Hello everyone 🙂 🙂
I play guitar, I like rock music, most of all Pink Floyd, Whitesneake, Dire Straites, Al Di Meola.. 😎 😎
I would try to create a DIY sound system for my house. The system would be consisted of 2 x towers, 1x center speaker for front and 2x bookshelf speaker for rear.
I think a good combination for towers would be a 3x8 '' full range speaker, 1x bigger and 1x smaller tweeter. For the center would be 2 x 8 '' full range and 1 xbigger tweeter. And for bookshelf would go 1x smaller tweeter and 1x 7 '' full range speaker.
All 8 '' speakers would be: Dayton Audio RS225P-8A 8" Reference Paper Woofer 8 Ohm
All smaller tweeters would be: Dayton Audio AMT Mini-8 Air Motion Transformer Tweeter 8 Ohm
All bigger tweeters would be: Dayton Audio PT2C-8 Planar Tweeter
All 7 '' full range speakers would be: Dayton Audio ES180TiA-8 7" Esoteric Series Woofer 8 Ohm
Now I'm interested in the following:
I'm planning to buy everything from partes express site, I'm new to this so i'm interested in the following
1) what DIY amplifier modules do I need to take for my system? I guess I need one towers amplifier and one for the center and bookshelf speaker. Can you recommend which modules would be best for this?
Audio Amplifier Boards & Modules - Parts Express
2) What are Dayton audio speakers in quality, is it worth investing $ 1500 in a system that will be made up of that company alone?
3) Is this DSP good for my whole system?
https://www.parts-express.com/dayto...nal-processor-for-home-and-car-audio--230-500
4) Can you tell me if I need a special 12 '' bass woofer for my system or will this speaker combination cover the bass enough?
5) What crossovers do you need for tower, center and bookshelf speakers, if you could send a link, because I don't understand it.
1) https://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-xo3w-700-56k-3-way-speaker-crossover-700-5600-hz--260-156
2) https://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-xo3w-500-4k-3-way-speaker-crossover-500-4000-hz--260-152
3) https://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-xo3w-625-5k-3-way-speaker-crossover-625-5000-hz--260-154
I'm very good with a soldering iron and can work with wood, so none of this is unfamiliar to me, I would make a solidworks model of every speaker before, copy some famous companies and make good models, I don't worry about that. 😀 😀
What bothers me next is, is it better to spend $ 1500 now on this DIY project or buy a ready-made $ 1500 system that works better? 😕 😕
I ask for recommendations and advice 😱 😱
I play guitar, I like rock music, most of all Pink Floyd, Whitesneake, Dire Straites, Al Di Meola.. 😎 😎
I would try to create a DIY sound system for my house. The system would be consisted of 2 x towers, 1x center speaker for front and 2x bookshelf speaker for rear.
I think a good combination for towers would be a 3x8 '' full range speaker, 1x bigger and 1x smaller tweeter. For the center would be 2 x 8 '' full range and 1 xbigger tweeter. And for bookshelf would go 1x smaller tweeter and 1x 7 '' full range speaker.
All 8 '' speakers would be: Dayton Audio RS225P-8A 8" Reference Paper Woofer 8 Ohm
All smaller tweeters would be: Dayton Audio AMT Mini-8 Air Motion Transformer Tweeter 8 Ohm
All bigger tweeters would be: Dayton Audio PT2C-8 Planar Tweeter
All 7 '' full range speakers would be: Dayton Audio ES180TiA-8 7" Esoteric Series Woofer 8 Ohm
Now I'm interested in the following:
I'm planning to buy everything from partes express site, I'm new to this so i'm interested in the following
1) what DIY amplifier modules do I need to take for my system? I guess I need one towers amplifier and one for the center and bookshelf speaker. Can you recommend which modules would be best for this?
Audio Amplifier Boards & Modules - Parts Express
2) What are Dayton audio speakers in quality, is it worth investing $ 1500 in a system that will be made up of that company alone?
3) Is this DSP good for my whole system?
https://www.parts-express.com/dayto...nal-processor-for-home-and-car-audio--230-500
4) Can you tell me if I need a special 12 '' bass woofer for my system or will this speaker combination cover the bass enough?
5) What crossovers do you need for tower, center and bookshelf speakers, if you could send a link, because I don't understand it.
1) https://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-xo3w-700-56k-3-way-speaker-crossover-700-5600-hz--260-156
2) https://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-xo3w-500-4k-3-way-speaker-crossover-500-4000-hz--260-152
3) https://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-xo3w-625-5k-3-way-speaker-crossover-625-5000-hz--260-154
I'm very good with a soldering iron and can work with wood, so none of this is unfamiliar to me, I would make a solidworks model of every speaker before, copy some famous companies and make good models, I don't worry about that. 😀 😀
What bothers me next is, is it better to spend $ 1500 now on this DIY project or buy a ready-made $ 1500 system that works better? 😕 😕
I ask for recommendations and advice 😱 😱
If parts express is going to take your money, perhaps they should provide the support for amplifier and crossover selection. I'm sure they have folks capable of piecing together a nicely working system entirely built out of components they sell.
