One day I'll build my own speakers!!!

Early B.

Went to an old school audiophile's house today to pick up my monoblocks. He built his own speakers using Parts Express cabinets and Madisound parts, so the cost was reasonable. He also had a DIY CD player and used a passive pre. It was, by far, the best sounding system I ever heard. Simplicity at its best.

The trick to the DIY speakers was only three crossover components. Very simple, very cost effective. For each "speaker," the tweeter and midrange was housed in one cabinet, the 8" mid-bass driver had its own cab, and the bass was a 15" stand-alone sealed Dayton sub powered externally by a PE 1,000 watt amp. He set them on top of one another in a time aligned manner. The sound was exceptionally clean and life-like. They were powered y the amps I bought from him, but when I introduced the amps in my system, I didn't even come close to the sonic quality of his system.

Of course, his room was well treated acoustically and no WAF helped out tremendously, but damn, they sounded phenomenal. They sounded so good that I'm considering eventually sell my front speakers and build an almost identical pair. His room was huge. I'll use 10" or 12" subs instead of 15 inchers. I already have a pair of 10" subs for this project. I'll take my time and buy the parts. Maybe I'll be done by the end of this year.

zingo

That sounds like a fantastic idea! That would have been great if you could have taken pictures of them so we could see what you're talking about, but that also would have been pretty creepy...

ben62670

DIY can be a great thing;)

george daniel

You know Brad,, I really think you are on to something,seriously,, I've swapped a few e-mails with Jim Salk, and I'm almost convinced to try building a pair.

ben62670

george daniel wrote: »

You know Brad,, I really think you are on to something,seriously,, I've swapped a few e-mails with Jim Salk, and I'm almost convinced to try building a pair.

Hey George you are more than welcome to come over to get the holes straight. I have a good router, and the bits to get it done right. What am I talking about you will see;)

george daniel

You know what Ben,,I just might take you up on that,, my Dad used to build specility furniture items after he retired,,he tried to get me interested,but at the time I had other interests,,now that he's gone,I wish that I had taken the time to learn,, as we still have his tabels saw, routers,lathe,band saws, and associated gear.. Let me dig out the emails from Mr Salk,, and I/we might just get into a winter project,,I think that it would be interesting to say the least,,and after reading some of the reviews,it seems like a worthwhile project,, at least once. Well,, all for now,, off I go to the Corp. world of healthcare,, gotta get my "gameface" on. BTW-- I'll need directions ,if this w/e is still on. :cool:

Early B.

ben62670 wrote: »

Hey George you are more than welcome to come over to get the holes straight. I have a good router, and the bits to get it done right. What am I talking about you will see;)

Damn! I'm out of town this weekend. Ben -- does this offer extend to me, as well? My woodworking skills suck. Just need a few holes cut.

george daniel

Forgot to add,,Thanks Ben,,, ---geo

Sherardp

excellent idea, I considered trying this one time, but I have zero clue as to where to start. I was going to order a kit from Parts Express just to try it out.

ben62670

Early B. wrote: »

Damn! I'm out of town this weekend. Ben -- does this offer extend to me, as well? My woodworking skills suck. Just need a few holes cut.

ANYTIME I don't have the kids you are more than welcome to come over. The door is always open.
Ben

tryrrthg

Sherardp wrote: »

excellent idea, I considered trying this one time, but I have zero clue as to where to start. I was going to order a kit from Parts Express just to try it out.

Plenty of proven designs to choose from at HT Guide DIY section (look at the top of the page at the "Mission Accomplised" Section.

http://www.htguide.com/forum/forumdisplay.php4?f=6

I built the Modula MTM's and they are pretty damn good for the couple hundred bucks I have in them.

If you don't put a value on your time then DIY is a great way to get fantastic speakers for less money, but you will spend a lot of time (and money) building...

SolidSqual

I'd be willing to bet that unless you start building a speaker with all the prior knowledge of how to craft one, you will end of spending the same if not more money as just buying the equivalent pre-built. But I suppose you got to start somewhere, preferably with someone who already knows what they are doing.

ben62670

SolidSqual wrote: »

I'd be willing to bet that unless you start building a speaker with all the prior knowledge of how to craft one, you will end of spending the same if not more money as just buying the equivalent pre-built. But I suppose you got to start somewhere, preferably with someone who already knows what they are doing.

I would have to disagree with you on this. You are right if you are just planning on picking up some drivers, and not having a solid XO design, but if you have the proper tools it is pretty easy. With the price of MDF you can screw up a pair of speakers, and still have enough MDF to do it a second time. Did I mention I have an air nailer;)
Ben

ShinAce

I made my first cuts with a rotary saw and a guide piece.

Now I use a tablesaw. Sure, I spent money on the saw, but I bought it for other things.

Once you build your second speaker and then some, you're pretty much guaranteed substantial savings. The learning curve is steep.

