Help me pick a design, please?

[blackboat]

I would appreciate a little advice or a nudge in the right direction. I'm new to all this stuff, and have relied on bookshelf systems for years.

From what I can gather after a couple of days surfing, speakers can be made that just use one driver and no fooling with crossovers, etc. That has it's appeal.

What I need is a design that uses a very affordable driver. I found one somewhere, but then couldn't find a place to actually purchase the driver. By affordable I mean under $100 for a pair of them.

Cabinet complexity should be pretty much a non-issue; I do woodwork for a living, have my own wood and metal shops, and so forth. I haven't seen anything yet that scares me, but I'm pretty clueless on the electronic side.

This imaginary pair of speakers will be used with a junky Luxman R-106 and cd player. The environment will be my 2 car garage/machine shop. I'm looking at this as a way to get into speaker building for fun, and for me it's a lot easier to just get the first project done, which gives me a baseline to work from and teaches me which questions I should be asking for the next project.

I'd really appreciate some help here,

Thanks,
Rob

[Scottmoose]

Try the Pioneer B20 8in driver. It doesn't go up massively high (a piezo tweeter added, capped off & padded down helps) but it's cheap, decent sounding and robust. It'll also work in lots of different enclosures.

If you wanted something smaller, the Fostex FE126E or FE127E 4 1/2in units are excellent, and not massively expensive. The former is best horn-loaded, the latter works in a wider variety of enclosures & would probably match your amp better as it's a higher Q unit.

[ScottG]

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/z...gmahornet.html

[el`Ol]

In an other forum somebody reported an extremely good bass performance of the Fostex FE167E in the Lowther Fidelio enclosure. As a skilled woodworker you should have no problem with it. http://www.lowtherloudspeakers.com/drawings/fiddwg.html

[ronc]

Ya know! it wouldnt take much to re-design the Zig to use the Fe127. With 2 db greater than the 103 and a better Qts (IMO) for a TL it could be a simple to build winner.
A lot of ppl dont like the Zig for the pipe sound, but with proper stuffing it could work and still retain that image the Zigs are known for.

ron

[blackboat]

Thanks all, that's a great start.

I love the whole Zigmahornet system. Sent off an email requesting the info for that one. The PS1 for a front end had me laughing so hard my wife came to check on me. That's the kind of stuff I really appreciate: simple. economical and apparently does the job. Going to be looking for PS1's at garage sales now. Had not stumbled across this design before.

The link to the Lowther enclosure is appreciated. That's one I've seen before, but the cost of the drivers put me off. I didn't know you could use another driver with success. Like I said I'm real new at this. The FE167E's are a bit out of the budget, but close enough to be considered. The drawings are good enough for me to work from; shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to redraw in AutoCad then program the CNC to get the parts out.

This sort of thing helps projects along:




That's actually an old machine we've since replaced, but you get the idea. I draw and program parts daily, so having a simple drawing like the Lowther thing is great.

Really appreciate the suggestions; starting to get excited and thinking of all the other rooms in the house where I could put another system.

Thanks very much,
Rob

[AdamThorne]

Can anyone point me toward more info about the Fostex 167 in the Lowther cab?

Thx!

[Godzilla]

Build a BIB!

http://www.zillaspeak.com/bib-pics.asp

You can pick from many drivers in your budget. Even tho the cabinet is easy to build there is no need to get into the more complicated back horns like the one for the Lowther design (although i'm sure it's great).

http://www.zillaspeak.com/bib-howtobuild.asp

I would consider the Fostex 127, 126, 167 or 166 depending on the cabinet size you prefer.

Godzilla