First and foremost, I will encourage *all* who want to build something for themselves. If you want to build with tin cans and string, or close your eyes and throw darts at pictures of component choices, I'll never say you can't do that. It all depends on what you expect to end up with.
The crossover is a much bigger question than it appears when you start out, and few here will recommend a pre-made unit. Check out this thread for an idea of why. Kinda like a mail-order bride, it's not likely to be a good fit in the real world. They *will* work, no matter what anyone says. Probably not great, though and you're not going to beat an engineered speaker system with them.
That said, I suggest looking at these IF's to decide which way to go...
-IF you're looked to get more for your money through DIY design on your 1st project, you'll probably be disappointed. I won't say it can't be done, but it's not likely. A quick look at this thread will help shed light on what is involved with speaker design.
-IF you're in a hurry, stop now and buy something pre-made.
-IF you want a "do step 1-2-3... and done" type project, take Joe's advice about working with P-E and also peruse for kits. Good tested designs are out there guaranteed to work pretty well.
-IF you want to build for the sake of building, and learning, and those are your most important goals, then throw away your timeline. This is a large project. Start with the bookshelf speakers and put the others on hold. Simple is way way way better to start, and getting them to perform like you want may take more time, effort, and tweaks than you would imagine. But you're in a good place. There is a huge amount of knowledge and help here. To get the right help, you'll need to communicate what your goals and expectations are as accurately as possible. Misunderstandings about these can cost you time, money and most importantly, motivation.
My intent is purely to encourage you. But realistic expectations are needed to be happy with your results.
The crossover is a much bigger question than it appears when you start out, and few here will recommend a pre-made unit. Check out this thread for an idea of why. Kinda like a mail-order bride, it's not likely to be a good fit in the real world. They *will* work, no matter what anyone says. Probably not great, though and you're not going to beat an engineered speaker system with them.
That said, I suggest looking at these IF's to decide which way to go...
-IF you're looked to get more for your money through DIY design on your 1st project, you'll probably be disappointed. I won't say it can't be done, but it's not likely. A quick look at this thread will help shed light on what is involved with speaker design.
-IF you're in a hurry, stop now and buy something pre-made.
-IF you want a "do step 1-2-3... and done" type project, take Joe's advice about working with P-E and also peruse for kits. Good tested designs are out there guaranteed to work pretty well.
-IF you want to build for the sake of building, and learning, and those are your most important goals, then throw away your timeline. This is a large project. Start with the bookshelf speakers and put the others on hold. Simple is way way way better to start, and getting them to perform like you want may take more time, effort, and tweaks than you would imagine. But you're in a good place. There is a huge amount of knowledge and help here. To get the right help, you'll need to communicate what your goals and expectations are as accurately as possible. Misunderstandings about these can cost you time, money and most importantly, motivation.
My intent is purely to encourage you. But realistic expectations are needed to be happy with your results.
8" woofer is going to be underwhelming. My SP2-XT speakers have 15" woofers and only go down to 54 hz -3db. Which speakers sound really good as long as I am not playing 32' pipe organ solos. That goes down to 27 hz.
I had a friend that built a couple of 4 way speakers out of the best from Allied Radio in the day, and they sounded awful. Speaker building requires a lot of testing & tweaking to get good results. Per post #3. an anechoic chamber and a test microphone & software are highly recomended. Parts-express sells one of those. Every box dimension, every bit of dampening material, the bass reflex ports & extender pipe for such, all matter greatly for flat response. And that doesn't even get into harmonic distortion which 99.9% of speaker manufacturers won't tell you. Hint, a 2002 spec Peavey SP2 does have HD spec, 20 db below all frequencies @ 1W1m 54-14500 hz. You want good sound, buy two in good repair.
IMHO DSP is a sound modification toy. Nice at times, but won't cover up the problems with the speaker box. Evidence the Bose 901, which used bass boost instead of big drivers, which I've heard, and sounds particularly awful.
BTW my superb sounding system, IMHO, cost $1300. 2 SP2 plus a dodgy cs800s amp which I repaired, $1000 used. PV8 mixer, $200. CD player, FM pocket radio, $60. Dodgy Q215 graphic equalizer, which I repaired, came with the speakers/amp.Sound modification is fun at times particularly on 60's LP's where the engineer rolled the bass down so those fine wood console record players popular then the needle wouldn't jump out of the groove.
BTW save up $40000 for a good performance room. My 14'w 30' long 11' high music room is the same shape as Wein Philharmonica hall. I have the speakers on stands 6' in the air on one end. I sit in the middle. There are enough soft couches, carpet, record shelves, and musical instruments in the room to break up all standing waves. The house is a bungalo in an unfashionable neighborhood, looking a lot like all those wood houses that people burned down in Detroit. Music room is 50' from the nearest neighbor and I can play music as loud as I want at 3 AM without bothering anybody.
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