Need advice on building some speaker boxes?

[do_Og@n]

Anybody out there build their own speakers? I have been looking into what I need to do and what I need to use but I was hoping for your input/advice?

And of course pictures would be great!!!

[Hundrakia]

You can build simple ones with not much, you'd need basically wire, a magnet, and something conical to vibrate attached to the wire so that the brunt of the sound would be directed in some manner. Going further, the quality of any part, the addition of filtering, housing means (cabinets, treatments of those cabinets) are all things that come to mind when I think of building one. That being said, I have not done so in my adult life.

Could be fun!

[do_Og@n]

You can build simple ones with not much, you'd need basically wire, a magnet, and something conical to vibrate attached to the wire so that the brunt of the sound would be directed in some manner. Going further, the quality of any part, the addition of filtering, housing means (cabinets, treatments of those cabinets) are all things that come to mind when I think of building one. That being said, I have not done so in my adult life.

Could be fun!

Thank you for sharing. I will most likely be buying the speaker components and MDF myself. I already have some blueprints for the speaker boxes that I would like to make.

I should have made the OP more about building your own speaker boxes rather than making your own speakers.

[Oobly]

If you mean speaker cabinet, I built this:





With plans from here: http://greenboy.us/fEARful/

It sounds great and can go SERIOUSLY loud. Primarily designed for bass, but works for full range audio, too.

There's a program called WinISD you can use to design speaker enclosures: http://www.linearteam.dk/?pageid=winisd

If the enclosure is being used indoors then MDF is a good material. If it will be exposed to dampness or moist air then it's better to use Baltic/Finnish Birch ply with bracing.

[Oobly]

If you sign up to the forum you can see my full build log here: http://greenboy.us/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=506

I can post a couple more pics of the build here, too, if you like.

[0100010]

Not even my thread - but those links and that build is awesome.  Makes me want to build a pair - even though I don't have a need for any.

[goflo]

I think we need to know what you wanna build them for (small room or arena),
what type you wanna have (3-way, 2-way, single horn driver), your type of music you are hearing and last but not least.....what's the budget for your project?

*edit*
Attached a picure of a speaker called jericho horn that I've built some years ago.
Beware of building speakers, can be really addictive

[Hundrakia]

Cabinets are fun! Good luck with your go at this.

[do_Og@n]

I think we need to know what you wanna build them for (small room or arena),
what type you wanna have (3-way, 2-way, single horn driver), your type of music you are hearing and last but not least.....what's the budget for your project?

*edit*
Attached a picure of a speaker called jericho horn that I've built some years ago.
Beware of building speakers, can be really addictive

First off I want to say that's a good looking box! Something about cherry red wood just looks right.

Now to answer some of your questions.

I'll be using the first set with my computer. I'm trying to make them a small two way but would like a large amount of sound coming out of them.

I listen to pretty much all types of music but if I were to pick one I prefer the most it would be Modern Classical.

I'll eventually do a bigger build but that's when I have a nice big cinema room for it all. I'll get some images of what I'm putting together and upload them.

[Oobly]

I think we need to know what you wanna build them for (small room or arena),
what type you wanna have (3-way, 2-way, single horn driver), your type of music you are hearing and last but not least.....what's the budget for your project?

*edit*
Attached a picure of a speaker called jericho horn that I've built some years ago.
Beware of building speakers, can be really addictive

That's a sweet cabinet! Beautiful. Mine is rather more... industrial and not quite as HiFi (also, I didn't design the cabinet itself, just the crossover).

DIY Audio (http://www.diyaudio.com/) is also a great forum for these types of builds. Crossovers can be a PITA to design due to having to take particular properties of the drivers used and cabinet into consideration. If you can find drivers with accurate sensitivity graphs (both 0 degree and 45 degree if possible) it will help a lot.

Not sure if it's that useful, but for what it's worth I really like the 6ND410 drivers I'm using for midrange in mine. They can really handle and are quite sensitive, but not great below about 800Hz (in my application this is perfect since I cross over to the big 15" driver at around 900).

For your application, the 6ND430 could be a good option, but roll it off around 3.5kHz to the tweeter to avoid the spike they have at around 4kHz (cone induced, IIRC). They have a lovely sensitivity slope from about 80Hz all the way to 3kHz which is easy to adjust for in your crossover design.

A sensitivity curve that's a sloping line in either direction can be compensated for in crossover design to give flat response at the cost of a slight overall reduction in sensitivity.

For tweeter, I am also very happy with the XD125 I use. It goes all the way to around 15k smoothly, but rolls off pretty quickly after that. Suits the material I put through it, but you may want one that goes higher before rolling off to get all the "shimmer" of the upper registers in good quality audio sources for classical.

I know that Faital Pro and Eighteensound both make great drivers, but it's hard to find one that's really smooth above 15kHz. The Faital Pro FD371 is really good from 2kHz all the way to 20kHz and would probably complement a 6ND430 very well in a well designed enclosure with a good crossover.

[goflo]

@do_Og@n
I assume you want a shelf box and no floorstanding box. So a 2-way would be just fine for that purpose.
There are plenty of examples and combinations for 2-way shelf systems.

For high-mid range your could go the classical way with a paper cone chassis or go more sophisticated with a ribbon tweeter.
For the low end there are tons of possibilities

How big is your budget ?

@oobly
Thanks for the kind words.
Itīs a fullrange horn tweeter system that get accompanied by a W-Bin Bass horn with a 15" driver 
The horns have around 100-101 dB/W/m and need just tiny amounts of power.
The two jericho horns are driven by just 2x15W.....which is enough to get totally deaf

[do_Og@n]

Here are some images of the speaker build I am going to try and create.

Dimensions are: 6" wide, 8" tall, 8" deep