Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
My son has been playing around with creating his own music and I’ve always wanted to try one of PE’s kits so we have the C Note kit a try. We finished the kit with some carbon fiber style vinyl and ABS sides. They turned out great. Currently, he’s using a tiny Lepy amp. Can’t wait to upgrade the amp.

Design Goals:
Introduce my son to good sound but on a limited budget and quick build time.

Driver Selection:
C Note kit – http://www.parts-express.com/c-note-mt-bookshelf-speaker-kit-pair-with-knock-down-cabinets–300-7140

Conclusion:
Parts Express has proven to be a great resource for the few hobbyist projects I’ve had.

About the Designer:
Always been into audio. Mostly car audio but I’ve recently been playing with more home projects.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Dynamo

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
This is an easy 2-way bookshelf project using the prebuilt and finished BR-1 cabinet pair.

Design Goals:
The goal was to create a budget high-end pair of bookshelf speakers that did not require woodworking and incorporated drivers I have been wanting to build with.

Driver Selection:
XT25BG60-04 (264-1012) tweeter: This is a timeless tweeter family that sounds great and has been used in commercial high end speakers.

Dynavox LW6004PMR-N (295-620): I have been wanting to do a build with the Dynavox woofers for some time and this build was a perfect opportunity.

Enclosure Design:
Pretty simple since the cabinets are pre assembled and pre finished.

Enclosure Assembly:
Some easy mods are necessary. Center the tweeter in the opening and you get a gap between it and the recess. The woofer does not fit the recess, so it is surface mounted. The grills will no longer fit. Remove the protrusions of the grill grommets on the baffle and use craft foam sheet (whatever color pleases you) to cover the baffle. This will cover the tweeter gap and grommet holes. Use the same foam to make a woofer gasket. Adjust the port length in the box to 5 inches. Line the enclosure walls with polyester batting (glued on as to not fall on the crossover).

Crossover Design:
The crossover uses a 2nd order damped electrical filter and a notch on the woofer and 3rd order damped electrical filter and lpad on the tweeter. Resistors are 10w, except the woofer section should have 20w or doubled up 10w in parallel for best heat dissipation. Use NPE caps in the woofer section and the whole project including the foam, wire, and batting can come in under $300 for the pair.

Tips & Tricks:
Increase the resistor paralleling the tweeter to 20 ohms if the room used a lot of plush items (carpet, couches, curtains, etc) or if you otherwise desire a little more HF output.

Move them out into the room a bit if bass is heavy/boomy. They are best suited to be away from walls and on stands, not a table top.
Conclusion:
I was very pleased with the outcome of the project.

About the Designer:
Been designing speakers as a hobbyist for some time now and enjoy learning more with each project.

Project Parts List:

Project Category:
Guitar and Bass Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
The project entailed building a stand-alone guitar isolation cabinet for a professional touring musician who utilizes a Mesa Triple Rectifier

Design Goals:
Build a solid enclosure with very good internal acoustic air space as well as high sound absorption to prevent stage bleed.

Driver Selection:
Part # 290-4801

Enclosure Assembly:
5/8″ Baltic Birch plywood. Entire enclosure is held together with beach-wood biscuits,staples, and glue. This method while taking longer actually ensures a stronger bond and zero chance of vibration and resonant frequencies from fasteners coming loose.

The only fasteners that were used were 10-32 T-Nuts and grade 8 SHCS’s to hold the driver in place. Truss head screws were used to mount the Penn-Elcom handles and jack dish into place with foam gasket around the flanges.

The inside of both chambers of the isolation box contain Owens Corning 1″ 703 wrapped in black burlap fabric. This was aesthetically pleasing, but also prevented sound transfer between the inside cavity of the box and the outside.

Conclusion:
While this project was very time consuming, it yielded a product far superior than any big name guitar speaker that could be purchased. We utilized the finest materials, construction methods, and Eminence Drivers for a high quality product. This design is very unique in that no one has developed a horizontal platform isolation cabinet with integrated speaker and microphone chamber. Most isolation cabinets are vertical and look goofy with an amp head hanging off both sides. The other beautiful detail about this project was the driver we selected: Eminence EM12. This driver had a 200W RMS rating on it which fell in line with the output power of the Mesa head. This allowed Seth to push his amplifier gain to max and get the tube sound he was after without destroying the speaker or getting kicked off stage.

