Building Speakers?

[Naga]

is there a guide that gives the guidelines to building a pair of speakers? if i could id like to build a pair of towers w/ tweeters ( maybe 2? ) midrange and woofer

any suggestions would be cool

 

[Shosta]

I've got this book van ce dickason
It has theory and examples of loupspeakers. Very good IMO.

 

[rickcr42]

you need to nail down your specific requirements way more than that man.
there is a HUGE library of DIY plans available for download with cut sheets,step by step diagrams,measurements,the whole deal but speakers are not a one size fits all compoanant so I can't help you

 

[rhythmdevils]

Use wood

 

[Naga]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rickcr42 you need to nail down your specific requirements way more than that man. there is a HUGE library of DIY plans available for download with cut sheets,step by step diagrams,measurements,the whole deal but speakers are not a one size fits all compoanant so I can't help you

ok, ill put some thought into it, tho i have a somewhat fair idea

 

[ooheadsoo]

If you want to stick to the amp shown in your avatar, you're most likely best off building a full range design. You might want to visit madisound.com and browse their full range kits.

 

[rickcr42]

or this joint :

http://melhuish.org/audio/

 

[Jon L]

Unless you are an expert speaker designer/builder, I highly recommend going with one of the respected DIY kits. Designing and building speakers from scratch is NOT for the faint of heart, especially if you want something that sounds good.

For some ideas, drivers, and kits, check out

http://www.e-speakers.com/products/diy.html

 

[rickcr42]

the designs at the single driver website ARE fully realised and designed projects,most exeedingly simple in the implementation.
If you know your designers and your speakers you can even see some early works that later went on to become successful commercial designs suck as the TQWT from Furniture maker Terry Cain of what is now very highly regarded speaker division of Cain & Cain.

I think a newb with little real know how and low power amps would have the best shot at a musically satifying result by keeping it simple and a full range single driver system is a basic as it gets and they sound great as an added bonus.i have a pair ofbuschorn MKll's floating around here with $5 drivers in them that I can not even conceive of parting with even though not my main system.

 

[ooheadsoo]

e-speaker stuff isn't reviewed any where - I would beware their designs. The xover is too important. A full range design like one of those posted on the site Rick posted if you have cabinetry skills or a full kit from madisound is much more safe if you are ok with the idea.

 

[JWFokker]

Do you have power tools? I frequently forget to ask when suggesting that people should build their own speakers. If you've got a table saw, or at least a circular saw and a router, you can have some killer sounding speakers for very little.

If you wanted to you could make a line array of Aurasound NS3's for pretty cheap, or you could go for something a little more but significantly better if you use Fostex full range drivers. The FE126E or 127E is a great budget driver at just over $30, or even better is the FE166E/FE167E at around $60-70 a driver. Beyond that the FE206E/FE207E is a great driver but you get diminishing returns as you get more expensive. I could live with a pair of FE206E's and feel no need to ever upgrade but the FE166E is an excellent value if you don't want to drop a lot of money on your first pair. In fact, if you have no speaker building experience, I'd go even lower and get a pair of FE126E's since they're so cheap so you can work out the kinks of your design before you go and spend ~$180 on drivers and have it turn out mediocre sounding. Especially since the right higher end driver sounds better in a bass horn than a transmission line anyway. Good sites to check out are:

http://www.diyaudio.com/wiki/
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/forum...php?forumid=22
http://melhuish.org/audio/
www.fullrangedriver.com
www.quarterwave.com

They've got plenty of info, especially on full range driver based speakers.

You can get plenty of good drivers at Madisound:

http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/ind...8.6905&pid=100
http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/ind....6954&pid=1532
http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/ind...9.6954&pid=324
http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/ind...9.6954&pid=327

All of these drivers have plenty of top end extension so you can definitely use them without a tweeter, and most people frequently do, though you could add one if you wanted to. It keeps things simpler if you leave it off however. You probably won't miss it. You may want to consider a sub though. While you can get pretty deep bass with a full range driver that's in a properly tuned enclosure you won't hit below 40Hz with any of these. A good quality 15" sub in a sonotube enclosure would be easy and cheap to stick with that theme, though open baffle would be even easier. Do lots of research first and keep things simple the first time unless you've got plenty of wood working experience. Even a modest transmission line will sound suprisingly good for very little money.

EDIT: I just noticed your sig. If you're going to be using these with a PC, you'll want to either get shielded drivers or keep them about 2 feet away from your monitor and PC. The magnets will screw with the electron gun in your monitor and can impair sound quality if you have it near your PC case. Most of the drivers I mentioned have shielded counterparts or you can buy a metal basket/bowl (also from Madisound) that you can put on yourself. Considering the shielded drivers are the same price, I'd go that route, though the unshielded drivers do sound better.

EDIT: typo