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The DIY discussion thread: post your projects!

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Ryan T

Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2003
Location
Mechanicsburg, PA
I decided to start this thread and see how many of you OCforum members do DIY speakers and subwoofers etc. You can post pics or discuss any DIY project having to do with sound equipment here.

Heres a little back round about myself. I've been into sound equipment since I was 13 years old. Didnt get into DIY speaker and sub building untill I was about 15. I started with some cheapo car audio subwoofers and old desk pieces as an enclosure (lol i know). Since then i've done a lot of projects and I can safely say I'm hooked on DIY. Since I started building DIY audio equipment i've built about 8 subwoofers and a couple of main speakers. My latest project was a small 2 Cu ft ported sub designed around a Dayton titanic 1000 driver.


My current project is still in the design stages. I've ordered the tweeters and i have a pair of midbasses i'm going to test out with them. The tweeters are due early next month so i'm still going to have to wait a while before i can make any big progress. My idea is a kinda simple but unique one. I want to use a PVC pipe for the midbass enclosure and the tweeter will mount on top of the enclosure. The tube would be on its side and the midbass would mount in one the of the end caps i will make out of MDF.


So thats pretty much what i'm up to right now. If you have any project going or you've finished one in the past feel free to post some pictures so we can see your handy work!


Ryan
 
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I haven't gotten to far into diy audio... yet ;)

hopefully this month I will be ordering a Decware Zen SET tube amp kit and I'll probably be upgrading my speakers to go with it, those will be DIY also, possibly a pair Parker 98s, or maby a Lowther arrangement, but as much as I like the idea of the simplicity of a full range Lowther type speaker im still not completely sold on wether or not it will work as well as a setup with a few well designed crossovers. Definatly will post back when have some results though. :)
 
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Well heres just a quick run down of some of the stuff i have now.

This is of my main system.
DIY GR-research AV 1 main speakers
DIY EBS Tempest subwoofer (the huge thing on the right)
H/K AVR 230 receiver
H/K FL 8450 CD cahnger
CAT5 DIY speaker cable.




Ryan
 
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a pair of tang bands and a dayton 10" sub so far

tang.jpg

sub.jpg


i might do another project before the summer's over since i got nothing else to spend money on:D
 
Heres a few more pictures of my speakers and my subwoofer.


Close up of one of my AV 1's. Brian Bunge of Rutledge audio design made the enclosures and I finished them in a textured black laminate.
11333527233_46ef55905a_b.jpg



You can see the edge of the laminate on the top of the enclosure. (Sorry there a little dusty too :D)
11333386025_6ee95d0ff0_b.jpg



Heres a close up through the woofer hole of the crossover.
11333480174_a856a4076e_o.jpg


Next up is my Tempest DIY subwoofer (I didn't build the enclosure for this one however). Here it is in all it's glory :)

11333509826_a4c3852aca_b.jpg

This is the bottom of my Tempest (without the driver in it). I used to have a box enclosure but I moved and someone offered this tube enclosure to me. I took it since it is lighter :D. (there is a black fabric sock that covers the tube that isnt on in this picture)
11333578973_9b3369b463_b.jpg


This is the top of the tube. You can see the 6" PVC pipe (it tunes the enclosure to 16.5 Hz)
11333436585_2ea4fbc6b1_b.jpg



This is the top of the tube from the side.
11333579053_b330d48ebb_b.jpg



This is the 15" driver that I use in my subwoofer. Its an Adire Audio Tempest and the enclosure is an EBS alignment tuned to 16.5 Hz
11333436955_9fe7b4f34a_b.jpg


If anyone has any questions or comments about my stuff or DIY in general they are more than welcome to ask!

Ryan
 
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WoW! ryan,Fantastic job on your speakers!
I like the idea of heavy gauge wire on the crossover too.It just seems like more solid
idea than the very thin gauge that most consumer speakers are wired with.
My Athena's sound great but I'm afraid if I look inside I'll be dissapointed.
 
Thanks :D. I wish I could say I built the enclosures and not just finished them :). The laminate was really easy to apply, it is 10 mil thick and has a super sticky backside. You just clean off the surface thats gonna be laminated and then lay a sheet down. Take a razor blade and carefully cut off the extra around the edges and your done. It looks really good and considering the amount of effort it took i'd say its well worth it.