About the Designer:
SRL Loudspeakers (founded 2017)

We were founded on guitar iso-cabinets and quickly moved into designing and building sound reinforcement cabinets for DJ’s and mobile musicians. While lead times aren’t our selling point, our quality and tonal characteristics speak for themselves.

Project Parts List:

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Tool Box Boom Box for Wood Shop.

Design Goals:
Build a small bookshelf speaker system for a wood workshop In a cool enclosure.

Driver Selection:
I pulled apart a set of Dayton Audio B652’s for the front speakers and added 2Dayton Audio SD175-PR’s to the side of the box.

Enclosure Design:
Craftsman 3 draw tool box with front powered speakers and side passive radiators.

Enclosure Assembly:
Craftsman 3 draw tool box with front powered speakers and side passive radiators.

Crossover Design:
Used a Dayton Audio DTA-120.

Tips & Tricks:
Beginners tip– Box must be 100% sealed when using the passive radiators. No air can escape or they don’t work!

Conclusion:
The passive radiators added a huge amount of (much needed) bottom end to the Dayton Audio B652’s. Came out a bit messy but it was a learning project. It will just sit on a shelf in my dirty workshop.. so for that it’s perfect. Next one will be bigger!

About the Designer:
Wood worker and owner of Creation Drum Company building custom drums for over 20 years.

Project Parts List:

Project Category:
Furniture

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
Over $1,000

Project Description:
I’ve always been a fan of mid-century stereo consoles. These clunky wood veneer boxes stuffed with generally mediocre electronics were a beacon of upper-middle-class-ness of the post-war era. They also did something a little more subtle – they made music a physical focal point of the living space.

This got me thinking.

Could I design a console stereo borrowing the mid-century aesthetic, but purpose-built to be as-good-or-better-than the current high end offerings? It’s one of those dumb ideas I have late at night that keeps me up until there is no turning back.

I designed the cabinet and electronics layout and then had a friend / woodworker (at JD Lohr School of Woodworking) construct the cabinet for me.

I had the control panel and rear input plate laser cut by MojoTone out of North Carolina.

I completed the final assembly with all the electronics once it arrived here.
Design Goals:
• Aesthetically true to mid-century design

• Near-audiophile sound quality

• 100w x 2 plus subwoofer

• Bluetooth connectivity

• RCA / Aux connectivity

Driver Selection:
Tang Band W8-2145 8″ Paper Cone Full Range Driver 8 Ohm

Enclosure Design:
3/4″ Walnut with main chamber for both front speakers + separate .5 cu ft chamber for 8″ subwoofer.

Crossover Design:
No crossover needed for the full range front speakers. The sub includes an adjustable high pass filter and gain.

Conclusion:
This has been a great learning experience that combined my love for physical product design, music, and electronics.

The final piece is now the focal point in my living room and sounds just as warm and inviting as it looks.

About the Designer:
I’m a graphic designer / art director / creative director in advertising, but have had a life-long love for music and I consider myself a speaker and electronics hobbyist / nerd.

My work can be found at bradkayal.com

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Matt Phillips / RB

Project Category:
Tower Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$500 – $1,000

Project Description:
I wanted to build Matt Phillips Rockin’ It Old School speakers, but the woofers he used are discontinued.

Design Goals:
Front speakers for my living room that would have deep bass extension to eliminate my cheap subwoofer. And like the original speakers I wanted speakers capable of being driven with a home av receiver.

Driver Selection:
The same tweeter and mid as the originals but replaced the woofer with the Dayton Audio DC380-8 15″.

Enclosure Design:
Some would consider these gaudy, I ended up with a box 40″ H x 20″ W x 20.25″ D I wanted an F3 at no higher than 30 hz since I am not going to be using a subwoofer. The recommended vented volume for the DC380 woofer is a massive 5.27 cu. ft., and I enlarged it to 6.5 cu. ft. to get the f3 I wanted.

Enclosure Assembly:
Everything is similar to the originals but I doubled up the baffle for 1-1/2″.

Crossover Design:
I used X over pro and used the same crossover points with 2nd order filters.

This was my first speaker build and admittedly I don’t know very much about designing crossover networks. I also don’t have a mic or software for measuring frequency response so there were no in box measurements.

Conclusion:
After listening to these speakers several times I have discovered my ears are sensitive to very low frequency bass, so I have actually had to set the bass management to 40 hz in my receiver to avoid hurting my ears. :/

About the Designer:
Someone with too much time and money on their hands to buy a nice pair of speakers from the store

Project Parts List:

Project Category:
Portable Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Some what portable, easy to use and respectable sounding bluetooth speaker.

