5.1 DIY Speaker selection advice needed

[thewog]

Hi,

I am willing to make 5.1 home theater speakers, for my living room around 14 ft x 18 ft. I am new to audio world and have not much knowledge in audio.
I would like to know what should I look for the components for the center, side and rear speakers?

My listening distance will be around 10ft to 11ft.

Thanks.

 

[ewollowe]

Hi thewog,

Great name, Australian?

Anyway, really, really, really broad question.

Where are you?

How much money can you spend?

How loud do you like to listen?

Bass freak?

WAF? Wife acceptance factor. Do the speakers have to be small or look a certain way etc etc.

Welcome to the forum, brace yourself

 

[thewog]

Hi

I am located in India. And will buy components from partsexpress.

1) About the loudness : Sound should good enough for living room (my living is directly connected to dinning and kitchen as well ).

Instead of loud, i would love to have a crisp sound at low volume as well.
On of my relative has b&w home theater (which sounds good) but its as costly as like buying a new house for me.

2) I am not sure about money, but i would spend whatever it costs for a decent home theater. (lot of people say i need not have to use tweeter or low range speaker, and lot of says i need to have them)

WAF is fine

I have seen lot of Yamaha, Denon etc, but they are too big and too costly for my 14 x 18 room.

Thanks

 

[eriksquires]

Hi TheWog!

I've just completed a center channel with all parts from Parts-Express. Please see here.

The speaker sounds really great I have my Blu-Ray player crossing it over at 70 Hz and the impedance is really good so it will play nicely with any amplifier.

I'm working on the sides speakers that will use the same drivers.

If nothing else, that blog thread should give you a lot of information.


Best,


Erik

 

[guangui]

TheWog,

Let's take it step by step:

1. Are you going to play music also thru them?

2. Do you want the theater experience?

3. What receiver or AV pre you have? If you don't have one, which one are you planning?

4. Do you plan in adding ATMOS in the near future?

5. On-Wall, Stand Mounted, or Towers for the main and surround?

6. Are you going to build the enclosures, buy them already made from PE, or have a professional cabinet maker build them for you?

 

[ewollowe]

I imagine there's plenty of 5.1 builds from parts express you could look at for inspiration?

You have a huge range of options before you and you'll find a lot of different opinions here, a lot of people making definitive statements and a lot of people niggling over the tiniest of detail.

That said, I'm starting to think that for the sake of simplicity and cost you could go with full range drivers?

Generally speaking larger full ranger around 8" will give better bass but smaller 3-4" better high frequency performance.

I'd also want a sub woofer in that set up.

Here's a relevant thread for you to read.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/full-range/285883-small-full-range-driver-ht.html

 

[guangui]

In your case, no need to reinvent the wheel...Here are a couple of designs from PE's gallery that use components that I personally really like, are easy to build, not expensive, and should sound great. The CS5.1 should give you what you are looking for. Add a sub, also many designs, but sometimes is cheaper, if available, to buy a good used one close to you.

Here are the links for CS5.1, and another good one by Dr. D'Appolito.

 

[thewog]

Thank you all for your suggestion, i will go through all those link and bother you all again .

One more question, is it possible to make a stereo speaker both left and right together? If yes, what driver should i look for? This is for a small area, may be just table listening. I have a Pioneer TT and i may connect my ipod to it.

I already have two TPY03W06O0111, i kept them to built tabaq type speaker but If they can be used to make the stereo speaker then i will use them. I am ready to buy other driver as well if these are not good.

Thanks

 

[guangui]

...One more question, is it possible to make a stereo speaker both left and right together? If yes, what driver should i look for? This is for a small area, may be just table listening. I have a Pioneer TT and i may connect my ipod to it.

I already have two TPY03W06O0111, i kept them to built tabaq type speaker but If they can be used to make the stereo speaker then i will use them. I am ready to buy other driver as well if these are not good.

Thanks

That is a very good full range driver (TG9FD), put two in the same enclosure and use them with separate +/- terminals (left and right), it would be like boombox speakers. Just double the volume of the enclosure for one unit, if vented you can do one vent or two vents, as long as the vent area is the right one.

 

[ewollowe]

There's a few threads here about stereo from a single speaker.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/200040-stereophonic-sound-single-loudspeaker.html

 

[ewollowe]

Interesting stuff here.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/full...orations-matrixed-single-stereo-speakers.html