Hi, I'm Tyler. I wish to build a set of speakers for my room. This is my first post, please be gental!
I understand alot of people come on this forum (and many like it) and start asking away with stupid questions that could have been easily answered had they just done a small bit of research. Or people come on with high expections. I have alot of expierience with those people on many different forums (cars are my thing). I am not one of those people, I have spent a fair bit of time researching DIY speakers and kits, and I feel overwhelmed. I have confidence this is somthing I can do, however, I am no expert. The great part of forums is that people who are not experts can talk with people how are and get there input.
I have a mini theater set up in my bedroom. I have a a 15" dayton subwoofer in a 5.5' ported enclusure with a 250w parts express subwoofer amp (I love partsexpress). I also have a CRT projector, nice htpc, and a Harman Kardon AVR225 reciever (55x5, fyi), and 5 rat shack speakers ($20 at a yard sale, got more then I paid for, cant beat that, right?)
As im sure you can see, my speakers are my weak points.
The spekers i wish to build will be about 8 feet apart, and about 8 feet away from the listener, in a room that is 12x9.
What I would like to do is make 5 speakers for around $400. Yeah, I know its not alot, but I have other priorities. My main concern is that my front LR speakers are very musical, I use my system for about 70 percent music, and I want my center channel to be clean for my movies. The rear speakers are my least concern (may just get a couple small full range speakers in a couple sealed enclosures). Woodwork (or the like) is not a problem for me.
What I would love to do (in the perfect world) is an open baffle design for the front 3 speakers, with attractive drivers, all mounted on plexi glass (yeah, SQ is most important to me, but the speakers have to look cool too!), with a couple 8" or 10" woofers in some small enclosures for the LR speakers. Dipole maybe? Is this practical? The only problem I have is driver selection, and crossover design (so, pretty much everything that constitutes "designing" a set of speakers). I dont even know where to start 
! So many drivers, so many designs, bleh! If I were to select some drivers (probably from parts express) and come back here, would you guys be willing to help me design a crossover? Or point me in the right direction so that I may learn how to do it on my own?
I hope this post is'nt an inconvenience, and has the correct information needed. Any help or advise will be appriciated. Thanks!
Tyler
I understand alot of people come on this forum (and many like it) and start asking away with stupid questions that could have been easily answered had they just done a small bit of research. Or people come on with high expections. I have alot of expierience with those people on many different forums (cars are my thing). I am not one of those people, I have spent a fair bit of time researching DIY speakers and kits, and I feel overwhelmed. I have confidence this is somthing I can do, however, I am no expert. The great part of forums is that people who are not experts can talk with people how are and get there input.
I have a mini theater set up in my bedroom. I have a a 15" dayton subwoofer in a 5.5' ported enclusure with a 250w parts express subwoofer amp (I love partsexpress). I also have a CRT projector, nice htpc, and a Harman Kardon AVR225 reciever (55x5, fyi), and 5 rat shack speakers ($20 at a yard sale, got more then I paid for, cant beat that, right?)
As im sure you can see, my speakers are my weak points.
The spekers i wish to build will be about 8 feet apart, and about 8 feet away from the listener, in a room that is 12x9.
What I would like to do is make 5 speakers for around $400. Yeah, I know its not alot, but I have other priorities. My main concern is that my front LR speakers are very musical, I use my system for about 70 percent music, and I want my center channel to be clean for my movies. The rear speakers are my least concern (may just get a couple small full range speakers in a couple sealed enclosures). Woodwork (or the like) is not a problem for me.
What I would love to do (in the perfect world) is an open baffle design for the front 3 speakers, with attractive drivers, all mounted on plexi glass (yeah, SQ is most important to me, but the speakers have to look cool too!), with a couple 8" or 10" woofers in some small enclosures for the LR speakers. Dipole maybe? Is this practical? The only problem I have is driver selection, and crossover design (so, pretty much everything that constitutes "designing" a set of speakers). I dont even know where to start
! So many drivers, so many designs, bleh! If I were to select some drivers (probably from parts express) and come back here, would you guys be willing to help me design a crossover? Or point me in the right direction so that I may learn how to do it on my own?I hope this post is'nt an inconvenience, and has the correct information needed. Any help or advise will be appriciated. Thanks!
Tyler
i am sorry for being vague but the best place to start is with a kit.
other than parts express there are kits offered from audax that could suit you too. I have heard a lot of nice things about teh Audax kits.
Once the kit is done you could then modify the XO and box and learn. Designing from scratch could then be your next step. this way you chew one bite at a time.
other than parts express there are kits offered from audax that could suit you too. I have heard a lot of nice things about teh Audax kits.
Once the kit is done you could then modify the XO and box and learn. Designing from scratch could then be your next step. this way you chew one bite at a time.
