Open Source Monkey Box

I followed the internal dimensions from the build plans—and let the exterior be whatever it was with 3/4" 15-ply (nominally 18mm, shrinking all the time). To account for the 20mm thickness for the Volt, I added a ring of gasket material comprised of cork and rubber comes in a sheet from McMaster-carr, non-compressible, which was about an 1/8" came out very flush with the front in the end. I could have also built up the front baffle to 20mm, seemed unnecessary. Interior supports I made from 3/4" MDF. No audio complaints.
 
Just found this thread and starting to read through it and sort things out... hoping you guys can help me with a few quick questions:

1) Is it still possible to buy the drivers/parts required for this design?
2) Has anyone tried positioning the drivers differently to optimize for a horizontal cabinet position like pro studio monitors and noted any change in baffle step or other issues?
3) What would you estimate as an "all in" cost for this project in US dollars?
4) Is there anyone who has some experience and deep expertise on this design that I could pay to consult/advise me through a few issues?

I am very seriously considering this as an alternative to commercial products for my main studio monitors, maybe hiring a local cabinet builder since my woodworking skills are pretty pathetic. Any advice here would be appreciated. I am also looking for pics of finished speakers just for kicks and haven't been able to find much, still looking around.
 
Hey Greggo. Before reading all 1189 posts, you might want to take a look here:
osmcdoc/osmc_paper.pdf at master * mbrennwa/osmcdoc * GitHub

1) Is it still possible to buy the drivers/parts required for this design?

Yes.

2) Has anyone tried positioning the drivers differently to optimize for a horizontal cabinet position like pro studio monitors and noted any change in baffle step or other issues?

I don't know if anyone has tried this, but I don't think this would be a good idea.

3) What would you estimate as an "all in" cost for this project in US dollars?

I estimated the minimum costs to about 1500 Euro per box, which is about 1800 USD.

4) Is there anyone who has some experience and deep expertise on this design that I could pay to consult/advise me through a few issues?

This thread is the place for your questions! We'll help you out if you have questions.

I am also looking for pics of finished speakers just for kicks and haven't been able to find much, still looking around.

There are a few photos in this thread. I attached a photo of my finished Monkey Coffins.
 

Attachments

  • osmc_photo.jpg
    osmc_photo.jpg
    581.2 KB · Views: 546
I can't imagine anyone who builds these speakers not being fully inspired and satisfied with them in ones life... but...

Mine—USA side—cost every bit of $2500 to make the pair and that doesn't include my time or all the tools required to pull them off from a woodworking perspective—I also took my time and price shopped over the span of about 4 months gathering parts—also possible the exchange rate was better at that time, IDK. The Volts alone are 1/3 of the cost of the build—I bought them through Solen in Canada. The other way to save massively in the US is order as many parts as possible from the guys at Audiohobby (see links in first post—Matthias has been updating the links consistently)—It was really hard to find stateside a lot of the crossover parts (unless you want to start modifying inductors etc)—but Audiohobby had everything per Matthias's BOM and were fantastic to work with and shipped UPS to US for free (at the time) and you can view all prices in USD sans VAT on their website.

I posted a lot of images as I built mine... you can do a search—relatively recent as far as the thread goes. I am a little sad they are finished. Haha. They were a blast to build—daily gratitude to Matthias around here and I can't believe I own them. Another friend stated "Well, you built your last speakers, first". As these were my first speaker building foray.
 
Member
Joined 2019
Paid Member
wood work

Greggo,

For cabinets, I use speakerhardware.com Kansas. They are amazing and affordable and pretty fast. They also use the right wood. They also sell the Faital 12in drivers. They also have videos and I would watch a couple. They will need drawings explained on site. I sent them a Sketchup file and they had it loaded into their CAD and replied in less than a day. File was not OSMC or I would have posted it.

Good luck.

Don
 
I agree and prefer passive crossovers over active DSP whenever possible and realistic. I dont like the non-linear artifacts and timing cues that you typically get in the low level audio. I've tried quite a few processors and so far none were up to my standards. Just put on some well recorded piano music and listen for the way notes attack and decay in the acoustical space - a keen ear will hear it and once you know its there, it will drive you nuts. Yeah, I'm a snob, but my ears are just drawn to this sort of stuff. Can you tell I'm mainly an analog guy?