question...
so what does everyone recommend for enclosure size? I guess I want the ability to switch from sealed to BR when I'm done.. depending on music etc...
also.. I think I want to build the enclosure by laminating horizontal slices of wood or MDF together... thereby having the ability to have non -parallel walls and rounded corners.
what is the best material to use??? MDF, solid wood, plywood?
Or a combo of a layer of MDF then a layer of solid wood?
so what does everyone recommend for enclosure size? I guess I want the ability to switch from sealed to BR when I'm done.. depending on music etc...
also.. I think I want to build the enclosure by laminating horizontal slices of wood or MDF together... thereby having the ability to have non -parallel walls and rounded corners.
what is the best material to use??? MDF, solid wood, plywood?
Or a combo of a layer of MDF then a layer of solid wood?
Re: question...
As for size, a .5 ft^2 sized ported box gives and f3 of 45hz, tuned to 45 hz, with a 1.5" diameter, 3.75" long port. You will want a smaller box if you want it sealed. I tried mine with the port sealed and didn't like the result. (.25ft^3 box)
I would not recommend building the speakers by laminating slices together, because I have heard a couple of people say that they had problems with splitting of the mdf/wood, after the enclosure was finished. It would be quite a shame to spend many hours building the enclosure, to have it split and have the scrap it.
As for the combo of mdf and solid wood, this is what I did for my Thor TL speakers, and I strongly advise against it, unless you have solid wood that is already quite dried out or doesn't expand or contract. On the front baffle of my Thor TL speaker, the solid red oak cracked on one part, leaving a ugly looking crack. If filled it in with wood filler, and stained it, but it still visible. Also, where I did the 3/4" roundover on the edges, it is no longer perfectly flush, showing that the wood expanded a bit. There are no problems with the cabinet, since the internal mdf box is perfectly sealed, but it disappointed me to see how the oak expanded/contracted. The wood wasn't fully dried out before I started, which I read can take at least a year to do, if you properly store it.
My Jordan JX92s box was created in a weekend, and not yet painted. It was originally supposed to be a temporary box until I made a larger box. I liked the setup, and got sidetracked by other projects, so I didn't look around for an alternative solution. The sides are double thickness, with double-butt joint construction, making it quite rigid. I like this approach very much. It also was quite inexpensive and not too time consuming.
The picture below shows how the box is constructed, with the front panel removed, and no roundover (1.5" roundover used)
--
Brian
AudioGeek said:
As for size, a .5 ft^2 sized ported box gives and f3 of 45hz, tuned to 45 hz, with a 1.5" diameter, 3.75" long port. You will want a smaller box if you want it sealed. I tried mine with the port sealed and didn't like the result. (.25ft^3 box)
I would not recommend building the speakers by laminating slices together, because I have heard a couple of people say that they had problems with splitting of the mdf/wood, after the enclosure was finished. It would be quite a shame to spend many hours building the enclosure, to have it split and have the scrap it.
As for the combo of mdf and solid wood, this is what I did for my Thor TL speakers, and I strongly advise against it, unless you have solid wood that is already quite dried out or doesn't expand or contract. On the front baffle of my Thor TL speaker, the solid red oak cracked on one part, leaving a ugly looking crack. If filled it in with wood filler, and stained it, but it still visible. Also, where I did the 3/4" roundover on the edges, it is no longer perfectly flush, showing that the wood expanded a bit. There are no problems with the cabinet, since the internal mdf box is perfectly sealed, but it disappointed me to see how the oak expanded/contracted. The wood wasn't fully dried out before I started, which I read can take at least a year to do, if you properly store it.
My Jordan JX92s box was created in a weekend, and not yet painted. It was originally supposed to be a temporary box until I made a larger box. I liked the setup, and got sidetracked by other projects, so I didn't look around for an alternative solution. The sides are double thickness, with double-butt joint construction, making it quite rigid. I like this approach very much. It also was quite inexpensive and not too time consuming.
The picture below shows how the box is constructed, with the front panel removed, and no roundover (1.5" roundover used)
--
Brian
Attachments
Re: splitting?
I saw a couple threads about people building mdf enclosures, and spending a lot of time and having wood split. I also don't like the idea of having so many seams with the mdf also.
