has anyone here built their own speakers?

JimBRICK

I saw those ex as pi speakers being sold in the classifieds. It got my thinking.

#1, how hard is it?
#2, where to get the parts?
#3, is there a how to guide?

I'd love to build my own 3 way speakers and be able to tell people I built them myself.

VR3

2 way speakers are the easiest to build with a crossover....

tryrrthg

It's not that hard to build a speaker, it's hard to design a good speaker. Try to get the "Loudspeaker Design Cookbook" from your local library to get an idea of what goes into designing a speaker.

If you find a proven design then just copy it. unless you have some nice testing and measurement equipment it's not worth trying to design your own.

I am building my first pair of speakers. It is a simple two way Mid-Tweet. I've built subs before, but never speakers. It is based on this design. I am making mine a floorstanding speaker and it will have a curved sided cabinet, ala Sonus Faber.

hearingimpared

Jim, check with ben62676 he's building an obscene set of custom SDAs.

Systems

I have built all my own speakers,but my advice would be to build one of the many designs available from forums and websites like this one.http://www.zaphaudio.com/ Crossover design is by far the most difficult aspect of designing a good sounding speaker and you need design software and test equipment to do it correctly.Therefore it would be wise to copy one the a designs by someone like Zaph.

here is some more good sites http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/ http://www.rjbaudio.com/projects.html

RuSsMaN

Jim,

Start out at PE -> www.partsexpress.com for parts.

Browse the showcase to see sucessfully designed models:
http://www.partsexpress.com/projectshowcase/homeaudio.cfm

Cheers,
Russ

JimBRICK

thanks guys, my idea was to copy something for sure. I was wondering where to get resources so your help is perfect. I wanna copy something like a totem hawk or forest.

Systems

Jim this company is in Montreal and they are the distributor of drivers used by Totem and others.http://www.solen.ca/

unc2701

Check out the single driver site:
http://fullrangedriver.com/

No crossover! I've played with Jordan Jx92's and Fostex drivers extensively.

VR3

UNC

Where the heck have you been?

JimBRICK

GV#27 wrote: »

Jim this company is in Montreal and they are the distributor of drivers used by Totem and others.http://www.solen.ca/

I just emailed them to see if they can give me info on the drivers and tweeters totem uses in their forests


I can't believe ben62670 speakers. I was just looking at the pics and DAMN thos things are GIGANTIC

mhardy6647

The hard part is the woodworking for me :-( I almost always "outsource" that. Plenty of resources for designing various flavors of enclosures. Besides those already mentioned, I'd add:

http://www.geocities.com/rbrines1/Enter.html (he sells stuff, but plenty of DIY info, too)
http://www.quarter-wave.com
www.t-linespeakers.org

also, while Dickason's cookbook is pretty good, it is fundamentally a cookbook. I like Ray Alden's books, which provide more theoretical context, although not so much as to be overwhelming.
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=500-044&CFID=105712&CFTOKEN=87272777




A few of the DIY's at our house...

my ML TQWT's (Bob Brines' design; Mike Berg built the encloures). These are Baltic birch plywood and the driver is the Radio Shack 40-1354 (abetted with a Radio Shack 40--1375 planar tweeter crossed in very high with a first-order XO):



My son designed and built these for the venerable PartsExpress "69 cent wonder" 269-469 4" FR for a HS science fair project a few years back.



Dave J. here in MA designed and built these bass reflex cabinets in MDF for the Fostex FE-207E FR. I fell for these the first time I heard them, and eventually bought them from Dave.



I cannot overemphasize a hearty "second" of the recommendation to peruse www.fullrangedriver.com

PolkThug

Madisound

mhardy6647

Good point! Yes, Madisound has some pretty cool kits, not to mention a terrific selection of drivers. PartsExpress has some interesting kits, too, plus nice ready-made enclosures.

jcaut

^^^ Those ready-made cabinets from PE are really nice. ^^^

I think Madisound will still design a crossover for you, if you use drivers that they sell and can tell them what you want to do. I've never used this service so I don't know how well it works. Like everyone has said, you're really better off building a proven design if you are more interested in having a nice set of speakers that you built yourself, rather than trying to get into the hobby. Speaker building is really more of an art than a science, but you can't take the science out of it, either.

Jason

mhardy6647

... oh, if I may waste a bit more of this thread's bandwidth...

The three-way configuration is tricky to get right. Even trickier I suspect, with today's ill-behaved, high-tech drivers. Admittedly, sophisticated XO design is much more straightforward than in olden days, but IMNSHO complex, high-parts-count XO's suck the life out of music. If nothing else, they seem to impact the real-world efficiency of a speaker system (i.e., more amp power needed).

If you want to try a DIY three-way, may I (humbly) suggest an augmented full-range design? Use a good quality, good sounding fullrange driver (e.g., an 8" twin-cone, or something like an old Diatone P610 5-ish inch driver). Augment the LF with a "sub"woofer crossed in low (200 Hz or less) and a "supertweeter" crossed in high (10kHz or so). Avoid XO's in the midrange. All of our species' evolution prepared us to have exquisite hearing sensitivity in the midrange -- the frequency range of our own voices (and the predators who were naturally selecting us!).

