Hi, it's my first time posting here, and I hope I don't get hammered too badly, but I am mentally prepared!
As my existing speaker for my PC is near to its useful life, I use this as an excuse to motivate myself to get into this black hole of making my own speakers with near limitless possibilities.
To begin with my journey, I have ordered a pair of full range speakers from Tang Band W3-1364SA(LINK). I chose this model due to its "relatively flat" frequency response and hope to keep things simple and avoid using a crossover (or to build from there later on).
Given the particular T/S metrics of this speaker, it appears to be more suited to the vented design. The DIY Audio calculator has suggested a recommended volume of 6.59 lites for a vented design vs 4.31 lites for sealed (similar figures from WINISD). However, space is pretty limited for me. I think I can spare at most about 2 litres. The downsides as I understand it is the limited extension to the lower frequency. Without hearing from high quality speakers in most of my life, I think I maybe a little tone deaf (note: Does owning Sony MX3 headphones count?).
The limited size is also out of the choice of materials. I am planning to use cement (concrete) for enclosure as I have access to the material and tools. Cement is of course a very heavy materials and my existing desk may have troubles supporting it at around 5-6 litres.
In short, here is my plan for building the speakers:
1. Sealed speaker (with volume of 1 litre) for each full range driver (i.e. two) or house both speakers in a single enclosure (2 litres)
2. No crossover
3. a 50W amp with built-in volume control (the rating is probably @4 ohms, will fix at low volume to avoid frying the parts - the driver unit is rated 12W)
Grateful for any recommendations and comments, especially on fatal flaws, that you may have! Thanks.
As my existing speaker for my PC is near to its useful life, I use this as an excuse to motivate myself to get into this black hole of making my own speakers with near limitless possibilities.
To begin with my journey, I have ordered a pair of full range speakers from Tang Band W3-1364SA(LINK). I chose this model due to its "relatively flat" frequency response and hope to keep things simple and avoid using a crossover (or to build from there later on).
Given the particular T/S metrics of this speaker, it appears to be more suited to the vented design. The DIY Audio calculator has suggested a recommended volume of 6.59 lites for a vented design vs 4.31 lites for sealed (similar figures from WINISD). However, space is pretty limited for me. I think I can spare at most about 2 litres. The downsides as I understand it is the limited extension to the lower frequency. Without hearing from high quality speakers in most of my life, I think I maybe a little tone deaf (note: Does owning Sony MX3 headphones count?).
The limited size is also out of the choice of materials. I am planning to use cement (concrete) for enclosure as I have access to the material and tools. Cement is of course a very heavy materials and my existing desk may have troubles supporting it at around 5-6 litres.
In short, here is my plan for building the speakers:
1. Sealed speaker (with volume of 1 litre) for each full range driver (i.e. two) or house both speakers in a single enclosure (2 litres)
2. No crossover
3. a 50W amp with built-in volume control (the rating is probably @4 ohms, will fix at low volume to avoid frying the parts - the driver unit is rated 12W)
Grateful for any recommendations and comments, especially on fatal flaws, that you may have! Thanks.
OK, then brace yourself! 😉
If you were 'set' (pun intended!) on using concrete from the outset, perhaps you should have done your homework before you ordered up drivers unsuited to the limited enclosure volume available. Bang! Bang! 😀
I'll let the speaker design experts do the maths, but here's a practical suggestion from me.
Mock up a 1 litre enclosure out of stout packing box cardboard (I'm not joking!), stick in a driver and see how well it performs in the bass for your desktop purposes.
Thanks for the reply! I thinkI may not be committed to building a speaker if I didn't order the driver in the first place 😀; I may have given up and just paid up for a off-the-shelf speakers instead. But perhaps I have let me greedy side (e.g. bigger is better) took over me when I ordered the two speaker units given that my existing speaker is with one inch 3W driver x2.
The idea using concrete is because I just happen to have a lot of spare materials and tools to work with. I had in mind that if they don't work out as my desktop speaker, I could always salvage the drivers and rebuild a significantly larger speaker as a TV speaker somewhere in the house, but I think the hurdle is to at least get the speakers operational with confidence and slowly fixing the rest. For instance, a common fatal error appears to be adding a potentiometer between the amp and the speaker. I almost planned to do that and this is the sort that everyone should have avoided.
Making a mock-up out of cardboard is actually a good advice! I also happen to have some cardboard, perhaps not as much as cement, but definitely enough for dozens of litres. With materials less dense than concrete, I suppose the goal is to model the closed environment, sealing the air gaps, and expect concrete should ideally be better sounding. I have actually just started messing with AutoCAD on the model and browsing through the various designs.
