DIY speaker enclosures

davlaf

davlaf

Enthusiast
Hi there,

This is my fisrt post on this forum, but i've been on the audioholic's website very often. I have only one thing to say : this website is perfect!!!
So, here's why I'm posting here...

Me and a friend want to build speaker enclosures but we don't know where to start... We've been searching for good websites about that but no one was corresponding to what we wanted. So I just wanna know if some of you know good website with detailed projects.

We are searching for something like (speaker enclosure):
1 meter tall
3 way ( bass with something between 10'' speaker and 15'' speaker)
Not too expensiver (under 500$ if possible)
Good quality (most important)

Thanks a lot,
David Lafleur
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
davlaf said:
We are searching for something like (speaker enclosure):
1 meter tall
3 way ( bass with something between 10'' speaker and 15'' speaker)
Not too expensiver (under 500$ if possible)
Good quality (most important)
A good place to start is the Project Showcase at the Parts Express web site. Scroll down and look on the left side under DIY Resourses for the Project Showcase link. The Jubilees or the Wayne J's Veritas 3-way towers are designs that might interest you. Both of those designs come with a lot of construction details, and both deliver a lot of bass. I think a 15" in a 3-way tower is too large.

Also look at Wayne J's web site http://www.speakerbuilder.net/web_files/default.htm for some of his other designs.

And look at the Dayton 8 MTM http://www.wadsnet.com/~dtenney/dayton_8MTM.htm
 
Last edited:
davlaf

davlaf

Enthusiast
Hi there,

Thank you for the fast answer! But today I've called a friend who is sound engineer and I told him my situation. He told me that I should have a 15'' woofer and a 1'' compressed tweeter..... So if you have some guides to do that, that should be helpfull.... Thank you!

David
 
jaxvon

jaxvon

Audioholic Ninja
davlaf said:
Hi there,

Thank you for the fast answer! But today I've called a friend who is sound engineer and I told him my situation. He told me that I should have a 15'' woofer and a 1'' compressed tweeter..... So if you have some guides to do that, that should be helpfull.... Thank you!

David
I think that would sound like a garbage PA speaker. I would NOT do that if I were building for HT. I'd personally opt for a 2-way design, probably a MTM design with 6.5" midwoofers.
 
WmAx

WmAx

Audioholic Samurai
davlaf said:
Hi there,

Thank you for the fast answer! But today I've called a friend who is sound engineer and I told him my situation. He told me that I should have a 15'' woofer and a 1'' compressed tweeter..... So if you have some guides to do that, that should be helpfull.... Thank you!

David
I promise you, sound quality can not be high with a two way as you describe above. The polar response off axis in the upper midrange will be abysmal and the resonances in the upper midrange will be of a high magnitude. Also, the high frequency polar response of a 1" tweeter will be rather poor. You will have trouble finding a 15" woofer that has both substantial low frequency ability and low enough inductance to even reach the 2000Hz -3000Hz crossover range required for the tweeter. Those are just the primary problems that popped into my head as I read this suggestion. There are more problems, but it's not even worth going into them!

-Chris
 
Last edited:
davlaf

davlaf

Enthusiast
jaxvon said:
I think that would sound like a garbage PA speaker. I would NOT do that if I were building for HT. I'd personally opt for a 2-way design, probably a MTM design with 6.5" midwoofers.
Hummm I think i see what you're thinking. But do you have a plan of some MTM design I shoul do. And why you would'nt opt for a 3-way design?

The Wayne J's "Veritas" Three Way TMWW Towers from parts express project showcase seems to be a good project for me. What do you think?

Thank you,
David Lafleur
 
Last edited:
davlaf

davlaf

Enthusiast
WmAx said:
I promise you, sound quality can not be high with a two way as you describe above. The polar response off axis in the upper midrange will be abysmal and the resonances in the upper midrange will be of a high magnitude. Also, the high frequency polar response of a 1" tweeter will be rather poor. You will have trouble finding a 15" woofer that has both substantial low frequency ability and low enough inductance to even reach the 2000Hz -3000Hz crossover range required for the tweeter. Those are just the primary problems that popped into my head as I read this suggestion. There are more problems, but it's not even worth going into them!

-Chris
Yeah, I see what you're saying... But what should I do?
I am not a professional in DIY audio but everybody who has responded me seems to have a big knowledge of DIY audio... So what would you do if you were me?


The Wayne J's "Veritas" Three Way TMWW Towers from parts express project showcase seems to be a good project for me. What do you think?

Thank you,
David
 
Last edited:
WmAx

WmAx

Audioholic Samurai
davlaf said:
Yeah, I see what you're saying... But what should I do?
I am not a professional in DIY audio but everybody who has responded me seems to have a big knowledge of DIY audio... So what would you do if you were me?