I think Navin is probably right but....... if you have your heart set on doing everything from scratch then the first place I would look with regards to driver selection is ldsg http://ldsg.snippets.org
They have a wealth of info there (although it doesn't by any means cover ALL drivers).
I'd also say get yourself some modeling software, there is heaps of freeware and shareware stuff out there. I've been playing with speakerworkshop and unibox the most, though there are plenty of others, some I've downloaded but haven't yet looked at, winisd seems to come up a lot in threads (one of the ones I haven't got to yet)
And finally I'd say get yourself a decent book on speaker building (maybe that should be first!!!) They aren't necessarily cheap, but definitely worth the money. The latest version of "the loudspeaker design cookbook" even has a HT project in it.
Regards,
Tony.
edit: Hmmmmmm after reading this thread http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19953 You might want to consider getting something less advanced than "the loudspeaker design cookbook"
They have a wealth of info there (although it doesn't by any means cover ALL drivers).
I'd also say get yourself some modeling software, there is heaps of freeware and shareware stuff out there. I've been playing with speakerworkshop and unibox the most, though there are plenty of others, some I've downloaded but haven't yet looked at, winisd seems to come up a lot in threads (one of the ones I haven't got to yet)
And finally I'd say get yourself a decent book on speaker building (maybe that should be first!!!) They aren't necessarily cheap, but definitely worth the money. The latest version of "the loudspeaker design cookbook" even has a HT project in it.
Regards,
Tony.
edit: Hmmmmmm after reading this thread http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19953 You might want to consider getting something less advanced than "the loudspeaker design cookbook"
Build PMTM1 Linkwitz protos (see here) for main (front) speakers. Then add PMT1's as center and rear speakers. They use this woofer from Vifa and also Vifa tweeters.
First of all, instead of the Cookbook check out The Great Sound Stereo Speaker Manual. It's actually a combination of two books written by David Weems that is much less technical than Vance's book. Secondly, you have a small room and not much money but you want musically accurate speakers. I'd recommend three Jordan JX92S for the front three and maybe something using the Tangband W3-871S for the rears. If you want musical accuracy and you've never designed a crossover you're probably not going to get there. The Jordan and Tangband are available from Creative Sound Solutions. Cabinet designs are available from either Creative Sound or can be found on the EJ Jordan site. For example, you could build two Jordan TL's for the mains, a Jordan 8 liter for the center, two ELF 1.5 for the rears. Total cost of drivers = $409, plus shipping, wood, wire, etc., of course. IMHO it would sound great and not require much design experience.
Hi Tyler,
I think Tim is on to something. Those single driver speakers should be the ticket. No crossover incohesiveness, simplicity, and small cabinets. I've never heard the Jordans, but am interested in taking a step back to a simpler design approach. Crossovers are a necessary evil of multi driver designs and are perhaps the most complicated part of speaker design. Complicated crossovers can tend to sound complicated as well, as they may impart thier own sonic character. Here's a link for a simple to use speaker modeling program:
http://www.linearteam.dk/default.aspx?pageid=winisd
Please keep us posted of your progress. Good luck and careful building! Jerrod
I think Tim is on to something. Those single driver speakers should be the ticket. No crossover incohesiveness, simplicity, and small cabinets. I've never heard the Jordans, but am interested in taking a step back to a simpler design approach. Crossovers are a necessary evil of multi driver designs and are perhaps the most complicated part of speaker design. Complicated crossovers can tend to sound complicated as well, as they may impart thier own sonic character. Here's a link for a simple to use speaker modeling program:
http://www.linearteam.dk/default.aspx?pageid=winisd
Please keep us posted of your progress. Good luck and careful building! Jerrod
Wow, thanks for all the positive responses guys!
I really like the looks of those jordans, thanks for the idea tim! I think when the time comes I will do as you advised, make a pair of vented L/R speakers and a sealed center channel. Maybe later, as I learn, ill creat a new enclosure for the L/R speakers with an added subwoofer, and learn how to work with crossovers that way.
Thanks again guys, you have helped point me in the right direction!
I really like the looks of those jordans, thanks for the idea tim! I think when the time comes I will do as you advised, make a pair of vented L/R speakers and a sealed center channel. Maybe later, as I learn, ill creat a new enclosure for the L/R speakers with an added subwoofer, and learn how to work with crossovers that way.
Thanks again guys, you have helped point me in the right direction!
If I were in your situation for a bedroom setup (and I was almost identically about ten years ago, though without the projector 
), I would go for simplicity.
My first speakers were based on full range twin cone car speakers in a vented box. My second set were three way tri-amplified with electronic 48dB/octave and 24dB/octave crossovers. I later added a sub (yet another electronic crossover) and a parametric equaliser in an attempt to try and make it sound ok. During the second set I ended up buying lots of test equipment (IMP etc... $$$), just so I could tune the things! Looking back the simple full range speakers were more 'successful'.
