3D printed 3-way Unity waveguide home audio speaker

Founder of XSA-Labs
Joined 2012
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No, I'm retired, so I have all the time in the world. Unfortunately, I've had a small stroke, with residual effects, and my daughter, the know-it-all nurse, has told me that if I try to use power tools and cut my hand off, she'll kill me.

I had hoped that there might be a flat-pack coming from a certain well-known source, but I understand the concerns about that, and I'm giving up. Great project, and would have been perfect for me.

If you need help making boxes/speakers - give Thejessman a PM. He has built many speakers for me and Freddi and does a fantastic job. Prices are very reasonable.

Check out his work here:
Triticum Audio - Home | Facebook

Here is an XKi for a PA130 that Jesse built for someone else (totally unbeknownst to me)...

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


He has built several very large and complex front loaded bass horns and tapped horns for me too.

So don't give up! Do the 3d printing and leave the wood to a cabinet maker. I can't make wood cabinets either. Too slow and I am too messy.
 
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I had vowed to never join Facebook

:)
Yeah, me too. But needing to get help with 3D printing stuff drove me toward it. You could always just spam-list any sending address with "facebook" in it in your email after you don't need it anymore.

The thing is, there are some really great interest groups there. But unlike diyaudio, there is effectively zero ability to search previous posts on fb. So after things drop off the page you pretty much can't ever read them again. Drives me nuts. Not to mention getting harrassed by lots of people I have nothing in common with and don't know to "friend".

Tubesguy -- I'd think that only the wood cutting would be risky. All the gluing and clamping (the major part of the cabinet building) should be pretty safe, your daughter should probably let you do that yourself? Simplifies shipping of cut boards that way
 
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@Bwaslo. Amazing work. Are you still happy with them?

Oh, yeah. Though they sound a lot like the (much easier to build) Small Syns speakers, I could be happy with either.

But next..... I'm looking to make a set of 4 1/2ft tall Synergy horns next, just for the heck of it. No idea what I'll do with them afterwards, I don't really have room for stuff like that.
 
You've got my attention!

Details? :D

4.5' tall, how wide?

That's a mighty horn sir...

:)

About 3' wide, 2 1/2ft deep. Carefully chosen to be within what will fit through the door at the top of our stairway. The trick will be to make it light enough for 2 people to haul it up. I'll be using an internal "matrix" arrangement of braces, which for the weight and box deadness I think works better than using thick heavy plywood.
 
:)

About 3' wide, 2 1/2ft deep. Carefully chosen to be within what will fit through the door at the top of our stairway. The trick will be to make it light enough for 2 people to haul it up. I'll be using an internal "matrix" arrangement of braces, which for the weight and box deadness I think works better than using thick heavy plywood.

That can definitely work. What drivers you planning on using?
 
I've just ordered a Creality CR10S to have a go at printing these (having been told by a 3D printhub here that the cost for 2 waveguides would be several thousand pounds ...). Thanks to Bill for being so generous with his design. I'll need a while to get up to speed with printing generally, but I'll post back when I make progress.
 
Oh, yeah. Though they sound a lot like the (much easier to build) Small Syns speakers, I could be happy with either.

But next..... I'm looking to make a set of 4 1/2ft tall Synergy horns next, just for the heck of it. No idea what I'll do with them afterwards, I don't really have room for stuff like that.

One of my zany business ideas was to build speakers for restaurants in Portland.

Here was my thought process:

Every other restaurant in Portland has some kludged-together PA system that they use for music. But nobody seems to know what they're doing, so the systems sound terrible. My idea was that I could kill two birds with one stone. I could have an excuse to build some speakers, while improving the sound of the places that I frequent.

I don't see the same problem too much in other cities. For instance, if you walk into a restaurant in Dallas, there's usually a decent PA system because they hired a pro. But there's something about Portland where you have this DIY ethic with the restaurants and nobody knows anything about sound reproduction.
 
Austin has a mix of both cities(Portland, Dallas), thanks in part to the huge amount of small operations, that likely don't know and can't afford to hire a pro.

Getting your product in front of those folks would be the real challenge. Sell a few sizes($, $$, $$$$$$$) to give them some options. Once people hear the difference, and in their price range, I suspect they would be sold on it.