Precisely! It'll simply let you know if your suggested driver/enclosure combination is a viable proposition before you commit yourself to concrete.
Do let us know how it goes.
Your plan won't work, this driver need at least 5L to sound a bit decent, preferable 6.5L for ported. Sealed will never sound good without woofer but will go as low as ported in 1L (so that may be a better option). But don't expect much below 180Hz (so no bass at all).
And as far as i know (i don't know all loudspeakers) any driver won't do that in such a small space. I would try to find more space to put a speaker. With 5L we can suggest something, but smaller than that is almost impossible.
And as far as i know (i don't know all loudspeakers) any driver won't do that in such a small space. I would try to find more space to put a speaker. With 5L we can suggest something, but smaller than that is almost impossible.
Thanks! Comments noted. Once the full-range drivers arrive, I will begin testing with small (1litre) ported speaker with cardboard to see how they sound like. In the same vain, WinISD suggests greater bass extension in a ported design vs a sealed ones. I do have another preliminary plan to make the speaker even larger and install a vesa mount so that the speaker would not otherwise be blocked by the monitor, as the width of my desk is the primary limitation.
concrete and bass response....i say if the driver doesn't have prodigious bass response a concrete enclosure is not going magically produce it for you. and it may sound audacious but in some cases a flimsy resonant material will add HD which is subjectively interpreted as louder.
the best case would be making the same size enclosure out of two different materials and choosing the one that you prefer.
the best case would be making the same size enclosure out of two different materials and choosing the one that you prefer.
Seems like you would be much better off using those drivers in a known design like the Tabaq. The Tabaq with the right drivers sounds amazing for their size, but might not fit on your desk. Here is an example of a folded Tabaq version with the W3-1364 drivers:
TABAQ TL for Tang Band
oh and yeah if you included a potentiometer in your design i would love to see how you succeed in mounting it in a concrete enclosure....
FORGET concrete.
Besides the obvious disadvantages, you will need to build a complex wooden enclosure, inside and outside, to cast it in,
IF you have wood, time and skill to do that, just straight build a wooden enclosure, period.
Besides the obvious disadvantages, you will need to build a complex wooden enclosure, inside and outside, to cast it in,
IF you have wood, time and skill to do that, just straight build a wooden enclosure, period.
Indeed, it does look like these are more suited to the living room/my desk definitely won't fit. But thanks for sharing - will save it for another time in future.
I have got heavy duty V220/V110 impact drill that could drill through concrete so it is possible. But I do worry about how to prevent that cracking the concrete (or mortar, more accurately speaking). An viable alternative is perhaps to place holes in advance before the molding.
it's more about the depth of the mounting thread of the potentiometer vs baffle thickness....and with respect to mounting things, i hope you have thought about how the drivers will be mounted, t nuts perhaps...???
Perhaps you could use your new driver in a tall slender horn-loaded enclosure flanking your desk?, so as not to intrude into your desk space?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------Rick....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------Rick....
There seems to be some misunderstanding here.
As you have said, wiring a 'potentiometer' (or more correctly, a variable L-Pad control) between an amplifier and a full range speaker is not required.
The volume of the speaker should be controlled by the volume control on the amp.
Yes - this is a problem. Most "concrete screws" are pretty long and are used for heavy duty. I think I would go for nut and bolt? the shorter one that are not exclusive for conrete could work. A related issue is the thickness of the concrete. If I have trouble controlling the thickness (preassuming it would be very diffcult to make the 6 sides at once), I could replace the front panel (i.e. the baffle) with a marble/granite 5-20mm slab I have. I have nuts and bolt that screw onto these marble/granite used in construction. I think (and I hope) I have got this covered
True. It seems double amount of the work. But I have been planning all these times, I might as well try it.
The place where I live definitely doesn't have the space, unless I move it to the living room. Like I said before, making a larger enclosure is my plan B.
I think the potentiometer referred is really the potentiometer, not the L pad, and hence the typically ow voltage rated potentiometer got fried if placed between the amp and the speaker. It is wrong to put there and yes should use the volume control.
Just to also add. Can just use glue (more accurately epoxy) for any loose parts, and that could include the speaker driver unit. 🙂
so if you glue the speaker in how are you going to be able to make changes to things like crossover or stuffing/damping? your design would have to be well finalized to glue in your driver....and if you don't like it and want to go with your plan B of a bigger box will you be able to remove the driver without damage.