My first DIY speakers: ProAc Studio 100 like

[Azergoth]

Hi everyone!

This is the story of how we (me and my dad) made a beautiful pair of speakers. Or should I say monitors? Anyway, that makes music and it's great.

I decided to make them for my brother. He is a musician and needed some good monitors for his home studio. So... instead of buying expensive monitors, why couldn't we make one by ourselves? Why? because it's not se easy. Luckily, if you look around on the net, you can find plenty of information!

Well, let's get stated.

The design is built around a 6 1/2 woofer from ScanSpeak and a 26mm tweeter from seas.

The box with the drivers, some electronics, ... kind of heavy box!

The woofer, tweeter, ports, cables, selfs, caps ...

We decided to build a slightly higher loudspeaker than the actual ProAc Studio 100 to get some deeper bass response.
Cutting rectangles out the mdf was not really difficult, but cutting perfect circles was really not so easy!!

Building the crossover ;-)

Almost done...

The boxes

Everything is in place and the 4 layers of black paint looks goooood!

Some glass wool

The final result.


They sound really really great!! They are really accurate compared to the B&W DM2 Mk2. The where powered by an old (but great?) Sansui AU-666.

... now I miss themp

 

[macddmac]

Interesting design, who sells that kit?
Cheers,Mac

 

[Dan76]

Well done.

 

[doors666]

there's a chance your rear panel might have leakage. put a gasket or something like that there.

the wool looks like a little bit too much. is that recommended by the designer.

this looks like a troels design.

 

[Azergoth]

Hi!

Yes, it is Troels design ;-) you can google him ;-)
I could easily seal the back. Could some silicone gel do the trick?
I could not find much info about cabinet filling. This sounded great, but how could I hear if I put too much filling in it? The wool I used is glass wool.
Thanks ;-)

 

[doors666]

Hi!

Yes, it is Troels design ;-) you can google him ;-)
I could easily seal the back. Could some silicone gel do the trick?
I could not find much info about cabinet filling. This sounded great, but how could I hear if I put too much filling in it? The wool I used is glass wool.
Thanks ;-)

looks like studio 101. He hasnt given damping details on this one. there are some images at the bottom of the page showing some damping. troels is usually very particular about the material and amount of damping for his designs. maybe you could drop a line asking for damping details. he is using polyfill in this one as per the images

you can seal the back but i personally dont do that for easy access to crossover and damping, just in case i want to upgrade or change something.

i do it like this

 

[Azergoth]

looks like studio 101. He hasnt given damping details on this one. there are some images at the bottom of the page showing some damping. troels is usually very particular about the material and amount of damping for his designs. maybe you could drop a line asking for damping details. he is using polyfill in this one as per the images

you can seal the back but i personally dont do that for easy access to crossover and damping, just in case i want to upgrade or change something.

i do it like this

Hi ;-)

The damping should ideally be similar to this one.
I've used some felt (I found some in the basement) and some very cheap isolation glass wool. Apparently, glass wool would be the best you could find, but is not used anymore because it could be dangerous when not used properly.

I guess the main purpose of the felt is to diminish standing waves. Note that a rectangular shaped loudspeaker is not ideal... but easy to construct.
Glass wool is probably for damping, so position should not matter to much.

Do you have any idea how i could hear (measure?) if the damping was not done correctly?


ps: excuse me for mistakes, i'm not English speaking ;-)

 

[doors666]

Hi ;-)

The damping should ideally be similar to this one.
I've used some felt (I found some in the basement) and some very cheap isolation glass wool. Apparently, glass wool would be the best you could find, but is not used anymore because it could be dangerous when not used properly.

I guess the main purpose of the felt is to diminish standing waves. Note that a rectangular shaped loudspeaker is not ideal... but easy to construct.
Glass wool is probably for damping, so position should not matter to much.

Do you have any idea how i could hear (measure?) if the damping was not done correctly?


ps: excuse me for mistakes, i'm not English speaking ;-)

felt is fine. the glasswool is supposedly good, but not recommended. reason being its particles could come out of the port and are considered harmful. i usually use polyfill. you can wrap the wool in some finely netted cloth to prevent it from coming out of the port.

I havent experimented with filling much, i go with how much ever the designer recommends. usually people say that experiment with it and see how much sounds good to you. works with polyfill, dont know how it will work with wool. i suggest you drop a mail to troels about the damping.

the document you have attached is for the floorstander with a transmission line enclosure, it could and probably will have totally different filling/damping requirements.

 

[Azergoth]

Indeed, I know that it's a different speaker, but on the 101's page, he refers to this one: "For more information about filling, see..."

Since I made them for my brother, I cannot check them in detail. I had them for one week at home and sounded great. But is difficult to say... I'll ask him ;-)