The Wayne J's "Veritas" Three Way TMWW Towers from parts express project showcase seems to be a good project for me. What do you think?

Thank you,
David
If I was you: I would build a pair of high quality bookshelf 2 ways + 2 passive subwoofers using the woofers of your choice. I would place one subwoofer near each bookshelf speaker. I would use an active crossover, at about 24 dB/octave slope, to send >90 Hz to the bookshelf speaker, and <90Hz to the subwoofer. This would give you a 3 way system where you get to choose the bass speakers that you most desire. You could even build the subwoofers and bookshelves to cosmetically match, and use each subwoofer as a stand for each bookshelf, giving you a very flexible set of modular components.

-Chris
 
jeffsg4mac

jeffsg4mac

Republican Poster Boy
davlaf said:
Hi there,

This is my fisrt post on this forum, but i've been on the audioholic's website very often. I have only one thing to say : this website is perfect!!!
So, here's why I'm posting here...

Me and a friend want to build speaker enclosures but we don't know where to start... We've been searching for good websites about that but no one was corresponding to what we wanted. So I just wanna know if some of you know good website with detailed projects.

We are searching for something like (speaker enclosure):
1 meter tall
3 way ( bass with something between 10'' speaker and 15'' speaker)
Not too expensiver (under 500$ if possible)
Good quality (most important)

Thanks a lot,
David Lafleur
David, before you even start a project like this I would suggest reading some books on speaker building and design in general. Without some basic knowledge it will be difficult at best to put together something you would be happy with. For someone at your level I would really suggest getting a kit speaker project, as everything has been done for you. You just basically are putting it all together. This is one way to get a very high quality speaker for less money than one might expect and having the fun of seeing it all go together. Madisound is one good source for these types of kits. Good luck.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
I have to agree with every one who has tried to steer you away from a 2-way with a 15" woofer and a 1" tweeter. It may be OK for a PA loudspeaker, but is not at all good for a hifi speaker. Under the right conditions, an 8" woofer is the biggest woofer that can be successfully crossed with a 1" tweeter in a 2-way design. To get an idea about what is going on here, read the article titled "Choosing the Crossover Frequency" http://www.speakerbuilder.net/web_files/Articles/xover article/xpointmain.htm

This may seem like too much reading and too little direct advice. True. Read and learn if you want to be able to recognize which designs may be good and which are obviously poor. Its my guess that you're probably better off following some one else's successful recipe. The kits available from Madisound or Parts Express are not bad, but a few of them can be expensive.

That is why I suggested designs that have been around long enough to generate good feedback from people who have actually built them, designs that fit your price range, and designs that are written and illustrated well enough so that new builders can easily follow. What good is an excellent design, if it's write up lacks enough detail for you to follow? The following websites are by good speaker designers who I think fit the bill. Except for Wayne J, they all will answer your email questions. I added his site because he has good designs that aim for lower prices, and some of his articles (like the one I mentioned above) explain things very well.

Lou C http://www.lonesaguaro.com/speakers/
Dennis Murphy http://murphyblaster.com/content.php?f=main.html
Roman Bednareck http://www.rjbaudio.com/
Wayne J http://www.speakerbuilder.net/web_files/default.htm

What kind of speakers do you really want? Are they for music listening or home theater, or both? You may not know that answer in any detail now. I can only offer suggestions based on what I think you may like and what price you want to pay. I warn you that I haven't heard most of these designs. They may look good on paper, but unless I've heard them, I can't say if like their sound or not. And the real question is what will you like.

From your initial post, it sounds like you want lots of bass and you don't want to spend more than $500 for a pair of floor-standing speakers. There are more than one way to get that. The Jubilee, Veritas, and Dayton 8 MTM designs should all meet those minimal requirements.

Another way, as WmAx and others suggested, is to use a simpler 2-way design, typically with a 6.5" or smaller midwoofer and a 1" tweeter, or the so called MTM variation, which is two midwoofers one tweeter with a 2-way crossover. Build these in a bookshelf type cabinet instead of a floor-standing tower. To get more bass, add a 10" or 12" woofer in a separate cabinet. Often these are powered by a built-in amp. This type of set up can deliver very satisfying bass, and will not sacrifice any midrange response that sometimes is missing in some larger floorstanding models that are designed to emphasize bass. An added advantage is that it is easier and less expensive to build smaller 2-way or MTM cabinets and separate woofer cabinets, and you can build them in stages rather than all at once.
 
davlaf

davlaf

Enthusiast
jeffsg4mac said:
David, before you even start a project like this I would suggest reading some books on speaker building and design in general. Without some basic knowledge it will be difficult at best to put together something you would be happy with. For someone at your level I would really suggest getting a kit speaker project, as everything has been done for you. You just basically are putting it all together. This is one way to get a very high quality speaker for less money than one might expect and having the fun of seeing it all go together. Madisound is one good source for these types of kits. Good luck.
Yeah that's why I've brought SPEAKER BUILDING 201 from parts express. :) And for the kit.... that's a good idea... but I prefer to start from a project already done with plans and guide and build my enclosure by myself...