Design Goals:
Essentially what I wanted was a somewhat portable, good sounding bluetooth speaker with a long battery life that I could bring to BBQ’s and camping trips to introduce my friends to what good sound actually sounds like. I originally wanted to go with an ammo can speaker but after consideration I realized it just wasn’t possible to produce good sound without a lot of extra work.

Driver Selection:
I went with the Tang Band W3-315E just because I had them laying around from a past project. They aren’t sold anymore but the W3-881SJF are comparable.

Enclosure Design:
I’m not an expert wood worker so I kept the design simple. I chose birch wood that was already 7.25″ wide (.75″ thick) off the shelf so all I had to do was cut the lengths for each piece.

External Dimensions:

11″ W x 7″ H x 8.5″ D

Top/Bottom:

7.25″ x 11″

Sides:

7.25″ x 5.75″

Front/Back

7.25″ x 11″

Basspro6 recommend and enclosure of 0.198ft^3 but the actual box is 0.21ft^3 to compensate for the displacement of the bluetooth board, batteries and drivers. The port is 2.6″ long and 1.5″ in diameter for a fb of 75hz.

Enclosure Assembly:
The enclosure assembly is fairly straight forward. Use wood glue and glue the top/bottom and sides together at 90 degree angles followed by the front. I designed the back of the speaker enclosure to be removable. I used 2.5″ pocket screws to secure the back panel and 3/8″ wide speaker gasket to seal the panel.

I sanded everything with a palm sander starting with 60 grit and worked my way up to 220 grit. I did one coat of pre-stain conditioner followed by one coat red mahogany stain and three coats of polyurethane gloss.

On the back panel I used a simple power switch, 2.5mm female power jack and flush mounted the 3 LEDS for the bluetooth board.

Crossover Design:
Didn’t use one. You could use a knotch filter to tame the peak around 10khz but its not necessary in my opinion.

Tips & Tricks:
Take your time, sand, sand, and then sand some more.

Conclusion:
Overall i’m extremely pleased with this project. The speaker sounds great, battery life is around 7 hours and it looks great in my opinion. The sound is much bigger then the speaker itself, vocals are rich and overall very pleasant to listen to. They’re not “audiophile” grade but hands down better than any off the shelf bluetooth speaker.

About the Designer:
I’m an aviation electronics technician with 6 years of experience working on the AV8-B Harrier with a small hobby of building speakers.

Project Parts List:

Project Category:
Tower Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
I wanted to use up some left-over walnut hardwood, and find a home for some drivers I’ve been experimenting with. I designed some hexagon towers, with two modules per speaker. The base module is vented with an up-firing woofer, and the top module has three 3-inch full range drivers in a sealed enclosure (high pass around 150Hz). I use MiniDSP 2×4 (Part # 230-320) for an active crossover, and a Sure 4×100 amp module (Part # 320-335) to drive the speakers. all parts purchased from Parts Express (except wood and the steel tubing that supports the top modules).

Design Goals:
My goal was to build attractive speakers for my daughter & son-in -law using affordable drivers & some walnut scraps I had left over from another speaker project. Low end needed to have some muscle. Most importantly…my daughter’s needed to love them.

Driver Selection:
I chose the Tang Band W5-1138SMF 5.25-inch woofer (Part # 264-917) for the low end, because I’ve used them in other projects, they’re inexpensive and produce sweet sounding bass (for vented enclosure). I recently bought a variety of small full range drivers for experimenting, and the Dayton PC83-8 3-inch drivers (Part # 295-156) matched well when modeled with the TB W5’s.

Ultimately…I used what I had on hand.

Enclosure Design:
The W5’s produce surprisingly low bass in small enclosures…but they need long ports to do it. My daughter wanted a small footprint, so the vertical port was one of the driving elements in design. My wood scraps were limited in width, so hexagon towers allowed narrow sides (4-inches wide). The only way to fit the 6.2-inch W5 diameter onto the hexagon module was to have it up-firing or down-firing. I thought a parabolic reflector (turned on a lathe) would be attractive…so up-firing style won over. The triangle base adds stability and the Dayton Spikes (Part # 240-678) provide an air gap for the port.

For the top module containing the PC83’s, I decided on 3-drivers, with the outer two wired in series, and then wired in parallel to the center driver. This facilitates higher SPL’s without much combing (ears are fooled by louder center driver).