Your athenas are nice speakers indeed. I think they are right on par with the paradigm stuff in the same price point. If you ever wanna step up to a DIY kit I would highly recommend any of the GR-research or adire audio kits. The price isnt bad and you get an awesome bang for your buck ratio with them :D. I've spend about $300 on my pair and they can keep up with a lot of MUCH higher end moniters ($1000 range). Like Energy veritas, Paradigm referance, some people even think they are on the same level as the B&W nautilus speakers. I've personally heard B&W 602's, DM303's and also the nuatilus 801s. And i've heard the energy veritas and the paradigm referance series speakers. I think they AV 1's really sound right up there with those speakers. Other people i've talked to tend to agree also. Heres the GR-research AV1 webpage if ya wanna check um out :D http://www.gr-research.com/performer/av1.htm



Ryan
 
One of these days, I should invest the time to learn this stuff, like what crossovers are.

Nice job, though, I'm sure it sounds as sweet as it looks :thup:
 
Thanks :D, my speakers i'm designing dont look to great right now. The template is made from cardboard so it looks super tacky but hey its just a template. I think what i'm gonna try to do is cover the baffles with the textured black laminate and then cover the PVC pipe with some red maple laminte. Hopefully in the end it would look like a round peice of wood with the black endcaps. Or I might go with red maple for the whole thing even the end caps. I still havnt decided, I just hope it doesnt sound like garbage when i'm done (which is very possible) :D. But hey its only cost me $60 so far so it isnt a big loss if they suck. I think i'm gonna pick up the 15' section of PVC next week. Then i'll at least be able to cut all the MDF and put together one speaker (minus the tweeter though since they are outta stock still).


Ryan
 
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If anyone wants to make some nice high end speaker cables I followed this recipie. It has been a very interesting project and after my A/B testing I think I can hear a difference in the treble and bass verses the standard 12 Ga zip cord. I do realize that these could very well be in my head and that the high end cable verse cheapo 12 Ga is a hot topic sometimes :).

http://www.venhaus1.com/diycatfivecables.html

They are pretty easy to make but they do take a while. Its basically a ton of small individual wires braided together to equal one large one :D. The only thing to watch out for is that the cable acts like a capacitor so your amp might ocisllate if it isnt very stable. He suggest making the cables less that 8 ft to remedy that. Anyway he has very good instructions on his page and explains the design very well.

Here's one I made. I used black electrical tape on it to try and make it look a bit more professional. You could probably cover it with tech flex pretty easily and get even better results ;).
11334558256_e6b06cbc82_b.jpg


Ryan
 
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i want to see some Freq. curvs of those speakers when you get done! i think an MTM design like that would be better for some people not wanting a huge sub under there desk.... i hope you padded the tweeter/mids to match ... what are the crossover points for the MTM? For some people here looking to get started there is Wayne J. that built the Dayton Budgets a while back i havent the time to build them but from what people have said they rival speakers costing 2x-4x as much...

the revs site check it out http://www.speakerbuilder.net

will you be posting pics when you get don with the enclosures? did you wind up going ventd for the mtm or sealed?
 
My cousin doe dyi audio and actually sells his speakers on allegro.pl (it's like ebay)
I've decided it's probably time to me too to learn to build my own speakers. If I can build my own PC, build my own arcade controller, and build my own uh....sandwich :p then I think I'll be able to handle this. I also vote for a sticky!! :D

The link you posted up there, the AV1s, they look nice :D Not to pricy for a kit either which is probably what I'd start with to learn how to build speakers. As for what a crossover is, if I understand it correctly it's something to separate the different sound frequecies and divide it to send it to the right speaker. Not a very clear exlanation but what more can I say if I hardly understand it myself. :p
 
Basically crossovers separate the sound waves. So the tweeter receives the treble and the woofer receives bass. Of course theres a lot more to building designing crossovers than that but you have to have some pretty pricey equipment to really do them properly.

For my project i'm gonna try two different crossovers. First is gonna be a 2nd order linkwitz at 2300 Hz and the second is gonna be a 1st order at about 5000 Hz. There a few different things i wanted to consider. The mid basses seemed pretty decent up to about 5000 Hz and some people say the simpler the better for crossovers so I thought i'd give it a try. But the only down side is I guess the midbass can start to beam with the higher freq's. Then the 2nd order is a lot lower but that hands the tweeter over a lot quicker. I dunno which i'll like best but my least favorite thing about any speakers is sibilance and that usually happens with most i've heard with the lower crossover points. Since the speakers will probably be use for my PC along with the 10" titanic subwoofer I wont have to worry too much about the midranges beaming. Since it’ll be all near field listening and i'll be in the sweet spot.

