Topic: DIY speakers

[Daryan]

I got a hair up my ass last night after seeing hi-vi research has parts availible direct to the consumer that I want to build a pair of pimped out to the extreme speakers.  Can anyone point me in a direction that will kind of lay out the basics.  It appears that I would need drivers, a crossover, and cabinets, anything else I am missing?

Thanks!

[Brian]

yep.......a design.

you could have the greatest drivers and crossovers inside the best wood but if you have a shitty design you will have shitty speakers which you will play your shitty tapes on

[ducati]

I built some speakers in college, out of necessity...  I sold my speakers to buy my woman a ring, and had no tunes.

I bought some drivers from madisound, designed a crossover (not their LEAP design, I used the Dickason book), and built the cabinets out of MDF (unfinished).  I tried a few different cabinets...  One was pretty good, so I stuck with it.

They were very colored, and something wasn't very coherent about that crossover.  My second try was a bit better...  But in the end I just settled with those until I could afford a pair of manufacturer-built speakers. 

It was a very instructive lesson, tho--I learned alot about how different parts of the speakers interacted to build a good-sounding speaker.  And I learned how much effort really goes into a good design!

If you really want to DIY, I'd go with an accepted "good" design.  The ProAc Response 2.5 was widely copied and a DIY favorite.  I heard a pair of homebuilt 2.5 copies and they weren't the real deal, but close enough for some folks.  The problem is once you have all your money (drivers, crossovers, cabinets, wood, hardware) and time factored in I think a pair of used ProAc's starts looking mighty attractive 

[Frank M]

http://www.zalytron.com/

I bought drivers from them once, but they have a load of kits.

[Nick in Edinboro]

I got a hair up my ass last night after seeing hi-vi research has parts availible direct to the consumer that I want to build a pair of pimped out to the extreme speakers. Can anyone point me in a direction that will kind of lay out the basics. It appears that I would need drivers, a crossover, and cabinets, anything else I am missing?

Thanks!

The Tech forums at Parts Express is a good place to start.  Check out www.speakerbuilder.net too...  DIYAudio.com has some but more aligned with other electronic stuff.

[Daryan]

Thanks guys, I certainly appreciate the help.  I will keep reading at home in between study sessions.  This Certified Financial Planner exam is gonna be a bigger doozy than anything in college!

[cheshirecat]

I had looked at the Ariel ME2 MTM speakers.  They didn't look that hard to build but I have to do all the woodworking at my parent house (did you ever try to run a table saw in a 650 sq ft apartment?  not exactly a suitable location.

http://www.nutshellhifi.com/Ariel.html

I also came across this article which furhter simplifies the ME2 design.

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/tweaks/messages/10400.html

[wboswell]

Thanks guys, I certainly appreciate the help.  I will keep reading at home in between study sessions.  This Certified Financial Planner exam is gonna be a bigger doozy than anything in college!

You should probably consult Jonny before you take the test.  He'll be able to tell you all the answers.

[Daryan]

Thanks guys, I certainly appreciate the help.  I will keep reading at home in between study sessions.  This Certified Financial Planner exam is gonna be a bigger doozy than anything in college!

You should probably consult Jonny before you take the test.  He'll be able to tell you all the answers.

Yeah, no kidding   Bos, you looking into taking anything at the American College at curiosity?  I could use some study tips, though my dad has been quite helpful.

[BobW]

Try single-driver speakers, no hassling with crossovers.
Yes, use MDF.  Fostex is a good full-range driver maker.
Test your design with inexpensive RatShack drivers to feel-out your enclosure and porting/ horn design.

You'll probably notice a few things:
Alignment is critical.
Top-end is coherent but rolls off a tiny bit of spatial info.
mid-range is detailed and uncolored.
You will hear things in the music that you've never heard due to phase and cross-over distortions.
The bass will surprize you.

Some free plans are at the bottom of this madisound page:
http://www.madisound.com/fostex.html

What happened to the Swans ?

[Daryan]

I still have the swans.  What I am really wanting to do is make a pair of swans 6.1 with planar tweeters.  The parts are rather inexspensive, wire isn't too exspensive, and designing the box and making that happen wouldn't be too bad.  What I think the hard part of all of this is is designing the crossover.  It doesn't appear that the commercially availible crossovers would do the trick, and building these would require four or five crossovers I think.  HMM

[scervin]

VMPS or Onix Ref 3 are where you need to look.

[Daryan]

I looked at a lot of the vmps stuff, the kits are two grand for the 40's, not sure about the 30's, and with upgrades we are talking three-4 grand from what I can tell.  I will check out the onix stuff.  Thanks Scott.

[Daryan]

Anyone heard anything about this kit, seems like something I could give a go...with some help.

http://www.gr-research.com/performer/av3.htm