n00b Q : can I take a bunch of old drivers and make a nice party speaker?

[SpyStyle]

Hello from Maine,

I hope this isn't a weird question,

I have a bunch of old drivers in my basement - car speakers, computer speakers, old home theatre speakers, some sub woofers from home theatre surround sound setups and PC subwoofers.

I was wondering if I could use these to make a nice sounding party/garage/ghetto loudspeaker?

I figure the first step is to identify what they are, like using a multimeter or something to measure their characteristics...

Has anyone done something like this? "recycling" a bunch of drivers to make one big loudspeaker?

Thank you,
Craig

[Cal Weldon]

Craig,

Of course you can do that. You need a little knowledge if you want them to sound half good and not play havoc with your amp but there's nothing stopping you from throwing something together.

[SpyStyle]

Thank you for the reply,

Could you tell me where to start?

I know I'd like to recylce these drivers but don't know where to begin or the terminology to search.

Cheers,
Craig

[Willitwork]

Originally posted by SpyStyle
Thank you for the reply,

Could you tell me where to start?

I know I'd like to recylce these drivers but don't know where to begin or the terminology to search.

You could start by weeding out the computer speakers: most of them aren't designed to be driven by standard home audio amplifiers, they can't handle the power output and have whimsical impedance.

[Spasticteapot]

Originally posted by Willitwork


You could start by weeding out the computer speakers: most of them aren't designed to be driven by standard home audio amplifiers, they can't handle the power output and have whimsical impedance.

Some make passable FR drivers, though. Check for Cambridge/old Creative PCworks, Klipsch anythings, and the like; they may still have value. If you find any Monsoon planars, I'll buy them from you.

Your best bet is to get a SPL meter or some free software and test the speakers with a fixed amount of "pink noise" over various frequencies.

Also, anything marked Radio Shack/Realistic + Fullrange or Fostex is generally awesome. These may be found in some small old speakers.

[v-bro]

A speaker building shop near my place measures speaker parameters for a couple of bucks, maybe you have a company with some facilities nearby?

Most speakers function pretty well in closed designs though, but one should be carefull what speakers to combine in the same enclosure (they should at least be similar size and have similar mechanical capabilities).

Or if you have enough drivers try something like an open or semi-open baffle...

By series-parallel connection of drivers you can resolve impedance problems (low imp. heats up the amp more/draws more current...). And at least a few capacitors between smaller/ more high freq drivers, maybe coils between a couple of lower range drivers (against "painfull" mids) and there might evolve something quite spectacular...

[Willitwork]

Originally posted by Spasticteapot


Some make passable FR drivers, though. Check for Cambridge/old Creative PCworks, Klipsch anythings, and the like; they may still have value. If you find any Monsoon planars, I'll buy them from you.

When I said "most computer speakers" what I had in mind are those (insert computer brand speaker here) type thingies you can buy for a song or get for free with a computer purchase. I just figured those are the ones most likely to be found stored in the basement. There are of course much better quality computer speakers but those I know are not the kind I'd dismantle for parts unless I had a dang good design in mind.

[Spasticteapot]

Originally posted by Willitwork


When I said "most computer speakers" what I had in mind are those (insert computer brand speaker here) type thingies you can buy for a song or get for free with a computer purchase. I just figured those are the ones most likely to be found stored in the basement. There are of course much better quality computer speakers but those I know are not the kind I'd dismantle for parts unless I had a dang good design in mind.

If you have 9 pairs of FR drivers of similar impeadance, I'd just wire 'em series/paralell in a makeshift line array. It would'nt sound amazing, but for a price of "free", how could you lose?

[SpyStyle]

Thank you very much for the replies fellas, now I know what keywords to look up :)

Have fun,
Craig