Anyone ever make their own cabinets?

[mattsk8]

I've always wanted to design and build my own speaker cabinets. I have an older pair of infinity towers that I use in my garage and thought about using the speakers and making my own cabinets. I used to be a custom cabinet maker so I have all the equipment and know how as far as the woodworking goes, just need the wisdom behind a nice cabinet design!

Just curious if anyone here made their own w/ any success. Is there a website to go to for stuff (and ideas) like grill cloth? Also curious about anyone's design ideas for the inside of the cabinet. Like, would you build the cabinet to seal the woofer from the mid/tweet?

Another is the material you would use. I'm guessing MDF w/ 1/8" veneer would give you the best sound (basing that on sub boxes I've build for cars in the past). Probably wouldn't want a solid hardwood, right, just based on inconsistant densitys in hardwoods?

I'd love some info and/or pics from someone that's successfully done this!

And, if I can rebuild the infinity cabinets to look and sound better than they do, is there a place to go to get (cost effective ) drivers?

 

[Swerd]

I've always wanted to design and build my own speaker cabinets. I have an older pair of infinity towers that I use in my garage and thought about using the speakers and making my own cabinets. I used to be a custom cabinet maker so I have all the equipment and know how as far as the woodworking goes, just need the wisdom behind a nice cabinet design!

Just curious if anyone here made their own w/ any success. Is there a website to go to for stuff (and ideas) like grill cloth? Also curious about anyone's design ideas for the inside of the cabinet. Like, would you build the cabinet to seal the woofer from the mid/tweet?

Another is the material you would use. I'm guessing MDF w/ 1/8" veneer would give you the best sound (basing that on sub boxes I've build for cars in the past). Probably wouldn't want a solid hardwood, right, just based on inconsistant densitys in hardwoods?

I'd love some info and/or pics from someone that's successfully done this!

And, if I can rebuild the infinity cabinets to look and sound better than they do, is there a place to go to get (cost effective ) drivers?

Here is an example. There are lots of photos of cabinet construction all through that long thread.

Most people use 3/4" MDF or baltic birch plywood.

Two vendors of stuff such as grill cloth and much more are Madisound and Parts Express.

 

[GranteedEV]

Just curious if anyone here made their own w/ any success. Is there a website to go to for stuff (and ideas) like grill cloth? Also curious about anyone's design ideas for the inside of the cabinet. Like, would you build the cabinet to seal the woofer from the mid/tweet?

I would go find out if the drivers would work well in a transmission line

A couple sites for you to check out though include

Reliable Hardware
Partexpress
Madisound
Solen
Zalytron

Now as far as what material to use, it depends on many factors. lining walls with OC703 and using a layer of 3/4"(or thicker) MDF (or HDF) glued to a layer of 1/4"(or thicker) ply maybe? If you want to keep it light, go with some void-free 13-layer Baltic Birch. No matter what, bracing is vital. The more you brace it, the less resonant it will be.

A few things to keep in mind is that you want to keep the baffle close to the same so as not to mess with the crossover design (unless you plan on reworking that as well).

It really helps to know the Theile/Small parameters of your drivers, because these will help you determine an optimal cabinet, possibly more optimal than the one used by Infinity.

 

[mattsk8]

Never thought about the baltic birch. That makes sense. I'd like to make some real barnwood veneer w/ my resaw so the cabinets look like they're made out of barnwood. Then glue the veneer to the baltic birch.

Thanks for the info!

 

[JerryLove]

I've always wanted to design and build my own speaker cabinets. I have an older pair of infinity towers that I use in my garage and thought about using the speakers and making my own cabinets. I used to be a custom cabinet maker so I have all the equipment and know how as far as the woodworking goes, just need the wisdom behind a nice cabinet design!

There's a DIY section here in the forums. That would be the most appropriate place for this thread. You'll also find lots of examples of DIY builds often step-by-step.

Just curious if anyone here made their own w/ any success. Is there a website to go to for stuff (and ideas) like grill cloth?

Lots of people here have. I've mostly played with ways to break their stuff

Also curious about anyone's design ideas for the inside of the cabinet. Like, would you build the cabinet to seal the woofer from the mid/tweet?

I think that's universally "yes", assuming the speaker is a sealed design (obviously not in an open baffle). Without control of the chamber pressure the drivers will transmit sound to each other.

Another is the material you would use. I'm guessing MDF w/ 1/8" veneer would give you the best sound (basing that on sub boxes I've build for cars in the past). Probably wouldn't want a solid hardwood, right, just based on inconsistant densitys in hardwoods?

Yes. MDF is the most common for several good reasons. There are certainly other good materials, though some are very hard to work with. DIY comes in most of the variety (more?) that commercial build comes in.

The DIY I have here (not built by me) includes steel posts, concrete, Oak, and MDF as building materials.

I'd love some info and/or pics from someone that's successfully done this!

Again I refer you to the DIY forum.

And, if I can rebuild the infinity cabinets to look and sound better than they do, is there a place to go to get (cost effective ) drivers?

PartsExpress... unless you are after the HK drivers. Then the cheapest seems to be "used Infinity's"

Are we discussing subwoofers still or multi-driver speakers. If we are discussing multi-driver speakers then we need to start discussing crossovers.

If you want better cabinet sound: then reduce the cabinet resonance (assuming there's no basic problem with driver placement in the cabinet or the like). That means bracing and damping. Of course that affects the volume: so if you just add bracing to an existing design you will run into problems. OTOH, if you are taking an existing driver / crossover set and building a new enclosure: just make sure the finished volumes are the same as the starting ones.

But really... learn crossovers. The simplest is active crossovers as there's no need to use a soldering iron.

 

[mattsk8]

PartsExpress... unless you are after the HK drivers. Then the cheapest seems to be "used Infinity's"

No, don't want the Infinitys. Was just going to use them cuz I had em (price is right!). I'm not an Infinity fan at all. I think their drivers are too weak.

Are we discussing subwoofers still or multi-driver speakers. If we are discussing multi-driver speakers then we need to start discussing crossovers.

Definitely multi-driver. When I build the cabs I'm just going to reuse the Infinitys, crossovers n all. I'll use this as a test run, then maybe buy some that I'll actually use. Just need to figure out everything. Like crossovers for instance- I know from car audio that a crossover can be a very important part. A cheap crossover can cost big sound even w/ good drivers.

This is stuff I need to figure out. If it was car audio I'd be set, but I've never even attempted to do this so I don't really know where to start. Looks like starting here was a good idea!

Thanks for all the input! Now I'll start going through it and come up w/ a plan...