First project

[davlaf]

Hi there ,

I'm a beginner in DIY speaker enclosures. But some of you told me that I should start with something like the Wayne J's "veritas" tower... And that's what I've done. After a lot of work I'm very proud of the result.


There's a picture of the final result:

There's a picture of the crossover:

There's a picture of the tower without the speakers:

All your comments are welcome

Thank you,
David Lafleur

 

[bpape]

Looks like you did a nice job - congrats.

My only conern would be with the front baffle. Recessing the mid and tweet in a single sheet of MDF is not a problem. However, when you recess the woofers into a single sheet, the resulting mounting becomes rather thin for a woofer.

In the next set you build, I'd recommend doubling the front baffle thickness. Not only will it make the woofer mount sturdier, but will also help minimize the cabinet resonances. You'll find that a lot of higher end speakers do this. Some use up to a 2" thick front baffle. Just remember to compensate with all the other dimensions to keep the interior volume the same.

Looks like you've done a good job of bracing inside so you might end up being OK.

So how do they sound?

Bryan

 

[Swerd]

They look great - a lot better than my first effort! Your crossover boards are very neat looking! The interior braces look good as well.

What is the finish on the front? And more important, how do they sound?

 

[davlaf]

Thank you for your comments!

Yeah I forgot the most important thing... I'm very impressed by the quality of the sound of these speakers... And I'm very very very impressed by the planar tweeter. All the sound are so clear and now I hear some sounds I didn't heard with my other speakers. I'm so happy of the result!

For the finish on the front, I used some melamine. I didn't have enough money to buy some real wood finish. You can see it more detailled on the parts express website. The part number is 260-032.

For the crossover, I was with a guy who's very good in electronics. So we designed and build the crossover together.

Write me again ,
David Lafleur

 

[Swerd]

David

If I remember correctly, you asked here some time ago, as a DIY newbie, about building some tower speakers. That is quite an impressive 1st project. It looks like you may be experienced at wood work even if you never built speakers before. All I can say is welcome to the world of DIY speaker building. You'll never buy speakers from a store again!

It would be useful to other readers who may be interested in trying to build their own if you told us a few of the lessons you learned while building these. What was your total cost? Most useful are those lessons you learned the hard way.

I'm also curious about what kind of speakers you listened to before building the Veritas. It helps to know what you are comparing them to.

 

[davlaf]

Hummmmm first of all... I'm unexperienced at woodwork but I build them with a friend who is experienced in wood work. So it helps to know the wood work I think.

I'm so surprised of how long it takes to build these speakers. I didn't count all the time but I know that's over 100 hours of work. But it should be faster for an experienced DIY speaker builder.

For the cost héhé.... Hum I'm very surprised of that too . At the start I did a budget of 750$ (Cad)... And finally I spent over 1250$ (cad) or 1000 (us).

I need to say that all this time and money is very well used. The sound and the experience of building this has no cost!

Hum.... For the lessons... I learned so much in this project. I learned that you must be very very meticulous. You can't afford to do an error... Yeah I did some... I'm a beginner.

I learned that before starting to build speaker, if you have an important budget to respect. Count all the things you may forget like screw, wire for the crossover, connectors for the crossover, blade to cut the laminate, something to do the holes in the wood like the jasper circle jig, etc. All some little thing, but you need them to build the speaker enclosure.

I learned that building real crossover (I don't know how to call them buyt crossover didn't build on wood) is so hard... So if you dont have the equipment and you don't wanna have a big headache go for wood!

When you order your components, just do 1 order! If not you will pay so much of shipping. Make sure to know all what you need and make just 1 order!

A funny one... I too some industrial glue... If you take a hard glue, be with someone or be really really fast when you glue each parts together.

I used some MDF like a lot of people. So if you use some, when you cut the hole with the jasper circle jig, don't try to go through the wood in 1 or 2 try...

For the moment, I don't know if there's some other lesson I learned from this 1st experience...

I will show you my rear speakers. Before building the veritas, they were used as front speaker and that's with them I compared the veritas. I just want to say that they are hand made but not by me. In my highschool this is the last year project in a technology class. And, unfortunatly, the crossover is really poor...

Sorry if I did a lot of mistakes. My english isn't very good.
Thank you for writing me,
David Lafleur

 

[Mr.BBQ]

I have to say, your Xover is looking mighty fine... Very clean, organized.