Another pair of fantastic sounding TABAQs
I finished a pair of TABAQs as part of a diy Blue Tooth HiFi for some family. They were interested in my diy audio endeavors and casually mentioned that they consider getting a Blue Tooth speaker for playing music, as they had nothing in the form of a hifi in the house. I stuck my neck out and offered to build them a Blue Tooth mini HiFi for less than a JBL Blue Tooth speaker and claimed that it would sound much better too. Only caveat – it won’t be portable, but that was not an issue for their application. Well, I am certainly not disappointed in the results, and they are absolutely blown away with what they got. But I think this was also my very last project for family.
For these TABAQs I used the budget friendly Peerless 830987 drivers (recommended by Bjørn himself) and boy oh boy – can these drivers rock! They give an unbelievable bass in these enclosures. The TABAQs are driven by a cheap Aliexpress TPA3116D2 Blue Tooth amp, capable of 30W per channel on a rail voltage of 21V. I use a 24V laptop brick with a cap multiplier to filter noise, so the amp is dead quiet. Note that these speakers are not very efficient and when I tested them with a TDA7297 amp (15W per channel), the amp runs out of steam quickly and actually shuts down. The first time this happened I was shocked and thought I damaged the drivers but thank goodness - it was the amp that bombs out. The TPA3116D2 drives these TABAQs beautifully and it even has a small remote control.
The boxes are made from 12mm MDF. The holes and rebates were cut free hand with a router. I also cut chamfers at the back. The recommended BSC (1mH and 5 ohm) is glued on the inside with hot glue. A small section of the rear wall behind the driver is lined with thick felt and I opted for very light stuffing - this proved to be just right. It was the new owners’ task to paint the boxes and they used black chalk paint. I also made small speaker grills to protect the precious drivers from small fingers - 3mm MDF frames covered with material and fixed to the baffle with Velcro.
All in all a very affordable rewarding project and thank you once again Bjørn for such a simple, but amazing sounding design!
I finished a pair of TABAQs as part of a diy Blue Tooth HiFi for some family. They were interested in my diy audio endeavors and casually mentioned that they consider getting a Blue Tooth speaker for playing music, as they had nothing in the form of a hifi in the house. I stuck my neck out and offered to build them a Blue Tooth mini HiFi for less than a JBL Blue Tooth speaker and claimed that it would sound much better too. Only caveat – it won’t be portable, but that was not an issue for their application. Well, I am certainly not disappointed in the results, and they are absolutely blown away with what they got. But I think this was also my very last project for family.
For these TABAQs I used the budget friendly Peerless 830987 drivers (recommended by Bjørn himself) and boy oh boy – can these drivers rock! They give an unbelievable bass in these enclosures. The TABAQs are driven by a cheap Aliexpress TPA3116D2 Blue Tooth amp, capable of 30W per channel on a rail voltage of 21V. I use a 24V laptop brick with a cap multiplier to filter noise, so the amp is dead quiet. Note that these speakers are not very efficient and when I tested them with a TDA7297 amp (15W per channel), the amp runs out of steam quickly and actually shuts down. The first time this happened I was shocked and thought I damaged the drivers but thank goodness - it was the amp that bombs out. The TPA3116D2 drives these TABAQs beautifully and it even has a small remote control.
The boxes are made from 12mm MDF. The holes and rebates were cut free hand with a router. I also cut chamfers at the back. The recommended BSC (1mH and 5 ohm) is glued on the inside with hot glue. A small section of the rear wall behind the driver is lined with thick felt and I opted for very light stuffing - this proved to be just right. It was the new owners’ task to paint the boxes and they used black chalk paint. I also made small speaker grills to protect the precious drivers from small fingers - 3mm MDF frames covered with material and fixed to the baffle with Velcro.
All in all a very affordable rewarding project and thank you once again Bjørn for such a simple, but amazing sounding design!
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Hi Bjørn
That was exactly what I was thinking when I heard them the first time. They beat the bass (deeper and more defined) of my Tannoy monitors (with 6.5" woofers) by far!
Only looks like that on the photo. I actually measured 2/3 exactly and glued a bamboo stick across to prevent the stuffing from falling.
Finally finish my first Tabaq with TB W5-2143, and I am very impressed by the result and of course the amazing sound coming up from such a small driver and small enclosure.
Everything done by myself from the cutting, assembling and painting, very difficult here in Philippines find a good wood so no choice I used a 16mm marine plywood for the main body and from the last project a 24mm baltic birch plywood for the top and bottom. Stained with Nescafe instant coffee 3 coat and finish with 4 coat of Konig polyurethane and a little touch of design on the front for cover some imperfection of the plywood. I strictly follow Bjorn design unless the stuff material, after first test just take away around 30 grams for just personal taste.
I will use them with a SE 6W6 tube amp, 3.9 watts x channel, already tested for 3 hours and even will take maybe around 100 hours for have the max performance from the W5-2143 the sound is amazing, specifically the sound stage and clarity of middle and hight freq is outstanding for do not talking about the punching warm bass response.
A special tanks to Bjorn to develop and share such amazing project and also a thanks to Perceval for the patience and to introduce me first to Tabaq…all the best
Everything done by myself from the cutting, assembling and painting, very difficult here in Philippines find a good wood so no choice I used a 16mm marine plywood for the main body and from the last project a 24mm baltic birch plywood for the top and bottom. Stained with Nescafe instant coffee 3 coat and finish with 4 coat of Konig polyurethane and a little touch of design on the front for cover some imperfection of the plywood. I strictly follow Bjorn design unless the stuff material, after first test just take away around 30 grams for just personal taste.
I will use them with a SE 6W6 tube amp, 3.9 watts x channel, already tested for 3 hours and even will take maybe around 100 hours for have the max performance from the W5-2143 the sound is amazing, specifically the sound stage and clarity of middle and hight freq is outstanding for do not talking about the punching warm bass response.
A special tanks to Bjorn to develop and share such amazing project and also a thanks to Perceval for the patience and to introduce me first to Tabaq…all the best
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thank you very much, the black spot are grill cloth large grille socket, no finished yet but I will cover the port when not used because here in Asia lots of insect or lizard can easily go inside the speaker box...all the best
You must be joking!
Marine plywood = almost the best material for enclosure!
And the result is WOW! Impressive!!!
Completely understand that!
Ants, cockroaches, geckos, lizards... So many little critters would have a lot of fun playing in the filling material!
No snakes yet in the house, but I've had a couple of Cobras in the yard....
Enjoy your TABAQs!
Very small help compared to the 13+ years you have been around, supporting and encouraging people wanting to build your TABAQs.
You are an example of dedication to the DIY community.
And many of us have good sound in their rooms thanks to your design.
I can see this thread continuing for years and years.
And I hope you get to see many more thank you notes from happy users.
