[DIY] Build your own Speakers

[Fatlimey]

Not wanting to turn DJTT into a speaker enthusiast board (heaven knows there's enough of those) but in the spirit of MAKEing your own gear and sharing, here's some of what I've found out about building your own PA speakers. Building speakers for in-car use is also a big subject online with it's own specializations, but I've not gone down that route at all. Strictly club business here.

I'm all about the bass and I've tried a bunch of commercial powered speaker systems in the past and never been very impressed - they're optimised for "commercial" recordings and PAs for spoken word, so they have no need to cover the bottom end, whereas electronic music covers all audible frequencies. To get to the kinds of sound I like at a price that's not stupid you need to build our own. Thankfully, there's a growing number of enthusiasts who are going down the same path and the web has some stand out resources.

Amps have reached the point where 1.5-2.5 KWatt amps are easily in reach of the average Joe ($300 - $450) so there's no reason not to drive a couple of 1K drivers. All you need do is build a cabinet, and the kings of Bass are the Folded Horn designs: Rog Mogale's 186/1850 Folded Horn cabinets and the lightweight Punisher II cabinet.

http://www.speakerplans.com/index.php?id=plans
http://www.speakerstore.nl/index.php?pg=6

If you're living in Europe, lucky you.You have easy access to some of the greatest speaker drivers available in the form of the Precision Devices PD 186 and Void Acoustics V18-1000. In the US where I am, it's super expensive to get these imported, so you have to go back to first principles to find drivers that can match the specs of these monsters (EBP >= 125 and BL >= 28). That's still a work in progress (although getting a set of Caire 12" speakers for the Punisher design is looking slightly more possible if you can swallow the huge markup).

Here's a pair of 1850s in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZB8-saDLrg

A pair of subs, a pair of mid-tops, a pair of amps and a crossover, and you're good to go.

[whiskers]

I've read a tutorial about building your own speakers... and it's actually pretty easy to builds a set of high-quality speakers! It requires almost no knowledge of electronics, most of the work goes towards making the cabinet. How much does it cost, overall, to make one of those big speakers?

[earwax]

anyone serious about having sound that is superior to commercial/consumer products needs to go here...

www.billfitzmaurice.com

plans come with 3d, full set of specs with options, clear instructions for both cabinets and wiring.

if you go to the speaker section on djforumns then you will see one of the longest running and largest threads.

i have slowly but surely been working on a pair of tlah's for my house that will be the equivalent of the high end line array's used at major concerts...yet scaled down obviously.

enjoy.

[djxsquizet]

sounds very interesting and cool diy project anyone know any good diy projects for synthenziers

[BentoSan]

Awesome information guys !

sounds very interesting and cool diy project anyone know any good diy projects for synthenziers

Start a new thread, please dont hijack this one.

[tekki]

I used to do that in an other lifetime. It, or I, was only somewhat more crude back than.
My youth to blame, and also the place where the speakers were placed.


Might actually build new speakers with this info in the future, thanks for the info Limey-san!

Duomo arigato!

[djtimmmy]

one word of help to diyers.... if you don't have software like boxplot or bassbox where you can design a box from scratch, the pre made designs are the best way to go..... but make sure you use a driver that has similar parameters, and im not meaning the power handling,

Most of the designers usually list a few drivers that work well with the design.

box building can be very fun and rewarding but you have to be willing to play with the designs....

if your looking to build bassbins or basshorns they work better when there are more of them... the more you couple together the lower they will go and you will actually feel the low notes and not just hear them....

parts express is a good place to purchase parts, I have bought from them since I was 16, get thier fliers they always have awesome deals on drivers and horns i got a dozen beyma horn tweets for 30 a piece when they had a closeout, and also bought a half a dozen 8x15 mid high horns for 8 bucks a piece, just have to choose the right driver for them....

[jackalope]

speakerplans rule :-)