Enclosure Assembly:
Top and bottom hexagon module sides are 1/2-inch (1/4-inch walnut glued to 1/4-inch MDF). Each module contains horizontal braces, and the Port is fixed to work as additional vertical bracing in the woofer module.

The tops, bottoms and base required joining scraps, so I used figured maple scraps at all joints.

The parabolic reflectors were pieced together from scraps, and then turned on a lathe. the finished reflectors were glued into recessed openings in the bottom of each top module.

Finally, top and bottom modules were linked using 6 sections of 1/4″ steel tubing (tubing allows wires to be fed to the top modules).

Crossover Design:
Using MiniDSP 2×4 (Part # 230-320) for an active crossover. Using DAT v2 (Part # 390-806) for driver testing, and REW freeware for room equalization.

Tips & Tricks:
be careful:-)

Conclusion:
Imaging is great when seated in the movie watching position. Music and movie listening goals are achieved. I tested in a large room (25-ft x 45 ft, and sound quality is good in most areas of the room, with imaging sacrificed when more than 30-degrees off axis, or standing close/above the enclosures. I haven’t used REW to tune the room, because these will live in my daughter’s home (out-of-state). Instruments are detailed at low and high volumes. No sub woofer needed here…bass is strong, tight and ‘felt’ without straining the TB W-5’s.

About the Designer:
I’m a math-geek. My woodworking projects are usually focused on turning polyhedra into spheres (lathe). I’ve been building speakers for the past 30-years…but I usually go to Rick Craig (Selah Audio) for the designs, and I just focus on the wood working. This is the first design ‘all on my own’, and I probably wouldn’t have attempted it without the MiniDSP technology.

Project Parts List:

Project Category:
Portable Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Totally portable bluetooth speaker, made from Sapele Wood and Sapele Wood Veneer. 2 X 50 Watts per side.

Design Goals:
I wanted to design the prettiest portable bluetooth speaker possible. I wanted to separate my work from that of the cookie cutter bluetooth model.

Driver Selection:
6 1/2″ with 3/4″ tweeters

Enclosure Design:
Face is 3/4 Sapele Wood. Rest of box is 1/2 Baltic Birch with Sapele Ribbon Venner.

Enclosure Assembly:
Box is 23 3/4″ x 10″ x 8 1/4″

Crossover Design:
Dayton Audio XO2W-2.5K 2-Way Speaker Crossover 2,500 Hz

Part # 260-142

Conclusion:
Was pretty please with build. It was my second ever build.

About the Designer:
RoundHexagon works out of Pomona Ca. Music lover looking for sound design that is auditory pleasing and esthetically built.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Carr

Project Category:
Portable Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
This is an AC Bluetooth portable speaker.

Design Goals:
My goals were to have a portable Bluetooth speaker for my garage shop, and vacation poolside. It was to have a finished wood cabinet, with no end grain exposed using stable plywood, and solid mahogany. Also, light weight, and good SQ.

Driver Selection:
After much review, I based the design on the C-Note kit offered here.

Enclosure Design:
1/2” Mahogany plywood surfaces with solid mahogany to accommodate sealing end grain, and rounding edges. Grill retained with imbedded magnets.

Enclosure Assembly:
Plywood surfaces and mahogany strips are all splined and glued together providing self alignment during assembly, and secure joints.

Crossover Design:
C-Note design

Tips & Tricks:
This concept could be used to combine most any existing speaker kit. The C-Note was selected because of its combined size to SQ.

Conclusion:
My signal generator produced audible sound starting at 20hz to beyond anything I am capable of hearing. SQ was accomplished, as well as portability. The cabinet construction process was particularly fun for me.

About the Designer:
Retired guy working in garage workshop looking forward to next project.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
TomZ

Project Category:
Freestyle Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
I’ve been trying to use my love of speaker building and electronic tinkering to bless others for the past few years… not to mention that there’s only so many speakers that can realistically exist in one house without it beginning to look like a stereo store, and I think we’ve been bumping up against that limit for awhile now. I don’t want to stop building speakers though — it’s just way too much fun. Well, my wife and I have a friend that has helped encourage us both to become more active and healthy, and I really wanted to build her and her husband a set of speakers, but I wasn’t sure they would want something that big in their house. We suspected that a small table-radio may be the best idea in this case. I like the idea of a small, bluetooth connected, and self-contained package that can reproduce rich sound, and not take up a lot of room on a table or counter. In fact, I’ve wanted to build a table radio for several years, and I finally took this opportunity to design, and put one together.

