Project for my Parent's HT

[adwilk]

Much to my disgust, my parents are looking very seriously at a Bose System at the local Best Buy. I keep telling them not to get to excited about the system. My mom, however is convinced that this is the only option to appease her aesthetic demands... So, my question is, since its apparent that we all agree that these little cubes arent a good value, and that my parents are truely interested in sonic excellence , how feasible would it be to build them some and save them a ton of money? They have a decent sub and i think it would crossover in the ranges we would need it to to fill in most of the low-mids. I guess i need ideas for drivers, (the smaller the better) cabinet materials, including grilles, and most importantly a xover design. They want them to be custom painted to match the walls and the grilles really need to be the same. White or off white would work. They have a yamaha reciever, nothin special, but since they never listen to anything "loud" they dont need to be super effecient like the wonderful bose ones... Thanks a lot for any and all input.

Please, no Rants on the inadequacy of bose... i know it will be hard but i think you can overcome the urge...

 

[Sheep]

Why don't you turn their attention to Orb Audio? Small like bose, looks better then bose, and performs better then bose.

www.orbaudio.com

SheepStar

 

[adwilk]

Yeah, i've seen those before. Those look ok to me... I'm really wanting to satisfy my curiosity and prove to my parents that the sound from bose can be done cheap. i mean cheap... I figure that i could probably build each speaker for about 40 bucks tops using some drivers i've found so far. I just want to pursue the building of these things and some input would be helpful. Thank you though...

 

[jaxvon]

Yeah, if you're going small, I'm thinking small, sealed enclosures built with some 3/4" MDF. A 4x8 sheet of MDF will run you about $20 and that will be MORE than enough for all of your lil satellites.

I think it would be best to go for a two-way design utilizing a 4" midbass and a 1" tweeter. A small full range driver could work (like the ones Bose uses), but then it won't sound as good. A 4" driver in a two way will still be tiny but the sound quality will be much improved.

Hi-Vi (the parent company of Swans speakers) makes good drivers at a nice price. Here's a 4" midbass that would work well:

Parts Express #297-434

And here's an inexpensive Hi-Vi tweeter with a small mounting plate.

Parts Express #297-408
Manufacturer's Specs: http://www.swanspeaker.com/product/htm/view.asp?id=28

The price on the woofer is $17.19 and the price on the tweeter is $8.28. This leaves approximately $15 for crossover supplies, wiring, polyfill, and mdf (per speaker). That's not too bad.

If you can't find a good resource to build a crossover (there is software available that you could probably *ahem* "acquire" that would design a crossover for you), you can always buy a pre-built one. I would opt for the 2kHz model from PE, part #260-140.

Don't forget about the binding posts. Part #260-303 includes a little plastic "cup" like you see on most speakers.

Good luck with your project. I'm sure your parents will be impressed!

Edit: This is somewhat the look I was going for, though obviously you would have a smaller tweeter plate if you opted for the above drivers.

Edit2: There's a project on PE with the same drivers, complete with crossover schematic. Search at PE for "hi-vi juniors".

 

[adwilk]

Well, i think that might work, I know this sounds crazy but i think smaller and more "cubish" is what they were looking for. There are a lot of speakers out there in that size range. I dunno... What if i used those two drivers, but on different surfaces of the cube. IF the speakers were mounted on the ceiling in a corner... place the tweeter on the surface facing outward and the mid facing down and in? Not a good idea? I'm still playing with the idea of just using a driver with as much range as possible. There are some drivers available that would cover the frequencies needed i think. What do you think about something like this? Part Number 264-810... I'm just brainstorming... I could build a passive crossover box to house all the crossovers in one place... Just a thought...

 

[Sheep]

I think you need to try harder in convincing your parents that cubes are the wrong way to go.

SheepStar

 

[adwilk]

I agree, but in their defense, they dont understand the differences. They think that the bose stuff sounds pretty good. If bose really sounds that bad, then i should be able to come up with something comparable. After all that is all i 'm trying to do for less money...

 

[jaxvon]

Check out the full range drivers from Tang Band. I think PE #264-844 should work well.

 

[MacManNM]

Go with a coaxial driver in a small sealed enclosure. Not the best but it will allow you to lower the LFE crossober and still maintain some quality. MA AUDIO MA6529. Would be a good choice. I don't think you are going to find anything of any quality any cheaper. 3/4 MDF, a router and a table saw is all you will really need. In theory you could build the enclosures 7x7x7 and get decent results.

 

[adwilk]

7*7*7, still too big, Let me start over. I want to mimic the little bose cubes. I want to make them exactly like the ones bose has. SQ is not the priority obviously and i realize that perhaps i shouldnt have come to a "hifi" community to ask how to make a small speaker that sounds like dog s***. But ultimately, thats the task at hand. It doesnt have to sound better than bose, hopefully equal, but be a lot cheaper. IF its not doable, then perhaps the bose bashing should cease?

 

[jaxvon]

In that case, just use a small fullrange driver from Tang Band. The one I listed in my last post should suffice. The FR specs seem too hopeful, but they should be acceptable. As for building materials, you can surpass Bose by using MDF. So here's a shopping list:

1 Sheet MDF (you won't need a full sheet, a half sheet should do)
5x PE#264-809
Wood Glue
14ga or 16ga wire (cheap stuff from Wal-Mart or Home Depot)
5x PE#260-302
1xPE#260-530
1xPE#260-334

You won't need a crossover as the driver is full range. Just cross your receiver over at 100Hz and you should be golden. Let me know if I missed anything, but that should cover you.

 

[adwilk]

Would you use one of the bass blockers PE offers just in case... i thought about trying those, just as cheap insurance...

 

[adwilk]

I think i like this driver, what do you think?

264-812

 

[derekbannatyne]

http://www.zaphaudio.com/audio-speaker18.html

What about something like that? They sell that driver at Parts Express too, he said it's better than the tang band full range drivers.