Anybody Build Their Own Speakers

[Dan4510]

A few years ago I build a copy of the Klipsch Belle Speaker. Used JBL parts for mid and high range. Built the woofer horn.

I first biamped them. Now am am waiting on a tri-amp crossover built by marchand electronics.

After listening to them for a while, they are incredible. On a good recording it seems the musicians are in the room.

After a while I added a 15" sub with a 300w amp in it. Now, if the sound is there you can feel it in your chest and it will vibrate the couch!

Dan

 

[Spazdog]

I built a labyrinth sub enclosure in wood shop in high school for two Pyle 8"s.

I got a "C" for using MDF. He would have failed me except I showed how many blueprints I drew up and how many equations I used to determine the volume. (the schools computers were TRS-80s...we had no internet and only a few cars at the local cruise strip had real stereos. There was a '60 Cadillac Hearse with 3 24"s. I was in high school so I didn't have the money for a build like that so there wasn't a lot to base my design on)

I rounded out the sound with surface mount Pioneers on the back deck.

It would rattle my poor Toyota. There was no Dynamat. I tried a lot of rubberized undercoating. It still rattled .

I've built a few enclosures since then. That one was my favorite though.

 

[pcfxer]

Yep I've built many speaker systems for car audio, home audio and the commercial space. I have yet to design a system for a "custom venue" like a sports stadium; boy oh boy, I'd enjoy doing that.

For home audio I look at dipolar systems like the ones pioneered by Siegfried Linkwitz, for car audio the electrical concepts are carried over but the overall goal of the system changes (ambient noise is different and the expectation of a car audio system is different).

So...yes, I am a little bit of an audio geek and even pursued engineering academics to achieve better sounding projects.

 

[greenaccord02]

I've built some enclosures before. I used some software to determine proper acoustic chamber size and geometry and get pretty decent results. Used 3/4 MDF, drywall screws and a BUNCH OF GLUE. Now, however, I have a friend who manages a shop doing custom enclosures, I patronize his business.

 

[Summerwind]

Dad and I built several Vintage Altec Lansing enclosures here,Large corner cabs for the 605A Duplex drivers, and I have tinkered with a few rudimentary transmission-line enclosures with smaller "Full range" drivers. Love spending time with all of that here!! recently aquired a pair of vintage DCM Time Window 1A speakers, "Mini-Tower transmission lines with a mirrored set of drivers on each side. Very smooth sounding..no-where as dynamic as horns of course, but very fluid and spacious. Going to audition them for a while

 

[Touring5]

I sit here listening to my late-70's vintage Speakerlab "Three" speakers. Got 'em as a H.S. graduation present. I don't know what happened to that company, but they still sound good - even though they weigh a ton. (it seemed like the woofers had about 10# magnets on them). Way too outdated to be of any interest to the OP, but just wondered if anyone remembered those good people up in the North West from yesteryear...

 

[mikiee]

Speakerlab is still in business. While they still sell kits, I think their main focus is in assembled units.
"Since 1971, Speakerlab has sold tens of thousands of speakers and speaker kits worldwide. In 1987, Speakerlab re-established itself in Seattle's U-District as a specialty retailer of electronics and speakers of superior quality and sound. With an outstanding, knowledgeable sales staff, Speakerlab gained even more fans of the "alternative hi-fi store".

 

[aquariuscsm]

Mine:

Frames made out of 2x2`s,cabinets made from Walnut (stained and laquered) ,all wood-screwed together.

Drivers:
Frazier 15 inch woofers

Electro Voice 1624M midrange horns

Electro Voice T-350 tweeter horns

Realistic crossovers and L-pads to control midrange/tweeter output

They stand almost 6 feet tall and will rattle the foundation of houses a block away :^) I made them back in the mid-80s and still use them. I engineered the cabinets according to the cubic foot-needs of the acoustic suspension woofers.

 

[97tbird]

Great source for some mid-high end speaker kits:
www.selahaudio.com

 

[Steve S]

Hard core audio!!!

 

[Summerwind]

Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
Mine:

Frames made out of 2x2`s,cabinets made from Walnut (stained and laquered) ,all wood-screwed together.

Drivers:
Frazier 15 inch woofers

Electro Voice 1624M midrange horns

Electro Voice T-350 tweeter horns

Realistic crossovers and L-pads to control midrange/tweeter output

They stand almost 6 feet tall and will rattle the foundation of houses a block away :^) I made them back in the mid-80s and still use them. I engineered the cabinets according to the cubic foot-needs of the acoustic suspension woofers.


Sweeeet!!!!

I still "have a thing" for horn loaded drivers

 

[blackdiamond]

I'm currently working on building some DIY speaker cables using Cat5 cable. It will allow me to use solid core multi stand cable at an affordable price. I have not figured out how to strip the insulation off of the individual wires yet, my wire stripper doesn't work.

My home theater / 2 channel rig is all store bought, but I'm convinced that I could never build anything to match it's quality and look though this doesn't mean that it can't be done. I have an Integra 50.1 receiver with Focal 836v speaker and a Pioneer PD-D6-J SACD player sitting on three Nordost AC Sort Kones for my 2 channel listening and a Martin Logan Dynamo 700 10-inch subwoofer and some small Infinity speakers to round out my 4.1 home theater rig.

I have about $5k+ invested in the audio equipment so far, but I've listened to setups in the store anchored by $180k speakers that sounded great but I still enjoyed listening to mine when I got home. My previous Infinity main speakers and Onkyo receiver didn't do this for me, I would stop listening to them for a few days until I hopefully forgot how great things could sound.

Cables and interconnects are probably the next things to interest me, but there is so much voodoo that I'm having trouble figuring out where the value is.

 

[Summerwind]

Cables and interconnects are probably the next things to interest me, but there is so much voodoo that I'm having trouble figuring out where the value is.


There is definitly much "Joo-Joo" regarding those things, and I understand what you mean. As I understand it, aside from a "good connection" much of it has to do with how an amp and speakers will respond to the differing variances in impedances presented with differnt cable/connect combos. Some setups respond well to "this" where as others have a lessening of something in the music spectrum, or anomalies in certain frequency ranges. A little "OT" but I have several classic 60's speakers (KLH model 6's, and 17's) that were designed for tube amps which had a lesser dampening factor than does the SS gear. When hooked to SS gear they sound very good, but a little reticent in the bass..Now, if you put a 1 ohm resistor in line on one of the speaker terminals, by increasing the impedance just that much, you have a truely wonderful sounding set of vintage speakers.

I hear you on the CAT5 cable,,it is difficult to strip..I ended up using a small pocket knife (carefuly) on mine I believe,

 

[aquariuscsm]

Anyone here remember or have a pair of North American Sound "Studio Monitors"? This company was around in the early-mid 80s.

 

[Summerwind]

Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
Anyone here remember or have a pair of North American Sound "Studio Monitors"? This company was around in the early-mid 80s.


I don't have them, but I do remember them

I am not sure the this is the case with these, but many "Stereo Shops" had a "House Speaker" brand back then and in the 70's. If you look thru an old audio catalogue from back then, it's amazing to see the number of speaker manufacturers that were out there...Some put out a much better than fair product too...just couldn't survive against the "Big Boys"
I have a pair of "House Speakers" from Team Electronics..."Atlantean" was their name. These are floor standing but "flat-panal" speakers with conventional dynamic drivers. A 10" accoustic susp. woofer, 4" poly midrange, and a smooth 1" soft dome tweeter. Designed to be placed against a wall, these are suprisingly good....Not the "Last Word" by any means, but they are smooth and neutral, and go decently deep.

 

[flacoman]

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