Hi diyAudio community
This is my first thread, I've read a lot of other threads on here but have finally worked up the courage to begin my journey into building my first set of DIY 3-way monitor/listening speakers. Firstly, I'm from Cape Town, South Africa so I'm looking to import parts from Europe somewhere most probably since nobody stocks what I'm looking for here.
Here are some details about what I'm thinking of building:
- Near- / Midfield
- Integrated amp for each side
- Some sort of audio management
- 3-way speaker layout
- tweeter: ??? amt?
- mids: ??? 4"?
- woofers: ??? 10"
- compact in size
- sealed enclosure - more accurate?
- hits at least 30hz - bonus if its lower
Amplifier
I've been researching and it seems the best option for me is an integrated amp for each side, the Hypex FusionAmp FA253 (
Hypex Electronics B.V.).
- integrated class-d amps on each side
- integrated dsp and dac on each side
- Power (4Ω) 2x 250Wrms + 1x 100Wrms or
- Power (8Ω) 2x 150Wrms + 1x 100Wrms
- quite a few input sources
- remote control extra which could be great
I feel like if I buy these they should supply enough power to the drivers, although I could get by with the FA 123 (2x125W + 100W Tweeter) depending on the drivers.
I found out that kjfaudio.com stocks these for a decent price. So will most likely get from them. Wondering what the import costs would be on those since I'm in SA?
Enclosure
I'm planning on building it with composites in the future but will probably start with mdf to prototype the build. The future build out of composites will be some layers strategically sandwiched together utilising the vacuum bagging process. I've got an idea about how to do the layering, but it will take some time to get the shape right before I start that. The size of the box will be determined by the parameters of the drivers I decide to go with of course, but I'm still left wondering what sort of size I should go for since the box is sealed.
I feel like the amps are going to have to be mounted in their own sealed section in the rear of the speaker cabinets so I will have to plan to have some extra space available for that. Anything else I should keep in mind?
Drivers
Now this is the part I'm struggling with. I'm looking at possibly buying drivers from europe-audio.com, anyone have any experience with them? They seem to have a large collection of drivers available which is great, but also not great because of so much choice.
Tweeters:
I'd like to use an amt for the tweeter on each side since they are better at reproducing more accurately with lower distortion, if I've heard correctly. I know there are some nice ones available but I don't have as much capital as I'd like since I'm having to import.
On europe-audio.com they have a few varieties of AMTs - (
Tweeters Ribbon | Europe audio). They all seem to be Fountek. Possibly the NeoX3.0?
Mids:
Now it gets more difficult. I think I'd like to pair the tweeters with some 4" midranges. But I'm open to suggestions for other sizes. Currently I think these will give me the most clarity I'm looking for and can also go slightly lower to crossover with the woofer better.
Europe-audio.com have the Scan-Speak Illuminator 4'', from the reviews I've read it sounds like it could work well.
Woofers:
I'm looking forward to using a 10" woofer to hit the low. Hopefully it can reach to 20hz but I feel like that may not be easily possible and most probably draw too much power so I'm thinking of aiming for 30hz. I think that is a bit more realistic considering.
Europe-audio.com has a nice selection of Scan-Speak and Seas speaker drivers, but I'm unsure how to narrow my search here.
The Seas L26RFX/P H1209 could be a good option I think, will this pair nicely with the Scan-Speak Illuminator 4"?
What about the Scan-Speak 26W/4867T00? Would this be better to pair with the Illuminator since they are both Scan-Speak?
Closing thoughts
I know this is going to be a journey, but I'm keen to get started. I'd like to keep this thread updated as I progress through the build so I'll try take lots of photos and document the process.
Please feel free to answer my questions or ask me some. I'm new to this but I feel like I know enough to get started, theoretically anyways.