The old (and not particularly high-end) ElectroVoice Esquire was, roughly, an example of this approach, using the AlNiCo magnet EV Wolverine LS-8 twincone fullrange driver as a midrange. The only problem with the Esquire was using too-low an XO for the T35 tweeter. Well, using a T-35 for a "super" tweeter was a bit of a problem, too. :-)

JimBRICK

I just got an email back already from sloen.ca and he has the drivers and the upgraded tweeters available.

Another question, do still need a crossover if I am bi wiring?

unc2701

Yes. If you Bi AMP with an active crossover, then you won't need an internal crossover, but it's rare that you'll find an off-the-shelf active crossover that'll do what you need. It'll have to have the right frequency & slope.

MSALLA

RuSsMaN wrote: »

Jim,

Start out at PE -> www.partsexpress.com for parts.

Browse the showcase to see sucessfully designed models:
http://www.partsexpress.com/projectshowcase/homeaudio.cfm

Cheers,
Russ

This is the place you want to start. They sell every thing you will need and have pre designed kits for beginers.

jakelm

I have never built anything original. I let the manufactures like Polk do all the hard work..

Im a pirate..aaaaaaarrrrrr

Systems

JimBRICK wrote: »

I just got an email back already from sloen.ca and he has the drivers and the upgraded tweeters available.

Another question, do still need a crossover if I am bi wiring?

Absolutely you will need a crossover If you are biamping you could use an active crossover or a passive unit.But either way the crossover has to be properly designed to get a seemless blend between the tweeter and mid bass driver and to do it correctly takes some expertise.Other wise you are just throwing away money on some very good drivers.If you plan on using a passive xover I would check with Solen to see if they have a design for the exact pair of drivers you intend to buy.If you plan to use an active xover I can offer some assistance as I have quite abit of expierience working with them.Also keep in mind that even if you have the very same drivers that Totem use in the Hawk(or Forrest)they will not sound the same unless you exactly duplicate Totems crossover.

JimBRICK

GV#27 wrote: »

Absolutely you will need a crossover If you are biamping you could use an active crossover or a passive unit.But either way the crossover has to be properly designed to get a seemless blend between the tweeter and mid bass driver and to do it correctly takes some expertise.Other wise you are just throwing away money on some very good drivers.If you plan on using a passive xover I would check with Solen to see if they have a design for the exact pair of drivers you intend to buy.If you plan to use an active xover I can offer some assistance as I have quite abit of expierience working with them.Also keep in mind that even if you have the very same drivers that Totem use in the Hawk(or Forrest)they will not sound the same unless you exactly duplicate Totems crossover.

so I've got prices for all the parts. I just emailed Totem to see if I can order the crossover as a part, hopefully they will do this then its just finding some descriptions of the forrest enclosers and I can start building.

off to grandpa probably cause he'll be happy to build the boxes.

now is MDF the way to go or is there a certain wood I can use. Like they do with baseball bats with ash. is there a wood that works best with speakers?

unc2701

MDF +Veneer is hard to beat.

The next best choice is void free 13 ply birch.

Systems

JimBRICK wrote: »

now is MDF the way to go or is there a certain wood I can use. Like they do with baseball bats with ash. is there a wood that works best with speakers?

I prefer MDF but you can also use baltic birch.Solid wood should only be used to dress up the enclosure such as a top cap.etc.

I would be very surprised if Totem sold you the xovers or gave you any details regarding their design as this is usually proprietary info.But it sure would be nice if they did sell them.:)

mhardy6647

multi-ply (13) Baltic birch is a very nice enclosure material. The TQWT's pictured before are made from it.

MSALLA

MDF is cheap and works great. It dose have a problem holding screws though. But most speaker cabinets will only need glue.

mhardy6647

MDF is also heavy, tough on saw blades, and produces nasty/hazardous dust when sawed.

It IS nice and dense, and thus relatively non-resonant, on the plus side.

brijenjas

Here's another place with some designs.

http://www.htguide.com/forum/forumdisplay.php4?f=39

I built the Natalie P's. (well the crossover anyway, got the enclosures from Parts Express)

JimBRICK

thanks for all the help guys I'm taking all this in

I take it then from what everyone is saying I need a nice DENSE hardwood

tryrrthg

JimBRICK wrote: »

thanks for all the help guys I'm taking all this in

I take it then from what everyone is saying I need a nice DENSE hardwood

No, they're saying NO hardwood. MDF + veneer is the best option, or baltic birch plywood. Hardwood needs to expand and contract, not good for speaker cabinets.

JimBRICK

ok I got ya,

got my email from Solen and the tweeters and drivers will total 278.73. I think this may be doable

and Totem is getting back to me about the crossovers, cross your fingers guys.