Now I can design my own speaker from scratch, and build it real cheap with a total of 8 hours of labor(including design and testing).

SolidSqual

ben62670 wrote: »

I would have to disagree with you on this. You are right if you are just planning on picking up some drivers, and not having a solid XO design, but if you have the proper tools it is pretty easy. With the price of MDF you can screw up a pair of speakers, and still have enough MDF to do it a second time. Did I mention I have an air nailer;)
Ben

Are you guys factoring in all the beer you will bre drinking while making the speakers as well as the wasted hardware from playing "shoot the can" with the air gun?

strider

GR Research has an interesting kit based on the PE curved cabinets. There's a thread on Audio Circle about it here: http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?topic=54382.0

I just got finished cutting the panels for my first pair of speakers. Sure, there's money spent on tools that make the task easier, but I'm gonna have them for awhile. I think of it as an investment into the future...

Jim Shearer

SolidSqual wrote: »

I'd be willing to bet that unless you start building a speaker with all the prior knowledge of how to craft one, you will end of spending the same if not more money as just buying the equivalent pre-built. But I suppose you got to start somewhere, preferably with someone who already knows what they are doing.

If you just start buying drivers & sticking them together, then, yes--you're in deep trouble. But if you get a kit or follow plans for cabinets w/ specific drivers (like you can find at diyaudio.com,) then you are on the road to sonic bliss! :cool:

I have some idea what I'm talking about. I have given in the lure of single full range drivers and speaker building. Speaker building is addictive. Seriously, addictive.

descending into madness, Jim

zingo

Check out these speakers:

http://www.partsexpress.com/projectshowcase/indexn.cfm?project=MillenniumIII

strider

Jim Shearer wrote: »

If you just start buying drivers & sticking them together, then, yes--you're in deep trouble. But if you get a kit or follow plans for cabinets w/ specific drivers (like you can find at diyaudio.com,) then you are on the road to sonic bliss! :cool:

I have some idea what I'm talking about. I have given in the lure of single full range drivers and speaker building. Speaker building is addictive. Seriously, addictive.

descending into madness, Jim

What have you built so far, Jim?

ben62670

SolidSqual wrote: »

Are you guys factoring in all the beer you will bre drinking while making the speakers as well as the wasted hardware from playing "shoot the can" with the air gun?

I don't not drink hardly at all. I only drink a couple times a year(heavily:eek:):)
SS we are both right on this. It depends on planning it out the whole way through. The part that I should emphasize is that if you can't build a straight box then don't even bother unless you want to get a premade box like the ones PE has finished with grill, and all. The little stuff can add up quickly;)
Ben

Systems

Early B. wrote: »

For each "speaker," the tweeter and midrange was housed in one cabinet, the 8" mid-bass driver had its own cab, ... He set them on top of one another in a time aligned manner.

Something like this?

Systems

If I was just getting into DIY speakers I would build a design like the SR71 by Zaph.(Madisound sells a kit)http://www.madisound.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=35_40_402_408.It uses quality SEAS drivers and the crossover has been optimised for these exact units.As Jim mentioned the crossover is extremely important,the best of drivers will sound like dog pooh if not crossed over properly.

Early B.

GV#27 wrote: »

Something like this?

Almost, and definitely not as nice looking. This guy developed his own design. He had a tweeter and a 3" or 4" midrange in a very small cabinet (fashioned from thick aluminum or some kind of metal - not sure why he used metal). The 8" mid-bass was in a large PE cabinet, and all of this was perched on top of 15" subs. So it wasn't actually a speaker, per se, but a set of three separate, stacked speakers.

Face

I'd love to build a 2 or 2.5 way full range tower using the Vifa tweeter from the LSi. Maybe throw some passive radiators in the mix too.

zingo

I like this cabinet, then throw in your own Fostex driver. Sounds like a good time to me.

http://www.madisound.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=35_158&products_id=8282

engtaz

Can you ask him for a cabinet design schematic? Question not asked are the one's that are wrong.

engtaz

ShinAce

What is a cabinet design schematic?

I think of schematics as electronic diagrams and I think of cabinets as cabinets.

Face

I guess he means a cut sheet.

george daniel

SolidSqual wrote: »

Are you guys factoring in all the beer you will bre drinking while making the speakers as well as the wasted hardware from playing "shoot the can" with the air gun?

Now that sounds like fun to me

Systems

Early B. wrote: »

This guy developed his own design.

As did I with this one, but used plain old MDF.Interesting that he used metal for his mid/tweet section as you don't see that done to often in DIY designs.Sounds like it made himself a real nice system.

Systems

Face wrote: »

I'd love to build a 2 or 2.5 way full range tower using the Vifa tweeter from the LSi. Maybe throw some passive radiators in the mix too.

How about a 3 way? http://www.rjbaudio.com/JDB3/jdb3.html