Thank you,
David
 
davlaf

davlaf

Enthusiast
Swerd said:
What kind of speakers do you really want? Are they for music listening or home theater, or both? You may not know that answer in any detail now. I can only offer suggestions based on what I think you may like and what price you want to pay. I warn you that I haven't heard most of these designs. They may look good on paper, but unless I've heard them, I can't say if like their sound or not. And the real question is what will you like.

From your initial post, it sounds like you want lots of bass and you don't want to spend more than $500 for a pair of floor-standing speakers. There are more than one way to get that. The Jubilee, Veritas, and Dayton 8 MTM designs should all meet those minimal requirements.
Yeah, you're all right. So that's why I'm reajusting my budget to 800$ by pairs. These enclosures are for music listening AND home theater. I'm VERY interested my the Wayne's "veritas". I will follow your advices and build a 3-way design for now. I suppose that reading my new book "SPEAKER BUILDING 201" when I will receive it will help me.

Thank you,
David Lafleur
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
davlaf said:
Yeah that's why I've brought SPEAKER BUILDING 201 from parts express. :) And for the kit.... that's a good idea... but I prefer to start from a project already done with plans and guide and build my enclosure by myself...
David
Speaker Building 201 is a good book to start with. The first 3 or 4 chapters are excellent. I prefer it over The Loudspeaker Cookbook by Vance Dickason, it's written better.

About the woodwork, do you have a router? Cutting out the holes on the front to flushmount the speakers can be a problem unless you have a plunge router and a good circle cutting jig such as the Jasper model 400 and 200 circle jigs. The model 400 is good for circles 1" to 7.5" diameter, and the model 200 is for 2-1/4" to 18-3/16". Like many other tools, they're not cheap, but once you've used one, you'll be really glad you have it. If you stick to smaller midwoofers, you only need the model 400 :D .
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
davlaf said:
Yeah, you're all right. So that's why I'm reajusting my budget to 800$ by pairs. These enclosures are for music listening AND home theater. I'm VERY interested my the Wayne's "veritas".
Although I haven't heard them, I think they're a good design, and I have confidence in most everything written by Wayne J. Have fun building them and I hope you love them when you're done.

When you have questions about construction details, there are two good websites to go. One is the Parts Express Tech Talk site, and the other is the Madisound discussion site http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/discuss.cgi. You will definitely find people there who are experienced and helpful, and you may even find people who have build the Veritas.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
I just read the whole Veritas write up. Here are a couple of tips that can save you some money on crossover parts without sacrificing any performance.

Instead of using the two Audiocap Theta capacitors (at $36.70 for both speakers) for the tweeter high pass filter, use the 1.5 µF Dayton house brand metallized polypropylene capacitors (part # 027-412) at $1.35 each. The audible difference between the high priced caps and the medium priced metallized polypropylene caps could not be heard in a carefully done blind listening test of some 40 DIY speaker builders about a year ago. Despite what Wayne claims, the difference (if any) cannot be heard. I would use the Dayton metallized polypropylene caps for all the caps except for the large 47 µF cap in the woofer network. For that one, stick with the cheap non-polar electrolytic cap that Wayne lists because a large (50 µF) metallized polypropylene cap costs $11.29 each.

The difference in performance between 1.47 µF and 1.5 µF is too small to worry about. These capacitors deliver ± 5% of their labled value, so 1.5 ± 5% (1.43 to 1.58 µF) is really no different than 1.47 ± 5% (1.40 to 1.54).

For the resistors, use the Dayton house brand non-inductive resistors at $1.25 each. Again, they were tested and no one could hear the difference between them and the $3.50 Mills resistors.

For the inductors, copper foil inductors are nice looking and cost more. Again, no one has shown that they make an audible difference. I would substitute air core 18 or 16 gauge wire inductors by Jantzen (similar products are sold by Madisound). For the big 2 mH woofer inductor use the big magnetic cored inductor that Wayne lists.

This all may seem kinda nickel - dime, but by the time you order enough for both crossovers it adds up.
 
newsletter

  • RBHsound.com
  • BlueJeansCable.com
  • SVS Sound Subwoofers
  • Experience the Martin Logan Montis
Top