It’s a compact stereo radio that is basically constructed in two parts, the bottom base, and the main radio section. Both upper and lower sections are needed to provide the required air volume to reproduce the bass needed to reproduce realistic music at decent levels. I finished the project with some gorgeous Waterfall Bubinga that was gifted to me by a generous forum member. No one will confuse this radio with one from the big box stores, that’s for sure.

Design Goals:
I wanted realistic bass and ‘even’ sound… meaning no ‘shouty’ midrange that makes you want to cover your ears and hide when the artist begins to sing. It had to be very compact as well… The commercial offerings in this arena are small, why can’t a DIY radio be small too? Some curves would be a must, and a few cool little touches, like a lighted on/off switch alone on top, and a magnetically attached grill system.

Also, I wanted to use the Parts Express faceplate preamplifier unit for the first time. It looked to have a good feature set with a minimal price tag… FM radio, SD card and USB inputs, line in and Bluetooth 4.0 inputs with a remote for under $20? Plus it played lots of file formats, not just MP3’s…It sounded too good to be true… was it? Read on.

Driver Selection:
Having used the Dayton Audio ND65-4 driver before in my “Sound Traveler” radio, I knew it was a kind of freak of a driver. Able to achieve mid 60 Hz bass with only a 2″ cone, it’s 3.5 mm of excursion stays reasonably clean due to its underhung design and motor venting.

Enclosure Design:
I like the look of the nicer table radios out there, but they are usually fairly plain looking. I wanted to mimic their basic form factor, but kick up the visual a bit. Like I said, this is really two enclosures joined together to give it a more svelte look, while allowing for the needed enclosure volume to make the most of the drivers excursion. The main body is approx. 14.5″ wide, 4.5″ high, and 8.5″ deep. The base is 1″ tall at the rear and 1.5″ tall in the front. This allows for the radio to be aimed up a bit to distribute sound better in the room — plus it looks cool. I had to create a jig to get this taper; it was done with a router attached to a strong board sliding on tapered, angled guide boards. It’s 7″ deep and 12.75″ wide with front angles that mimic the top radio section.

Enclosure Assembly:
Both the top radio portion as well as the base have three compartments inside. The small middle section houses the amplifier, faceplate, crossover components, and associated wiring. The sides are curved on both the base and the top enclosure (See picture of the clamping jig I created to secure the sides to the cabinet during the glue-up process.) The main radio tapers to 9.5″ wide at the rear using two sections of 1/8″ HDF, where the curve on the base is just sanded on a belt sander as this was easy to accomplish due to its small size. I used Gorilla glue for almost everything with the exception of gluing the two pieces of 1/8″ HDF sides to each other — I used wood glue for that. Also, I used construction adhesive to glue the finished black faceplate housing piece to the main cabinet. There are three 1/4″ x 1/2″ MDF braces on each side to support the sides as it glued to the main cabinet. The inner pieces are 1/4″ MDF.

The cabinet volume per driver side is around 1.6 liters, tuned to 67 Hz or so with a 1″ x 6″ long vent. I lengthened the vent with black gorilla tape to get the 6″ length since the original vent is only 4″ long.

In order to minimize the effects of the end grain of the cabinet showing through the veneer over time, I skinned the top and back with a 1/16″ layer of maple veneer to avoid this. I’ve found that doing so can nearly eliminate the ‘ghosting’ that can occur otherwise.

The veneer had a few coats of boiled linseed oil applied, followed by several coats of sealer – sanding lightly with a 220 grit sanding sponge between coats. The finish is actually clear spray lacquer applied by spray cans. I think I used less than two full cans to do this.

Crossover Design:
After the project was mainly complete, I installed the drivers, attached the grills with the cloth on, and took measurements on my Omnimic. I then created a filter consisting of a parallel .20 mH coil and a 4 ohm resistor inline with each speakers positive (+) lead. This evened out the midrange level, left the highs mostly untouched, and allowed for a few decibels of baffle step compensation so the radio would sound more ‘full’ in the lower frequencies. You’ll notice in the pics that I used a fairly cheap buyout iron core inductor because I had it on hand. It seems to work fine.

Tips & Tricks:
Initially, the faceplate unit and the amplifier didn’t want to play nice together. Having noise issues is not an uncommon problem when dealing with small amp boards powered by switching power supply units and this project was no exception. With some help from my friends at Parts Express ‘Tech Talk’ forum however, a suitable solution was discovered. Noise introduced to the amplifier by the 12V power ground lead common to both the amp and the faceplate was the issue. By using a DC/DC convertor to ‘isolate’ the ground from the amp to the radio, the noise was eliminated. I glued this into the front area where the faceplate mounts with hot glue.

