Efficient DIY speakers for gainclone under or around $300 US?

[TheDriver41]

I am building an unbuffered non-inverting gainclone and was going to buy speakers for it. I have been look at the BR-1 at partexpress. Then I was thinking if I'm going to build stands for them might as well build speakers.

I have a drill, sander, and jig saw. I am willing to buy more tools if needed. I plan on doing DIY for life. I have little wood working experience but am quick to pick stuff up.

That being said I am looking to build speakers to compliment my gainclone. I really don't have a preference on size, but would like to keep cost below $300.

Any ideas or help would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks,
Matt

[TheDriver41]

After researching horns and full range drivers, I found some projects that looks promising. I know I killed my budget but I keep telling my self it's an investment.

Fostex BK-16 Folded Horn
http://www.madisound.com/BK16.html

Sigular DIY from oris with the Fostex FX200.
http://www.diy-systems.com/en-us/dept_10.html

Also I have been eyeing the "Holy Grail" at
http://melhuish.org/audio/DIYBX6.html

I like the BK-16 the most because it's a kit. The gainclone I'm building is at 56w is that too much for any of the above speakers? I can lower if needed.

Thanks

[bzdang]

Making boxes is difficult without a table saw, router, and perhaps a radial arm saw (and for me is a pain even with these tools). One has to be very accurate and square to get neat boxes. It takes most of us a long time to accumulate all of the power tools required for a complete speaker-building workshop, and I encourage you to do so, but if you want to get started building soon, the cabinet kit is a good way to start. Bob Brines is a respected valuable member here and he has a great and informative website.... http://www.geocities.com/rbrines1/
He has several well documented projects and offers cabinet kits as well. For example http://www.geocities.com/rbrines1/ .

[Hornlover]

My proposal blows the 300 dollar budget, too, but you get a lot for the money. 2 Selenium WPU1505 woofers, 2 D250X compression drivers, 2 HL14-25 horns, and 2 ST324 supertweeters, total $398.50.
Cross over to the mids at 800, and to the tweeters at 5k. If a few more bucks could be found, instead of the HL14-25 horns, get a pair that would allow a 500Hz crossover, and it would be even better. Use a 6th order alignment, and you can get a 28Hz F3 in 3.59 cu. ft., all in glorious high efficiency. Check it out here:

www.highefficiencyloudspeakers.com

[SoundQuest]

I would point you to the Ed Frias AR.COM kit. Nothing beats it at this price point. Of course this is my opinion. I have built seven pair, compared them to Paradigm Reference and B&W--AR.COM rivals both.

[till]

i doubt a chipamp is ideal for (high) efficient speakers like horns. This is my impression at least with music perfomed with acustical instruments.

[Dr.Faustus]

The "Afterburner" is a simple and cheap design from Thorsten Loesch's site. Sounds like an interesting design to play with.
http://www.fortunecity.com/rivendell...terburner.html

FWIW,
Dr.F.

[TheDriver41]

Originally posted by till
i doubt a chipamp is ideal for (high) efficient speakers like horns. This is my impression at least with music perfomed with acustical instruments.

What would you recommend to be ideal?

[Nelson Pass]

My own impressions is that the high-efficiency full-range kind
of speakers like gainclones better if you insert some output
resistance at the output of the amp, say 1 to 4 ohms, and
operate the amp with a lot of the open loop gain thrown away.

There's a schematic in the pass labs section under "diy progress
report" as I recall.

The higher output impedance allows you to build some shelving
EQ networks, aka Baffle Step Correction also.

[Nelson Pass]

Oh, here it is:

www.passlabs.com/np/GC-VAR-INV-FDBK-1a.pdf

and here:

www.passlabs.com/np/GC-VAR-BAL-FDBK-1a.pdf