make your own loud speaker. and I mean it

[metalinspired]

Hi. Last night I've been chatting with friends of mine and we came up on how loudspeaker is truly built. Not the way he looks mechanically (opened one to many) but how is it prepared for production. by that I mean how do they know how big magnet to use, how many watts will speaker have, what frequencies will it be able to produce, resistance and stuff. So I was kind of given the homework of finding all this so we could build 1KW subwoofer. I know it sounds totally crazy but we’re willing to give it a go. Reason we choused to build subwoofer is because it should be fairly simple to build comparing to tweeters which can easily overheat and its response doesn’t need to be so precise. Of course this is all guessing in the dark so correct me if I’m wrong. I did found this link http://www.oz.net/~coilgun/mark2/inductorsim.htm which gives me some clues on winding it but there’s still a lot mysteries here so if you have any info…

P.S. I tried searching this forum but there are so many posts so I kind of got lost

Cheers

[Audiophilenoob]

Originally posted by metalinspired
Hi. Last night I've been chatting with friends of mine and we came up on how loudspeaker is truly built. Not the way he looks mechanically (opened one to many) but how is it prepared for production. by that I mean how do they know how big magnet to use, how many watts will speaker have, what frequencies will it be able to produce, resistance and stuff. So I was kind of given the homework of finding all this so we could build 1KW subwoofer. I know it sounds totally crazy but we’re willing to give it a go. Reason we choused to build subwoofer is because it should be fairly simple to build comparing to tweeters which can easily overheat and its response doesn’t need to be so precise. Of course this is all guessing in the dark so correct me if I’m wrong. I did found this link http://www.oz.net/~coilgun/mark2/inductorsim.htm which gives me some clues on winding it but there’s still a lot mysteries here so if you have any info…

P.S. I tried searching this forum but there are so many posts so I kind of got lost

Cheers

are you trying to build a subwoofer (yourself) from scratch

or get a company to do it for you to your specs?

the latter I can help you with

good luck with the former.... just locating the PARTS will cost as much as just buying it

[Geek]

Excuse the n00b sub question, but why build a 1KW sub and not one that's rated 110dB/w and 10 watts?

I really know nothing of speaker science (just the cabs).

[metalinspired]

Audiophilenoob I do think of building it from scratch. But I'm more interested in learning how it is done firs as for real production I have a lot of resousces that I can use for parts. That's why I came up on this idea on the first place. And Geek I did mentioned how to calculate values that speakers will have so your question is on the right place but I still have no answers on any.

[Vikash]

As much as I dislike arbitrary power specs , you can't have efficiency, extension and small box all at the same time.

metalinspired:
You need to work it backwards, first deciding the FR extension and SPL required not just specifying a power rating. Then calculate how much air you need to move to achieve this and decide cone surface sizes and coil travel requirements before the fun task of designing a motor with enough juice.

Building it from scratch is never going to be cost effective, but it could be very rewarding academically.

I've yet to see anyone follow all the way through when embarking on the DIY driver path, but nevertheless, there are some interesting threads around. Start with this one: DIY Parthenon

[metalinspired]

Vikash. I've been looking at some posts regarding speaker building. Lot's of info. I'm very familliar with mechanical part of speaker but I first need to have basic understandig of units used to design a loudspeaker so if like said in the movie "Show me the light. Show me the way"

[Rademakers]

I know it sounds totally crazy.

Kinda, if you want to build the driver yourself, if you want to build just the cab and buy a 1kW (or more) driver: No, not really.

If you're going to build the driver yourself, surely read the book from J. D'Appolito about measuring Loudspeakers. I don't know if you know about T/S-parameters, but if you don't, learn about that first.
J. D'Appolito advises that you read Loudspeaker Design Cookbook by Vance Dickason first, the books surely complement each other.

If you're just building the cabs and buying the speaker, just tell what you need.

but why build a 1KW sub and not one that's rated 110dB/w and 10 watts?

Wkr Johan

[Rademakers]

A subwoofer with a sensitivity of 110 dB/W/m would have to be quite large, 30 to 50 cubic ft. seems to be in the direction of a hornloaded subwoofer with 110 dB sensitivity at 1/8 th space.

Four to six Labhorns should do the trick at halfspace, or about two when stacked in a corner. Each Labhorn uses two drivers and is about 32 cubic ft. large.. But the powerhandling still goes up tio more than 1 kW each when stacked together. Of course there are other possibilities as well.

Wkr Johan

[Geek]

Ah, so physical size would rule out an efficient sub for suite dwellers. Thanks for the answer

[metalinspired]

Originally posted by Rademakers

Kinda, if you want to build the driver yourself, if you want to build just the cab and buy a 1kW (or more) driver: No, not really.

I do think of building the driver by myself. I have full understanding of how loudspeakers work in mechanical terms but calculation of it's power, sensitivity and things like those are a mystery to me.

Originally posted by Rademakers

If you're going to build the driver yourself, surely read the book from J. D'Appolito about measuring Loudspeakers. I don't know if you know about T/S-parameters, but if you don't, learn about that first.
J. D'Appolito advises that you read Loudspeaker Design Cookbook by Vance Dickason first, the books surely complement each other.

As for these books. I tried looking for them in mayor book selling stores here but no luck. And to get them I would have to pay almost double price. So I'm left to scout the internet for information and to be helped by all you nice people