The bluetooth faceplate preamp unit is really a nice unit for the price with a good Bluetooth range and quick responses to inputs. For example, when I ‘volume-upped’ my iPod connected to Bluetooth, it automatically upped the volume on the radio faceplate, showing rising numbers instantly in conjunction with my iPods volume. The FM radio even pulled in a few stations with decent quality, though I suspect the main source of input will be Bluetooth. I did put 30 songs or so on a USB flash drive and found the quality of playback to be excellent. Also, the Bluetooth faceplate unit plugs right into the amplifier boards input — the included cable hooks right to it, no soldering required.

The amplifier is mounted to a MDF bracket that is ‘friction-fit’ into the opening by using a few pieces of foam gasket to create the needed pressure to keep it in place when pushed into position. (see photo)

I used a 12v power supply to power everything with since it simplified the design a lot. I think the amplifier works best at 16V or so with 4 ohm speakers, but set up this way, it can easily overpower the drivers, so I think 12V is more than enough in this case.

I used about a softball-sized amount of poly fill in each speaker compartment.

The binding post listed in the parts was hacked to accommodate the DC input jack. The two existing banana jacks were removed, the plastic part drilled for the larger DC jack size, and then installed using blue thread locking compound. I originally installed a 3.5mm stereo jack for a possible future subwoofer hookup, but found this to be an issue noise-wise, and quickly removed it in the name of sanity.

I also installed a dishwasher screen gasket in the upper rear of the cabinet to allow for heat to escape in case the internal amp gets warm. The bottom front of the cabinet has a small slot under the faceplate to allow for air intake, and convection cooling to take place.

Conclusion:
This radio sounds much bigger than it looks. It will reproduce music loud enough to make conversation difficult while maintaining its composure for the most part. It just doesn’t sound like it could possibly be a pair of 2″ drivers making all this noise. Watching those little drivers pumping away like a ‘mini-me’ sized 12″ woofer cracks me up, and yes… the bass is real. There’s a solid 60 Hz available at reasonable listening levels — and when placed on a kitchen counter near the back wall, the low end fills in nicely. I’ll say it again, the little Dayton ND65 is a real special driver; it’s what makes this combination work so well, producing some actual bass, while keeping the overall size reasonable.

About the Designer:
I’ve been building speakers since I was a kid and have recently gotten into smaller amplifier radio projects as well. I’m always learning things as this project proves. I enjoy challenging myself with different woodworking designs… Coming up with a neat design and wondering how in the world I’ll figure out how to build it excites me, and is part of the reason I keep at this. The challenge is great fun, and the reward of a beautiful, amazing sounding design is extremely satisfying to me.

Project Parts List:

Project Category:
Home Theater

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
This is the very first speaker project that I made for the family for Christmas 2017. My son Daniel and I built it together. He was a real trooper. It has 50 W/Channel. Built with 3/4 inch Pine boards and reinforcements inside. I used Dayton’s KAB-250A amplifier which gives the speaker bar Bluetooth capability, portability with added battery packs, external inputs, and 2 USB Charging ports in the back. I used 4 Audax 3 inch full range drivers and Dayton’s soft dome tweeter (DC28FT-8 1-1/8″ Silk Dome Truncated Tweeter), and 2 XO2W-3.5K 2-Way Crossovers 3,500 Hz. Each side is divided in the box to preserve appropriate dimensional calcs. Two ports in the back along with a volume knob, power input, and that input board. There is much I would redo, but overall I think it is a good first project for a amateur Maker.

I thought a Little U2 Elevation was a good test of the Soundbar Quality. Granted I recorded it with the iPhone, but I hope it somewhat conveys its output and sound. Thanks for checking it out.

Design Goals:
1-Create a great sounding stereo soundbar to place the 40″ LED TV on top of. 2- Have Bluetooth Capability. 3- Optional Battery Power for moving outdoors for social events. 4- Beautiful Natural Wood Appearance. 5- USB charging ports in the back.

Driver Selection:
Four AuraSound NS3-193-8A 3″ Extended Range Driver 8 Ohm.

Two Dayton Audio DC28FT-8 1-1/8″ Silk Dome Truncated Tweeter

Enclosure Design:
External Dimensions 36″W x 4.5″H x 11″D. Center baffle internal.