As for the sealed enclosure, the bass response response was far less that I was content with, and besides the bass, it just didn't sound as good as the ported box. Besides, I really like the fast bass response that the jx92s driver in the ported box.
--
Brian
AudioGeek said:
I saw a couple threads about people building mdf enclosures, and spending a lot of time and having wood split. I also don't like the idea of having so many seams with the mdf also.
As for the sealed enclosure, the bass response response was far less that I was content with, and besides the bass, it just didn't sound as good as the ported box. Besides, I really like the fast bass response that the jx92s driver in the ported box.
--
Brian
sreten.
No matter how dry solid wood is it's still going to expand and contract. Especially seasonally. If you make an enclosure out of it you need to pick up either very dry straight planks or do glue-ups. Likewise you need to including jointery that will allow for joints to slip or contract if they join perpendicullar grains. If you've never worked with solid wood before then definitally pick up a book or two before building an enclosure out of solid wood.
sreten - thanks for details of the program. Damn, another windows app.
enclosure volumes - the 0.6 volume is pretty close to Ted's recommended size of 12.5 litres, as shown on his website. This design can be either sealed, vented or a TL. (The TL will be more work.)
regarding wood types - solid wood is ok if you live in a non-centrally heated house or you can get kiln dried wood which has zero moisture content and are happy doing real woodworking joints. It's a bit ambitious for a loudspeaker enclosure. The BBC designs used birch ply, screwed and glued. In fact, they used quite thin ply which was then damped internally with bitumen pads - this lowered the resonant freq of the panels and worked better than thicker panels, undamped.
MDF gives a good finish to paint but is a bit heavier to work with than ply (and tends to blunt your tools faster).
Colin
enclosure volumes - the 0.6 volume is pretty close to Ted's recommended size of 12.5 litres, as shown on his website. This design can be either sealed, vented or a TL. (The TL will be more work.)
regarding wood types - solid wood is ok if you live in a non-centrally heated house or you can get kiln dried wood which has zero moisture content and are happy doing real woodworking joints. It's a bit ambitious for a loudspeaker enclosure. The BBC designs used birch ply, screwed and glued. In fact, they used quite thin ply which was then damped internally with bitumen pads - this lowered the resonant freq of the panels and worked better than thicker panels, undamped.
MDF gives a good finish to paint but is a bit heavier to work with than ply (and tends to blunt your tools faster).
Colin
Jim Griffin said:
Actually, I went with the 0.25 cu ft box. It looked quite a bit bigger, as I made the sides, top and bottom 1.5" thick. I used the recommended port tube from PE set at the 4" length also.
These were great speakers, but unfortunately I damaged one of the drivers and it killed the HF response. I ended up selling the speakers at a cheap price to a friend of mine who said that he didn't mind the missing highs from one of the speakers, as he was using them for background music.
I would build another pair if the driver price for the JX92S didn't increase so much. I bought my pair of drivers quite a while back for $160 for the pair, and now they go for $150 each.... I guess it is partly due to the change in the exchange rate.
The JX92S/GS2i speaker sounded quite good as well. I was suprised how well the ribbon integrated with the jordan driver.
--
Brian
Hi guys
Just received an email from HiFiSound Germany that they have another kit for sale based on Jordan's TL cabinet.
http://www.hifisound.de/oxid/index....s&anid=5d541f61a68482ab7.78265910&tpl=&lang=1
Any volunteers to try it out?
Cheers
GeWa
Just received an email from HiFiSound Germany that they have another kit for sale based on Jordan's TL cabinet.
http://www.hifisound.de/oxid/index....s&anid=5d541f61a68482ab7.78265910&tpl=&lang=1
Any volunteers to try it out?
Cheers
GeWa
Please be aware of that there's no parts list to that horn speaker shown on the HifiSound- website.
Nope in the PDF, too...
If you are interested in plans to that horn I can send out an email containing 2 PDF- files with an article of the german magazine "Klang & Ton", which originally invented this horn.
Those articles are containing a parts list.
The articles are written in german...
Regards, Benny
Nope in the PDF, too...
If you are interested in plans to that horn I can send out an email containing 2 PDF- files with an article of the german magazine "Klang & Ton", which originally invented this horn.
Those articles are containing a parts list.
The articles are written in german...
Regards, Benny
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.