Annoying newbie thread

[g_hause]

Hi,
Ok, I'm a total noob. I want to build my own loudspeakers. My skills are primarily in the woodworking end of this hobby. My sodering skills are rudimentary.
How do I learn to make a crossover? There are schematics all over the place but I don't know how to read them. Can any reccomend a good place to start? What tools/basic parts do I need? Books would be best.
Thanks and please forgive my impatience with the search.

[5th element]

It depends, are you interested in eventually being able to design your own crossovers, or are you perfectly happy building someone elses design?

The latter would be the best if you want to build a good sounding pair of speakers without wasting any money.

But if you want to go the other route expect not to get brilliant results.

Either way there is a thread similar to this one somewhere else on DIY.

[g_hause]

I'm not looking to design my own. I'd just like to be able to build them from other people's specs. I'm not too keen on the kit idea, they tend to be fairly expensive for my immediate needs.

I have a pair of KLHs (10 years old) that I am planning on buliding new cabinets for (they are just in mdf boxes, I want to make them more rigid and get away from black ash). What I'd like to be able to do is build new cabinets, then replace the drivers and crossovers.

Thanks

[5th element]

Your best bet then is looking at a kit (ie someone elses design kit doesnt mean buying all the bits in a kit so to speak) and building that. Rebuilding the cabinet for the KLH's is a nice idea but not worth doing if you want to replace the drivers with others at a later date.

You would either want to build the KLH a new cabinet, keeping the internal volume and the baffle width the same as the originals. Or build a new cabinet specifically for someone elses design, you could always do both. MDF is the material 99% of us use round here to make cabinets out of anyway, so there isnt anything wrong with the KLH box if they are made well.

new to DIY, can someone point me in the right direction?

here is the thread I was talking about before with useful information within it. I hope that helps.

If you are looking for someone elses design then tell us what your requirements are such as, box size, price, what type of presentation you like in your sound things like that.

[g_hause]

Thanks 5th,
I' guess I'll just redo the KLH's, really just as practice, and to change the finish. I didn't know about keeping the baffle width the same.
North Creek Echo's are on sale. They fit my needs at the moment, small, can be placed close to a wall and are inexpensive. Maybe that is the way to go. I keep gravitating to North Creek. Maybe its just because they are in my area code.