Two Speaker Cabinet Port Tube 1-13/16″ ID x 2-7/16″ L

Enclosure Assembly:
Assembly was pretty straightforward as the Driver holes we did with hole cutters on the drill press. Assembly was done with a Domino Joiner and Pocket Hole Screws. Screws were installed on the exterior back panel to allow for upgrades and battery removal. I attached the PDF’s for the box and speaker internal components design to this submission if anyone is curious. I also attached a parts list, and specs for the drivers.

Crossover Design:
Two Dayton Audio XO2W-3.5K 2-Way Crossover 3,500 Hz

Tips & Tricks:
I let my son install the AuraSound and Dayton drivers. He did a great job, but we are off a little bit on rotation. Next time draw two lines to align the screw holes. I am installing a grill over the drivers soon, so I am not going to worry too much about the alignment (gives it personal character). I would’ve put the LEDs in the back if I had it to do over. The green one is downright offensively bright under the TV.

Conclusion:
Overall, this was an easy and fun first timers project for me. I appreciated the modularity of the KAB-250A and the add-on boards, charging modules, and LED’s. My son and I built the enclosure, assembled the internal systems, and loaded the drivers and were pleasantly surprised at the great sound of this combination of amplifier and speaker components.

YouTube:

About the Designer:
My name is Scott McGregor from Woodstock, IL. I am a hobbyist who would love to become better at this fun speaker building thing. I am a management consultant by day and a woodworker hobbyist by night.

PDF Files:

275076daytonaudiodc28ft8silkdometruncatedtweeterspecifications

296258_aurasound_ns31938a_specifications

aurasound_ns31938a_3__extended_range_driver_8_ohm

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dayton_audio_dc28ft8_11_8__silk_dome_truncated_tweeter soundbar_box_dimensions soundbar_parts_list

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Project Parts List:

Designer:
ds1919

Project Category:
Loudspeakers/Cabinets

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
These

Design Goals:
I wanted to design and build a pair of speakers for my bedroom that were larger than most regular sized “bookshelves”, so I could have good bass extension, as well as superb clarity, detail, and crispness. I like these smaller 5″ and 5 1/4″ drivers for this purpose. I also wanted a fairly simple build and low cost.

Driver Selection:
The Audax HM130Z10 8ohm midbass drivers actually found me, so I based my box designs and tweeter choice around this driver. I chose the Peerless by Tymphany D27TG35-06 1″ Silk Dome Tweeter (Part # 264-1022). Specs showed that it is within a dB or so of the woofer, even at 6ohms.

Enclosure Design:
This was the tricky part. I had scavenged two identical pieces of 1 1/8″ thick particle board (I know, not the best for enclosures, but they were free) from a work site. Since I only had so much to work with, I was lucky to find the Audax midbass units at a great price because with them I could maximize the materials (in other words, I could use nearly all of each slab of wood) and have a great sounding speaker and great looking too. I used WinISD to design the box. The port is tuned to 83Hz.

Enclosure Assembly:
Assembly was straightforward, I used liquid nails all around to glue the front, top, back, bottom and then port length to one of the sides, brad nailed in a few places, then proceeded to do the other side. I routered with a flush trim bit to get the ends surfaced, then a small quarter round trim bit to round out the sides. Jasper jig the recess the tweeters, but freehanded the recesses for the midbass, since they are an odd shape. I found a brand new hole saw set at a local pawn shop (yey) at a steal of a price, and two of the hole saws were exactly what I needed for the cutouts for the drivers (double yey).

Since the material is large grain particle board (subfloor grade material), I spent a lot of time puttying and filling the coarse surfaces and spent a lot of time sanding until I got everything smooth.

After everything was super smooth, using down to 3000 grit paper on my sander, I applied Minwax wood sealer to seal the wood from absorbing the primer and paint coats. I gave 4 coats of primer and 8 coats of Alpine White paint, sanding between each coat. All the puttying, filling, sanding, painting etc was the longest part of the process.

I mounted the crossovers directly behind the tweeters as there was plenty of room and would not cause any hindrance in the port area. I also used a 12″ x 10″ x 1″ piece of foam for each enclosure for dampening.

Crossover Design:
Looking at the spec sheets, which was the only way I have to derive any calculations from, I wanted to cross the drivers over at 1000Hz. But that is too low for the tweeters, so I settled for 3k Hz. I chose second order for simplicity and also space constraints. I used PE components all the way – caps, coils, boards. I used Cardas 4% silver solder, and some very interesting hookup wire.

