DIY Towers?

[twosevennine]

Havent looked around much yet, but are there members here that build there own tower speakers? Im new to home audio/video and i'm not sure how people are designing there front stages these days. I have been doing high end SQ car audio for some time now. Some help with driver/xover selection and design would be greatly appreciated. Anyone familiar with the? Creative Sound Solutions products? or MarkAudio? Cool lookin drivers these guys have.

 

[j_garcia]

Kit might be the way to go if you are going to build your own cabinets. Try this guy: http://www.gr-research.com/ The A/V-3

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

zaph's site has tons of different DIY projects including towers
http://www.zaphaudio.com/
In general there are lots of DIYers here, just make sure to post in right topic next time

http://www.parts-express.com/speaker-building.cfm got large selections of speaker kits/plans and speaker parts for sale at pretty decent prices

 

[dkane360]

zaph's site has tons of different DIY projects including towers
http://www.zaphaudio.com/
In general there are lots of DIYers here, just make sure to post in right topic next time

http://www.parts-express.com/speaker-building.cfm got large selections of speaker kits/plans and speaker parts for sale at pretty decent prices

I've been thinking of doing the Tritrix kit. Seems pretty straightforward.
http://www.parts-express.com//projectshowcase/indexn.cfm?project=Tritrix

 

[j_garcia]

That tritrix kit looked like it was an excellent deal when they were on sale around xmas for something like $200 or $250 for the whole package (including cabinets). I considered a pair at that price too for my second system.

 

[GirgleMirt]

What's your budget?

 

[twosevennine]

I have about $700 maybe a little more just for the towers. And i have no receiver/amp selected yet either, i figured i would pick the speakers first then the receiver.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I have about $700 maybe a little more just for the towers. And i have no receiver/amp selected yet either, i figured i would pick the speakers first then the receiver.

Well, unlike 99.9% of newcomers you figured this right
speakers first, amps later.

 

[lsiberian]

Well, unlike 99.9% of newcomers you figured this right
speakers first, amps later.

Well it's hard to make sound without the amp.

 

[annunaki]

I would suggest taking a look at some existing proven designs if it will be your first foray into the DIY realm. Crossovers can be really tricky if one is not familiar.

Take a look at some designs from Zaph as suggested above. Take a better approach to cabinet design to eliminate resonances and you should end up with some pretty nice speakers.

Madisound also has some good kits. You can save money on crossover components however as some of their kits use slightly esoteric parts.

 

[m_vanmeter]

a suggestion...

start out with the TriTrix kit from Parts-Express mentioned above. This is an excellent kit and it results in a very nice pair of tower speakers. Even building this kit is not for the faint hearted, or someone without the room to build them correctly.

Once you have made all the new-bee mistakes on these towers, then consider moving on to more exotic builds.

I have a feeling once you hear the TriTrix pair perform, you might have "scratched the itch" to build some towers..... or the whole experience may encourage you to "go for the gusto" and do a spectacular build next !

 

[ChrisFox]

Guide to HTguide.com Completed Speaker Designs

 

[Swerd]

twosevennine

For $700 you should be able to build some excellent towers. For less, you could still do very well. Others have suggested building a kit or an established design. I agree with them.

In home audio speaker building, best results come when the crossover is custom designed only after the drivers and cabinet design are first determined. In car audio, if I'm correct, it seems off-the-shelf premade crossovers are often used, and cabinets are only for subwoofers.

You probably understand how woofers interact with cabinets to shape and tune the low end of the bass. But the speaker cabinet, the arrangement of the speakers as they are mounted on the front baffle of the cabinet, and the width of the front baffle all play an important role in the sound of the speaker for most frequencies above the low end. A good crossover is designed not only for a particular set of woofers and tweeters, but also for the cabinet they are mounted in.

This is why I agree with the suggestions that you build a tower based on an established design, rather than try to design your own. A crossover can make or break a design. A good crossover can get good sound from average or even poor drivers, and a poorly designed crossover can make expensive drivers sound like garbage.

 

[twosevennine]

Good advice guys. Thankyou. In car audio, I normally just do a fully active setup, almost a must because you cant exactly move speakers around to different spots ect... But I have used a few off the shelf component sets ready to go in my budget installs, and do work quite nicely. Thank you for pointing out how important x/o's are in cabinets, i just figured building tower speakers that sound decent shouldn't be all too difficult to do since the environment is almost perfect compared to a car. I mean there is so much stuff that holds audio back in a car, and it still sounds good if you take your time. Also with building my own speakers, i like that i have no limitations, plenty of space for basically any design whether it be a 2way, 2.5way,3way or 4way ect. And hell, now that i dont have to work with door panels i can acually tune a driver with a box! I wanted to do something that stands out, i finally can display my work instead of hiding everything under an ugly plastic door panel.

So custom x/o is a must? Even if i went with say, a high end car audio component?

 

[Swerd]

So custom x/o is a must? Even if i went with say, a high end car audio component?

Yes, it's a must, especially with expensive components. Remember that a car has significant road noise (unless you never drive it), and no matter how good the sound system, that road noise masks a lot of audio's midrange and treble. With good home speakers, you'll hear a lot more of what the road noise masks in a car. A good crossover (despite the name) does a lot more than provide high-pass and low-pass filters. It contains circuits that optimize the shapes of the roll off curves of the woofer and tweeter, filters out unwanted high-frequency break-up noise of some woofers, and that EQ the sound as necessary. All so you get as flat a frequency response curve as possible.

Here is an example of what a cabinet does to the response of a tweeter (a high end Aurum Cantus G2 ribbon tweeter in this case).

First, the manufacturer's published anechoic frequency response curve

Then, the same tweeter (without any filter) in one particular cabinet:

See the major differences between 1-4 kHz. Only a custom crossover can deal properly with that.

And hell, now that i don't have to work with door panels i can actually tune a driver with a box! I wanted to do something that stands out, i finally can display my work instead of hiding everything under an ugly plastic door panel.

You should consider a transmission line type tower design. They do bass that sounds better, in my opinion, than any sealed or ported reflex design I've heard. For example, the inexpensive TriTrix kit, comes with a TL type cabinet. I'm guessing that you probably never have seen a TL bass alignment in a car.

 

[jinjuku]

Guide to HTguide.com Completed Speaker Designs

++^^

htguide has got to be the single best site for DIY speakers. Look at the NatalieP's. That is a D'Appolito array that has been tuned as far as it can go using economical drivers and x-over components.

 

[tesseract]

Kit might be the way to go if you are going to build your own cabinets. Try this guy: http://www.gr-research.com/ The A/V-3

For just a few more clams, one could go with the N3 and the Neo tweeter.

 

[FNG212]

Statements and Mini Statements should fit the bill. The designs aren't super complicated and should come in around your budget.

http://www.geocities.com/cc00541/