I’m interested in finding out if there is any interest in learning / sharing information on building home audio speakers. I’ve made about a dozen or so pairs over the years and have some knowledge to share plus more to learn from others as well. I’m getting ready to start another set for myself.
Building speakers involves woodworking, electronics, computer programs for modeling / measuring and a few other skills depending on how complicated you want them to be.
I’d be interested - know next to nothing about it, but would love to learn.
David,
Ok great! Lets see how much interest there is over the next couple of days and maybe we can get a workshop going.
Thanks,
Brad
I would be interested as well. I know minimal about the electronics but would be willing to help out in the woodworking/CNC area.
I’m interested in learning how to design a crossover. The speaker box is the easy part IMHO and we can group buy MDF for the boxes.
MDF? Nah, cherry, maple, mahogany, etc. Speakers should look good as well as sound good.
From what I’ve read, MDF is better for the structure, with veneer for looks. Less chance of resonance that way. Assuming you get good bonding on the veneer.
Also MUCH cheaper for experimenting.
From the research I did not too long ago (shortly after I took the MultiCam class), most guys recommend MDF with hardwood veneer. I would likely want them black to match other things, so MDF it is. Dimensionally stable and machines incredibly well.
Enclosures for speakers are generally made from HDF (high density fiber board) which is comprised of much finer particles than MDF (medium density fiber board). The goal of the box is for it not to resonate or “color” the sound so that the drivers themselves reacting to the parameters of the engineered enclosure and electronics in the signal path create the sound reproduction. People are even casting speaker shells out of concrete to eliminate resonance. May be a bit extreme, but that’s the fun of it as I see it.
If anyone needs the help I have the X-over Pro & Bass-box Pro software to do the modeling.
When I was in college a fraternity built his own loudspeakers, the sub-woofers (one wasn’t enough) were massive folded horns. The enclosures were double walled with about a 2" gap between them that about 250# of sand were poured into.
If I have find my books on speaker design I’ll bring them in and donate to the cause.
A class going through a speaker design would be awesome. I’ll volunteer to help people design/build an enclosure once I know what goes in to it.
The electronics folks could help with the by-pass filters. I remember hand winding the chokes - very tiresome when you have a very long piece of wire to keep looping through a torus magnet.
Well the thing to consider too for this type of group it would need to be how much “purist” and how much “get to building” a person wants to be. Some folks would love to learn a bit, get help with a design and then have fun building it. There are many who want to pull out the microscope and inspect the molecular makeup of the glue before it’s used. I’m somewhere in between.
Another thing to consider too is what your final goal will be…loud as hell or accurate and precise as they can be. Very different starting points.
I would like to be accurate, but most of my music comes from Spotify now a days…so up to a point I would like accurate.
I’ve been considering a pair of these: http://www.speakerdesignworks.com/NS6project_1.html
Or the kit from Parts Express
http://www.parts-express.com/parts-express-tritrix-mtm-tl-speaker-components-and-cabinet-kit-pair--300-702
( which hasn’t been on sale in a while… )
Cool links! Parts Express is the best place for this hobby by a long shot.
Looks like we have some good interest in this topic. I need to learn how, but as soon as I do I’ll create an event for us to kick things off.
Oops - grabbed the wrong link.
Here’s the one I was looking at:
http://www.speakerdesignworks.com/SB6pakproject_5.html
Same site, different project.
Partial kit for same:
( Haven’t checked around for better prices… )
Here is a small 2-way that I would like to make into a floor standing tower incorporating a side firing subwoofer. I made these about 4 years ago and regret selling them often. The inlays at the edge of the baffle are guitar purfling and for the grill attachment I used guitar strap locks with a quick release mechanism for a unique flare. Not to mention the fact that they look more like furniture than boxes too.
Early in my woodworking days I made a few hundred cabinets over several years for a small custom design speaker company. HDF or MDF are great for having a “dead” material but the owner insisted on Baltic birch 13 ply. Engineers will steer you away from it but they sounded great. He would custom tune the crossover for every speaker. I built many crossovers with him but he did the design. We outfitted a recording studio with a massive system that I’ll never forget. I traded the last few cabinets I did for planar magnetic tweeters, mids and some nice 8" woofers. Would be fun to finally make a set for myself. I’m planning on bring my vacuum bag system down in March and a bunch of veneer. Would be a good excuse to use it.
Oh how I dearly miss my KLF-30 speakers. 
That is all.
