newbie links

[NurEinTier]

I need a crash course in diy hifi.
Help a newbie out.
Please copy/drag (some of) your favorite diy (newbie) links here.

[edjosh23]

I'm not exactly sure of what your looking for.
Are you looking for links to web pages with projects?
Or are you looking for explanations of loudspeaker design?

http://www.zaphaudio.com/

http://www.linkwitzlab.com/

http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/

http://geocities.com/rbrines1/

http://home1.stofanet.dk/troels.gravesen/

http://www.t-linespeakers.org

http://www.quarter-wave.com

http://www.vikash.info/audio/

http://melhuish.org/audio/

There are tons. Just click on people's website links at the bottom of their posts. Many people do great jobs documenting their projects.

Josh

[NurEinTier]

Thanks for your links.

I feel like drowing in info.
Many posts go way beyond my head and I don't want boar everyone with tons of newbie questions.
So I'm looking for links explaining the starting basics and terms used in speaker design.

e.g.
how to read driver specs
a basic guide on cabinet building
pro's and con's in speaker choice bipool, dipool, open baffle, line array , tl, horn
ajusting room acoustics
what makes a driver high end?
dummies guide to crossovers
matching music taste and speakers
soldering for idiots

Frankly what this forum could use is a newbie section/faq/article guide explaning the basics and translating the techie speak to old granny language.

[Etacovda]

Originally posted by NurEinTier
Thanks for your links.

I feel like drowing in info.
Many posts go way beyond my head and I don't want boar everyone with tons of newbie questions.
So I'm looking for links explaining the starting basics and terms used in speaker design.

e.g.
how to read driver specs
a basic guide on cabinet building
pro's and con's in speaker choice bipool, dipool, open baffle, line array , tl, horn
ajusting room acoustics
what makes a driver high end?
dummies guide to crossovers
matching music taste and speakers
soldering for idiots

Frankly what this forum could use is a newbie section/faq/article guide explaning the basics and translating the techie speak to old granny language.

Agree 100%, would stop frustration from the experienced members and allow a much easier learning curve.

[edjosh23]

Well I still have a couple of links for you.

http://editweb.iglou.com/eminence/em...s02/params.htm

http://www.bcae1.com/

This should give you some good information. Also try howstuffworks.com. For speaker basics they some information.

A lot of your questions you can stumble along the answers when searching the forum. For soldering basics, try the chip amp section. You can probably find a link that explains how to solder SMD components, which will also explain soldering. Speaking of chip amps, Brian Bell has soldering techniques on his user manual for his chip amp designs on http://www.chipamp.com Go to one of the user manuals, about 3/4 of the way down is information on soldering.

If you go to the linkwitz website mentioned earlier that will provide lots of information for you as well.

As for pros and cons, you kind of just have to read a lot. I would try purchasing the loudspeaker design cookbook by Vance Dickason, he has just released a new edition and it is probably more helpful than his last edition (which I have, and was very helpful).

Josh

[Etacovda]

how to read driver specs
Here id like information on matching drivers to each other, too - specifications dont tell you everything, from what ive read, so knowing what to put together, how to read a waterfall, impedance graph, freq resp graph, and distortion.

a basic guide on cabinet building
Personally i dont need this, but perhaps something along the lines of bafflestep correction and considerations here on how to position your drivers (distance between drivers), along with various things such as driver recessing, felt on the front of the cabinets etc explained.

pro's and con's in speaker choice bipole, dipole, open baffle, line array , tl, horn
Would be useful for various reasons

Newbies guide to speaker jig building + testing would be useful to allow people to accurately tell the changes they're making and the effects

adjusting room acoustics
Needs to have the above to seriously be looking at anything

what makes a driver high end?
Perhaps not overly required, theres plenty on speaker construction on the net... but a brief overview would be good

dummies guide to crossovers
Probably the most important one here... again, probably best to have the jig building done so actual measurements can be taken.

matching music taste and speakers
Again, useful.

I know this is probably not going to happen, but it would be extremely useful. I know theres some projects etc in the wiki (rabbitz's one is very good for beginners) but perhaps simple stuff like this would solve some of the constantly asked and re-asked questions - theres nothing like a decent FAQ to clarify answers, because every thread you see someone asking a question, you see different answers... so you can search, but you wont neccessarily get all the info required.

[rabbitz]

For a basic start to loudspeakers, have a look at the guide in the wiki that is mentioned in Etacovda's post. It will give you a foot in the door.

http://www.diyaudio.com/wiki/index.p...truction+Guide

I'm afraid most of DIY is just a hard slog researching and learning but the rewards can be immense.

A kit is always a good place to start whether it's amps or speakers etc.... training wheels

[edjosh23]

I have also been working on a research paper for school about transmission line speakers, in which I include the very basics of sound, speakers, and enclosures, comparing different types of enclosures. Right now I have only done a rough draft, but if your still instrested I can email it to you as back up information. It is very basic, and I had to keep it relatively short, I had a max of 4k words, so It isn't very in depth.

Josh

[simon5]

If you like subwoofers here's a nice link:

http://www.diysubwoofers.org/

Some people start with subwoofers as a first project because it's easier (relatively speaking).

[NurEinTier]

Thank you all for the links.
Still a million questions left but at least I can sort of follow most posts.
Josh could you mail me your paper?

For my fellow newbies, here's a usefull link explaining crossovers
http://www.termpro.com/articles/xover.html