|   Making speakers. | RickM
Jul 22, 2001 7:41 PM | | I have always wanted to expirement with making my own speakers. Does anyone have any experience with this? I am mostly concerned with driver choice, like brands that would be worth concidering for a really good sounding system.
I plan to connect my drivers via active crossover so I am not too concerned about internal crossovers.
Thanks |
| re: Making speakers. | gonefishin
Jul 22, 2001 7:59 PM | | Hey rick....try the tweaks/diy forum here also.....there are some people there that I'm sure can help or point you in the right direcetion.
good luck!
enjoy the music! |
| You'll need a book or two | sometimesjones
Jul 22, 2001 10:37 PM | | Designing and building a good enclosure is paramount. No matter how good your drivers are, your speakers will sound like crap if your box is crap (or not well matched to your drivers). These two books will get you started -
Designing, Building, and Testing Your Own Speaker System, by David B. Weems (mine is the 4th ed.)
and
The Loudspeaker Design Cookbook by Vance Dickason (mine is the 5th ed. - there might be a sixth now)
Your local public or university library should have these titles. Even if you decide to buy pre-made enclosures, you'll need some reference material (to decipher the drivers' Thiele-Small parameters) to come up with a good driver/enclosure/crossover match. |
| re: Making speakers. | PJ
Jul 23, 2001 12:47 AM | | Go to the madisound (www.madisound.com) discussion forum. |
| Have you seen this? | Jim Clark
Jul 23, 2001 2:48 AM | | The AR DIY kit? You can read the reviews here at AR and the Tweaks, Mods, DIY forum contains many threads covering these speakers. Just an idea for a first project.
http://www.audioreview.com/audio101/diyspeaker/
Vive Le Rock
Jim Clark |
| Project fever? | Zoltan61
Jul 23, 2001 4:29 AM | | I don't think it's really worth it, unless making projects is your hobby, and you feel the need to satisfy your inner desires to be creative. I think if you want just an OK speaker, it might work, but don't expect to beat the Big Guys in the audiophile depatment. I personally have built two subwoofers for my car, they sound OK, and at least in the trunk they're hidden (so you don't need to be picky about the finish, just simply cover them with carpet or paint them with flat black). But I would never think about building full range main speakers to my living room. That would be way too much work to make them sound AND look good. Put it this way: how long would it take to [1] design the speakers, [2] run around and buy all the material you need, [3] get all the tools, [4] build the project, [5] clean-up after the messy woodwork, [5] fine-tune the sound and give the best cosmetic touch-up? Imagine a time-sheet, add all the invested time together, multiply it with a modest hourly rate you would give to yourself, and add the money you have spent for all the parts/materials/tools. Do you think your final product will sound and look any better, than a pair of Paradigm, Klipsch, B&W or PSB (etc.) you can buy for this amount of $$$?
My 2 pennies... |
| Good Point(s) | sometimesjones
Jul 23, 2001 10:55 AM | | Unless you have "project fever", it may not be worth one's while to DIY a speaker project. However, if you enjoy the concept / design / tweak aspects of the project, already own the tools, have woodworking experience, have a shop or garage, and value the satisfaction of doing it yourself, or want to build something not commercially available, speaker building can be well worth the effort. If saving a few pennies is your only motivation, I agree - "fugetaboudit" |
| Good Point(s) | RickM
Jul 23, 2001 5:26 PM | | Good points indeed. Although I sort of disagree about the quality of the finished product. I think its possible to make a speaker that can compete with "the big guys." I have the added benefit of a master woodworker, my dad. He happens to be retired because of health and has nothing to do. He's got the tools - a nice set of them, I'm rather envious - and he would absolutely love the challenge of creating some wonderful enclosures. |
| If that's the case... | sometimesjones
Jul 23, 2001 6:06 PM | | You should do it. A word of caution though, I saw on the tweaks/mods board that you were thinking of building a three-way design, these are difficult to get right and you may want to get your feet wet by starting with a two-way.
The two books I've recommended should be a good start. |
| Wait there's more | sometimesjones
Jul 23, 2001 6:23 PM | | I forgot to mention that if you don't want to make building speakers a hobby and just want to do a 'one-off' you could build a kit. There are lots of kits on the market where the design work has already been done, (including the design + size of the enclosure) and you just have to build the enclosure and install the parts. There isn't a significant monetary saving to be had, but cabinet can be made to match your room (apparently this is important to women ;-).
Companies that offer such kits are: Madisound, ACI, Speaker City USA, Zalytron, Parts Express, to name a few. |
| What can be done in a garage or basement. | bigwally
Jul 23, 2001 7:27 PM | | Check out these DIY speaker projects. Very nice!
http://www.klone-audio.com/ |
| Seen that site before | sometimesjones
Jul 23, 2001 7:53 PM | | And there are some pretty great "klones" there! |
| Why make speakers when Communists will sell you Divas? | Dali Lama
Jul 24, 2001 4:46 AM | | Don't waste your time making speakers, Communists from the Peoples Republic are happy to sell you a set of Diva speakers for cheap. They kind of look like B&W clones (albiet with gaudy pimp-like gold accents) and (as long as no one has any taste or has ever heard "real" B&W's) you can impress your trailer park friends.
Those Commies make a fine product! |
| Troll....FOSNBFP | bigwally
Jul 24, 2001 6:38 AM | | Full Of Shit, No Basis For Posting
Please ignore. |
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