchase I first tried them in my main system which is a Devialet D200 into PMC Fact 8s and the GB1i's on the end of the Devialet was jaw dropping. But plenty happy with the Cyrus doing the job now that the speakers are in their permanent spot. This is my first experience with Cyrus as they have almost zero presence here in the USA. In fact I purchased this one from the Candadian distributor. I picked the Cyrus because I knew their products had always been highly praised here on What HiFi and because I wanted a unit with a sleek modern look. The silver one I have is just gorgeous in person. Abosolutely love it. And of course the sound does not dissapoint. Superb product.
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