what speaker brand?

[nedcharter]

I am obviously new, as this is my first post. My friend has been on this forum for a while and we discussed building some of our own. I suggested we start with medium sized bookshelf. The question the both of us have is, which brand of speaker to buy.

We will probably order from parts express. The ones we have picked out are Dayton. Only because we have seen a couple people use them on here and were very satisfied. Out budget for the speakers(just the speakers themselves, not the wood, crossover, etc...) is about 150. Any suggestions?

 

[j_garcia]

How about the BR-1 kits? They're around $150 complete, including the enclosure and no x-over for you to design (probably the hardest part of building your own speakers).

 

[nedcharter]

I'd really like to make my own custom speakers. I'd just like an opinion on wich brand to buy. I'm good with woodworking so that wont be a problem.

 

[sploo]

I'm reasonably familiar with the 8" bass-mid units produced by Seas (Excel) and Scanspeak, along with some of their trebles.

The units aren't cheap, but are highly regarded. There's some measurement info here: http://www.linkwitzlab.com/x-mid_dist.htm

I believe that Siegfried Linkwitz is very well respected.

Some forum members here have noted that the Dayton drivers are very good for the money, but I've not used them myself.

 

[Swerd]

I'd really like to make my own custom speakers. I'd just like an opinion on wich brand to buy. I'm good with woodworking so that wont be a problem.

Welcome to DIY speakerbuilding, a favorite subject of mine.

It's good that you can do the woodworking, but I have to agree with j garcia that designing the crossover is the hardest part to do well. Too many newbies think that all they need is a Parts Express catalog and an imagination and they can build something wonderful. There is a lot more to it than selecting some nice drivers and building a nice cabinet.

The best reason to make your own speakers is that a custom designed crossover will make almost any set of woofers and tweeters sound good. Most of the lower and mid priced commercially sold speakers cut corners on the crossover, and they suffer because of that.

It is relatively cheap to build a good crossover, but to design one takes testing equipment and computer software to analyze the sound of the speakers, and some experience. There are quite a few experienced DIY designers who have internet sites that describe their own designs in full detail. You provide all the ingredients, so in that sense they are not kits but recipies. I mentioned several of these sites in a previous answer to a DIY newbie: http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?p=172977#poststop

To directly answer your question, the aluminum Dayton RS series drivers are excellent and are sold at a much lower price compared to other good aluminum drivers such as those made by Seas. They are not the only good drivers available.

 

[sploo]

Some great links in that thread Swerd, many thanks!

 

[j_garcia]

You can also check the sites and forums at Parts Express, www.madisound.com and www.adireaudio.com for some more DIY info

 

[joetech]

I am currently building the Mb20 from Murphyblaster.com. This guy designs some well regarded speakers and is pretty much of a X/O guru. I have some pretty good woodworking skills and access to a shop. Speaker cost is under your $150 threshold. The crossver is a bit pricey though. Last night I rigged up the X/O and the raw boxes and they sound pretty good. I only had the X/O tried together with wirenuts just to test it. Tonight I finished soldering the woofer X/O.
A friend of mine, who is a well respected audio file and an EE, son-in-law made a version of these and I understand they come out very well.

 

[riceaterslc]

this site may have some useful information for you as well.

http://www.htguide.com/forum/forumdisplay.php4?f=39