The Jordans are well known drivers for their sound quality and full range ability. Put in a good enclosure I believe they will sound very impressive. Some people swear by them at any price! Maybe find a kit using the Jordons on the Internet? If you want to design your own enclosure, I would recommend first thinking about what testing tools you will need to buy/borrow in order to successfully do this. A sealed enclosure is easy, particularly if you can trust the published specs of the driver. A vented enclosure is more sensitive to construction errors and incorrect driver specs and will benefit from having some test gear - at least audio sine wave generator, voltmeter etc. Other enclosure types - horns, transmission line - are probably best developed or at least tested using PC based h/w and s/w for proper optimisation. Maybe the best choice in this case is to follow the cabinet design from some reputable source - I heard somewhere the Jordans work well in a rear-loaded horn??? I may be wrong.
I don't want to put you off designing everything yourself, but I read a quote somewhere that I thought is very true. It's better to build something that will work well and lead on to bigger and better future projects, than to give up half way through something that's initially too ambitious, requires too much time, and blows the budget.
Regarding the idea for the open baffle, that would probably look quite spectacular. The problem is (and it's a big problem) the baffle has to be large - 1m wide for example - and you will need some correction network for the frequency response in the bass and midrange (due to the baffle step). It's all possible but it's actually not as simple as it initially sounds. Maybe use the drivers from the Radio Shack drivers for an experiment after building the Jordans?
One more thing to consider. Do you need magnetic shielding? If you plan on jamming all this gear together in a bedroom you will either need magnetically shielded speaker drivers or to keep the speakers away from computer monitors, TVs, sensitive magnetic media etc. You say you are using a projector so maybe this is not an issue.
Happy designing!
), I would go for simplicity.My first speakers were based on full range twin cone car speakers in a vented box. My second set were three way tri-amplified with electronic 48dB/octave and 24dB/octave crossovers. I later added a sub (yet another electronic crossover) and a parametric equaliser in an attempt to try and make it sound ok. During the second set I ended up buying lots of test equipment (IMP etc... $$$), just so I could tune the things! Looking back the simple full range speakers were more 'successful'.
The Jordans are well known drivers for their sound quality and full range ability. Put in a good enclosure I believe they will sound very impressive. Some people swear by them at any price! Maybe find a kit using the Jordons on the Internet? If you want to design your own enclosure, I would recommend first thinking about what testing tools you will need to buy/borrow in order to successfully do this. A sealed enclosure is easy, particularly if you can trust the published specs of the driver. A vented enclosure is more sensitive to construction errors and incorrect driver specs and will benefit from having some test gear - at least audio sine wave generator, voltmeter etc. Other enclosure types - horns, transmission line - are probably best developed or at least tested using PC based h/w and s/w for proper optimisation. Maybe the best choice in this case is to follow the cabinet design from some reputable source - I heard somewhere the Jordans work well in a rear-loaded horn??? I may be wrong.
I don't want to put you off designing everything yourself, but I read a quote somewhere that I thought is very true. It's better to build something that will work well and lead on to bigger and better future projects, than to give up half way through something that's initially too ambitious, requires too much time, and blows the budget.
Regarding the idea for the open baffle, that would probably look quite spectacular. The problem is (and it's a big problem) the baffle has to be large - 1m wide for example - and you will need some correction network for the frequency response in the bass and midrange (due to the baffle step). It's all possible but it's actually not as simple as it initially sounds. Maybe use the drivers from the Radio Shack drivers for an experiment after building the Jordans?
One more thing to consider. Do you need magnetic shielding? If you plan on jamming all this gear together in a bedroom you will either need magnetically shielded speaker drivers or to keep the speakers away from computer monitors, TVs, sensitive magnetic media etc. You say you are using a projector so maybe this is not an issue.
Happy designing!
Thanks for the input martinv. Yeah, i love my projector, best $1000 I ever spent! Its hard to beat half-life on a 100" screen!
That sounds alot like me too, i built a few different speakers with 6x9 car drivers in ported and sealed enclosures, I later made a set of speakers with infinity kappa components, but i took them apart and installed them in my sisters car (wish i still had them).
Im probably going to go with these plans (vented):
http://www.ejjordan.co.uk/enclosures.html
I looked into the open baffle a little bit closer, I dont think it would work well in my room setup, because the speakers pretty much need to be against my walls, and its reccomended that open baffle be atleast 2.5" from your walls.
Thanks for everything guys!
Tyler
That sounds alot like me too, i built a few different speakers with 6x9 car drivers in ported and sealed enclosures, I later made a set of speakers with infinity kappa components, but i took them apart and installed them in my sisters car (wish i still had them).
Im probably going to go with these plans (vented):
http://www.ejjordan.co.uk/enclosures.html
I looked into the open baffle a little bit closer, I dont think it would work well in my room setup, because the speakers pretty much need to be against my walls, and its reccomended that open baffle be atleast 2.5" from your walls.
Thanks for everything guys!
Tyler
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