I'm gonna go with a ported enclosure for the midbasses because they are only 4.5" speakers. They would have an F3 of about 150 Hz in a sealed box. I went ahead and increased the tube length from 7" to 9" to give a total volume of around .145 Cu. Ft. or so. With a 1 1/2" port 4" long i get an F3 of about 75 Hz which is a lot better than the 150Hz.

Heres the great thing about the tweeter. Its only 88 dB 2.83v/m while the midbasses are 86 dB's 2.83v/m. So with the midbasses 89 dB 2.83v/m. So I shouldn’t have to pad the tweeter at all. Well just have to see how much the baffle effects the tweeter. Even thought the midbasses are a listed to be a little more efficient I think I will really like the results. I really enjoy a slightly laid back sound. Which is why I picked the AV 1's and sennheiser HD-580s :).


Ryan
 
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Well I got some high speed wood blades for my jig saw and they seemed to do a decent job. As with any jig saw cut I'll have to sand the MDF to make them ready to be laminated but it shouldnt be a big deal :D. We'll see how this works out after it's all assembled :).



Ryan
 
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Ryan T said:
Heres the great thing about the tweeter. Its only 88 dB 2.83v/m while the midbasses are 86 dB's 2.83v/m. So with the two midbasses wired parallel they are 89 dB 2.83v/m. So I shouldnt have to pad the tweeter at all. Well just have to see how much the baffle effects the tweeter. Even thought the midbasses are a listed to be a little more efficient I think I will really like the results. I really enjoy a slightly laid back sound. Which is why I picked the AV 1's and sennheiser HD-580s :).


Ryan


even with the 1db difference you could really bring the speakers to life by padding them to say 85db or 86db matched... remember though that even with a 1 db difference that is enough to either make the mids sound to powerfull and dround out the highs or make the highs too bright... as a recommendation build a modular crossover so you can change out parts before fininshing the speakers that way you can pad them... to see how much a difference there is by matching the sensitivity of the speakers...

which titnaic did you get i hear the mkIII's are really sweet when they have the right amount of power....
 
Post #3 has the pics of the titanic sub. The driver is the original titanic 1000 which i got for $50 :). With the midbasses in parallel they will be 89 dB 2.83v/m while the tweeter is 88 dB. Why would I pad them down to 86 and not to 88? I'm thinking of putting the crossovers in the base of the stands i'm designing so it will be very simple to change out parts. Once I get a crossover I like i'm gonna try some Alpha foil inductors to see if it makes any improvments. Needless to say I cant wait untill next week when the tweeters arrive :D.


Ryan
 
the alpha foil inductors will only make a true difference from what i have read other people saying is when you use really high end spearkers and thuse is a waste of money ... like i said padding down both will prolly bring the speakers to life which is why i also said make a modular crossover for testing before settling on one.... if you were using the higher-end Audax/morel/focal/scan-speak then i would really say go for the alpha foil.... i as i do remember but cant find it right now the review of the the different foil inductors show that using the better Inductors really benifits the higher end speakers like i listed above... they said that no aubiable difference could be heard on speakers like you are using...

two great hobbies i dont have money for DIY speakers and OCing :cry:
 
Instead of upgrading to fancy foil inductors, why not upgrade to very large air-core normal wire ones? The DCR will drop and that would definatly be a positive difference.

Are you going to implement any bafflestep compensation in your speakers Ryan?
 
I dunno I consider Hi-Vi and Vifa to be higher end drivers. I know there not Scan speak but they seem to be decent quality. but to tell you the truth I dunno If i could hear a difference with a foil inductor on "high end" drivers either.

I have barely done any reasearch into baffle step compensation so my knowledge of it is very limited. I thought it was of more use in line array speakers and not a small MTMs. But If you have any ideas about what I should do i'm more than open to them. I'm also trying to find out info on impedance equalization circuits and how they improve the speakers. But so far I havnt come up with much :/

I decided at the start I was just doing this for fun. I dont have the resources to build optimized crossovers so I'm just gonne do the best I can with what i've got :D. In your opinion do you think the 14 Ga perfect layer inductors at PE would perform better than the Alpha Copper foil inductors? I'm all for it if it saves money. I know a lot of people will spend a lot for that 5% increase and to me if its that little it isnt really worth it. At least when budget is a top priority as with these speakers.



Ryan
 
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