There are plenty of cabinet makers around that can build a speaker from plans (I know of 3 in my town but expect there are more) though the cost may exceed the price of an equivalent commercial speaker. Employing a consultant to design a speaker for you will be very expensive and I am guessing this is not what you mean by design?
There are standalone commercial speaker kit designs one can purchase for £100 or so to pass on to a cabinet maker but these are existing designs rather than designs to your spec although one or two might be tweakable. There are speaker kit suppliers where the cost of the design is absorbed in the price of the parts but again these will be existing design. There are many DIY designs available for free on forums like this but again these will be existing designs. It is also perhaps worth stating that many of the DIY speaker designs around are not particularly good (though a few are) and likely won't perform as well as the better commercial equivalents.
So I guess the key question is what do you want designing to your spec and what can be picked from existing designs?
Thanks for the reply’s everyone,
I have the drivers selected and have some volume ideas and size from the manufacture I also have a idea of x overs etc
So really it’s just someone to build / advice from experience in a few areas like diffraction and stuffing etc
I have the drivers selected and have some volume ideas and size from the manufacture I also have a idea of x overs etc
So really it’s just someone to build / advice from experience in a few areas like diffraction and stuffing etc
I wish there was someone in the US that can make cabinets. I live in a ghost town. Nothing but big box electronic stores with portable junk. I can't do alot of the work anymore and can't find anyone who shares the hobby either. This country is a joke this way. We used to do such great things and now we just have iPads and other senseless crap.
There used to be some audio clubs here too. They're all gone thanks to covid and the online shopping fad. We used to have a speaker parts seller here in town. Rockford Fosgate used to be here as well. All gone now.
Sounds very much up Stefan's street. I should say, with many thanks to Dave's kind words, that Stefan only calls me for occasional projects and I would certainly have no involvement with this (technically could, but he doesn't need any contribution from the likes of me for anything like this!). So I'm speaking here purely as a fellow DIY enthusiast, not as an 'interested' party.
You are looking for a bespoke cabinet and crossover design plus build given a specified set of drivers and crossover configuration? Are you expecting to pay significantly more than an equivalent pair of commercial speakers in order to get a bespoke one-off design and build? If not the speaker will likely need to be closely aligned with someone's existing approach and interests if they are to pick it up.
A bespoke build isn't a problem though not cheap but a decent design (assuming this is possible for the specified drivers and crossover configuration - well optimised speaker designs tend to involve a degree of iteration with respect to the components and configuration) will involve a significant amount of time and testing. DIYers do this for free and have fun doing it but to a hire a professional to do it will be expensive. Not mentioning any names but you may find a company prepared to run old DOS programs to pick a box volume, port length, crossover based on a simple set of driver parameters with little to no consideration of the cabinet geometry and put the components in an unbraced MDF cabinet for a modest cost. I have seen forum posts from people quite happy with this but also posts from those that were not.
The suggestions to have a chat with Stefan looks wise to me.
A bespoke build isn't a problem though not cheap but a decent design (assuming this is possible for the specified drivers and crossover configuration - well optimised speaker designs tend to involve a degree of iteration with respect to the components and configuration) will involve a significant amount of time and testing. DIYers do this for free and have fun doing it but to a hire a professional to do it will be expensive. Not mentioning any names but you may find a company prepared to run old DOS programs to pick a box volume, port length, crossover based on a simple set of driver parameters with little to no consideration of the cabinet geometry and put the components in an unbraced MDF cabinet for a modest cost. I have seen forum posts from people quite happy with this but also posts from those that were not.
The suggestions to have a chat with Stefan looks wise to me.
Valid points Andy
I wasn’t expecting it to be cheap although obviously I want it as reasonable as possible,
I’ll get some quotes from people and go from there.
I could make them myself borrowing tools etc but though if someone is reasonable I’d be happy to go with them
I wasn’t expecting it to be cheap although obviously I want it as reasonable as possible,
I’ll get some quotes from people and go from there.
I could make them myself borrowing tools etc but though if someone is reasonable I’d be happy to go with them
Nothing if it is a general program like SPICE and the user understands the modelling involved. Rather more if the user doesn't understand the modelling involved and is simply continuing to blindly use basic 1980s modelling software rather than freely available current modelling software which takes into account more relevant physics like edge diffraction, working with measured driver responses, etc...
Resident cabinet maker here! If you weren‘t so far away (Arizona?) I could help you out…….in fact i’m thinking really hard about doing just what you need as a semi retirement gig. Shipping is the biggest obstacle at this point.