Where do I start? The BF2 series of speakers was following the completion of the first set of BF1 speakers. The original thought for this design was to scale down the BF1 speaker to a more condensed form. I Battled with this constraint for many weeks, With me coming to the conclusion that a small format, well executed speaker would allow more people to have access to the pure "all" metal aesthetic I am offering. The initial sketches of these small format designs came about well before any serious thought was involved. I find sketching constantly without any purposeful direction allows total freedom. These drawings are quite often crude looking and show no hope of being brought into reality, but also are the basis of any good design. Variations of tapered forms similar to the TF1 speakers were dominant at the start but with my recent experience of simple rectangle forms already in motion I felt it's simplicity was striking. Although rectilinear shapes seem simple from first glance they can be incredibly difficult to proportion well, especially when paired with circular features thrown in the mix. The driver selection has a big influence on the overall enclosure dimensions as this can alter how the driver responds to the different volumes of air within a particular enclosure. The driver selection was made easy with me wanting to explore the smaller drivers in the "Markaudio" range. This was due to my previous experience using the "Alpair 12p" in the BF1 speaker design. The CHR-90 & CHP-90 were the drivers selected due to it being suitable for the enclosure volume and its quality build profile. 3D modelling the first vertical enclosure was simple at first until I came across the critical task of deciding the driver placement on the front baffle area. I was constantly shifting the driver location around before arriving with the proportions on the front baffle plane. While staring at the vertical enclosure for many minutes it struck me to rotate this same enclosure to visualise a horizontal enclosure variant. Initial thoughts were positive as I feel this lowered stance would sit well with certain environments. Only minor modifications to the horizontal enclosure had to be made to suit this orientation. I was excited to test these enclosures to see if the difference in orientation changes the sound profile, although i expect this to be minor. Material & parts were ordered the following week with the first two enclosure prototypes being built only 4x weeks after the initial 3D design process. I thoroughly enjoyed the build process with these prototype units. There was approximately 40hrs of labour per set, with majority of that spent metal finishing these to a high standard. This labour is crucial for me to feel deep satisfaction & pride in my line of artistic expression, without the hours spent tuning the finish & assembling each speaker myself, these speakers wouldn't have the same feel to them. Subtle differences in the metal surface between each speaker really does feel important to me as this stays true to the fact these are hand made pieces. I also love the idea that people can see the marks the artist leaves on each piece purely by the light & dark tones left in the metal from the finishing process. Anyway, Enough rambling. Take your time to look at the images of these first prototype builds.