So, not inherently zany, imo. :)
 
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I've just ordered a Creality CR10S to have a go at printing these (having been told by a 3D printhub here that the cost for 2 waveguides would be several thousand pounds ...). Thanks to Bill for being so generous with his design. I'll need a while to get up to speed with printing generally, but I'll post back when I make progress.

Hey, if you're planning on building these, best to wait a little for me to edit the part -- after measurements, I'm pretty sure that the woofers want to be further apart horizontally (so the 'array trick' comes into play a little lower in frequency -- looks like it kicks in just a little higher than would be optimal). So then the woofers would exit just outside the sides of the horn. That would also make printing the horn much easier (and faster), none of that woofer surface or ducting to deal with. The cabinet would be a little trickier, but not very much -- there are already stiffener panels inside just outside the sides of the horn, the woofers would mount there and fire through small apertures from there to those angled panels in front; some small wall pieces would need to be glued there to duct the woofer out and keep it isolated from the inside of the cabinet.
 
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Just finished reading this thread. I've followed a few of your other projects in the past, Bill, but this one is just phenomenal. Wish I could hear these sometime. Seems incredible that you're getting solid response below 30 with just these two woofers. Bravo!

Hey, if you're ever coming near Portland, drop me a PM. Be glad to play them. Actually, after finally getting these done, only a few people have heard them so far for any significant amount of time -- they're going to a Portland Audio Club meetup in January for a 'Bring your own music" event, so will see how they go over there.
 
One of my zany business ideas was to build speakers for restaurants in Portland.

Here was my thought process:

Every other restaurant in Portland has some kludged-together PA system that they use for music. But nobody seems to know what they're doing, so the systems sound terrible. My idea was that I could kill two birds with one stone. I could have an excuse to build some speakers, while improving the sound of the places that I frequent.

That idea had crossed my mind, but the issue of what kind of places could actually use a 5ft horn? came up. Not a lot of them -- small coffee shops wouldn't want music that grabs attention, and bars/clubs would be likely to fry them in some early AM weekend party hours. These kind of speakers want a place where people may want to go to, relax, and listen to some music, and that unfortunately rules out all the places I know of.

I'm sure I could get some local audiophile to take them for cost of materials...
 
The Hollywood Theatre is acquiring Movie Madness and have aspirations to add a screening room. I suspect the room they are planning may be a bit small, and I think they were planning a surround sound installation. It is a thought, though.

If you would like a hand lugging those up and down your stairs, let me know. I'd enjoy the opportunity to gawk at them :)
 
Hey, if you're planning on building these, best to wait a little for me to edit the part -- after measurements, I'm pretty sure that the woofers want to be further apart horizontally (so the 'array trick' comes into play a little lower in frequency -- looks like it kicks in just a little higher than would be optimal). So then the woofers would exit just outside the sides of the horn. That would also make printing the horn much easier (and faster), none of that woofer surface or ducting to deal with. The cabinet would be a little trickier, but not very much -- there are already stiffener panels inside just outside the sides of the horn, the woofers would mount there and fire through small apertures from there to those angled panels in front; some small wall pieces would need to be glued there to duct the woofer out and keep it isolated from the inside of the cabinet.

Fantastic. Thank you. The printer has just arrived, but without any instructions...
 
the smallsyns uses a single mid and, if I remember correctly, you (@bwaslo) commented in that thread that you would need a good reason to add another to that design (because mounting each one was a pain). This design has 2 mids, is there a significant benefit or did you use 2 because it's now easy to add the 2nd?

Context for the question is because I now have some SEOS15's on hand so could use them on a smallsyns rather than getting a 3d printer and trying this one, i.e. just trying to find reasons to go one way or another.
 
Actually, the main reason for two mids was that the horn is printed in two halves and each mid mount is split over the two halves. It would've been messy-er to make separate designs and prints for each side. I was thinking of just plugging one wall's mid ports with epoxy goo, but just used the two mid drivers instead (easier, generates less questions). The HF might've been better if I'd done that, but seems pretty good as is, so if it ain't broken.....