Tips & Tricks:
Tips Tricks and Lessons Learned:

As much as I like the idea of using these Audax drivers, I’ll most likely go with “round” frames next time so I can make the project simpler. There are many good drivers out there with round frames.

The Indonesian Milspec wire is NOT insulated, so I had to apply a rubber sealer on each strand, which took lots of time to dry and vent off. I’ll use insulated wire after this….

If you notice, the box at the port area is extended out. I did that for cosmetics, and also I didnt want to cut the wood off. That made it difficult to router and Jasper jig and so I will not do that again also!

Whenever changing paints or from primer to paint, clean the entire paint gun and cup!! Doh!!!

The midbass drivers, after all the paint that was applied, were REALLY tight to get into their respective recesses. I routered them at such close tolerances that I had to use a block of wood and hammer to get them to seat. I did not fully understand just how much real-estate paint and primer will take up until after the fact. In the future, I will make the recesses a little larger (cut over the line traces).

Last tip I learned, I think I want to make the enclosures and crossovers so that I can experiment with different xover values and be able to remove them and change them. This project was a one shot deal because I simply cannot remove the drivers without breaking something. I got lucky because they do sound great, but could they sound greater?

Conclusion:
I must admit I actually spent more money than I had anticipated, on the drivers, the other components, but I felt I would be short changing myself if I did not go for the extra expense. I also spent way more time prepping and finishing the enclosures, but it was truly and entirely worth every minute, and every step. They look amazing. I was more proud of the enclosure build than the rest of the speaker project because I had never used a professional paint sprayer with car paints, and mixing hardeners and reactors and thinners and then applying the paint etc. It was really easy, and the local automotive paint store was extremely helpful in that department.

About the Designer:
I’ve been building speakers since 1984, when I was just a teenager. I’ve been more interested in the sound of the speakers than the enclosure aesthetics itself. While I’ve used laminates and wood veneers, I’ve never painted until now. It was fun and a major education to another level of speaker design.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
RBRAUN

Project Category:
Portable Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Conversion of a camera/gun case into a portable sound system.

Design Goals:
I wanted to use two pyramids, a small amp, and piezos inside a harbor freight molded case so I’d have music at work and in my shop or on the back porch.

Driver Selection:
GRS PZ1016 2″ x 5″ Piezo Horn Tweeter Similar to KSN1016A

Brand:GRS|Model: PZ1016|Part # 292-440

Pyramid W64 6-1/2″ Pro Plus Midbass Woofer

Brand:Pyramid|Model: W64|Part # 290-025

Enclosure Design:
sealed box. plywood reinforced molded case from harbor freight.

Enclosure Assembly:
plywood reinforced molded case from harbor freight.

Conclusion:
could use more bottom end, i’ll probably use a passive radiator in the next box. works fine for the shop.

About the Designer:
cabinetmaker and amateur speaker designer/builder.

Project Parts List:

Project Category:
Tower Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
small tower speakers using a direct/reflect concept as used in earlier Bose designs.

Design Goals:
Design elegant speakers that are a reflection and an appreciation of music.

Driver Selection:
295-309 Dayton Audio DC160-4 6-1/2″ Classic Woofer Speaker

264-500 Peerless D19TD-05 3/4″ Poly Dome Tweeter

Enclosure Design:
ported enclosure

Enclosure Assembly:
1/2″ baltic birch ply, internally braced and veneered in 1/4″ solid stock.

Crossover Design:
Dayton Audio XO2W-3.5K 2-Way Speaker Crossover 3,500 Hz Part # 260-146

Conclusion:
I am very satisfied with these. the look, feel, and sound quality are exactly what i was aiming for.

About the Designer:
Cabinetmaker by day; beer drinker and speaker designer by night. Maybe part sculptor or boatbuilder as well.

Project Parts List:

Project Category:
Loudspeakers/Cabinets

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Bringing a pair of Fisher XP-10 speakers dated 1967 back to life with an exterior refinishing, new crossovers, new Morel Tweeters, wiring, and insulation.

Design Goals:
Excellent sound while maintaining an original appearance.

Driver Selection:
Vintage HH Scott 15″ ALNICO woofer, original 8″ mid driver, Morel CAT308 tweeter

Enclosure Design:
Original XP-10 sealed enclosure

Enclosure Assembly:
Consolette type, walnut, with original fabric

Crossover Design:
2nd order, 3-Way, Butterworth

Crossover points: 300 hZ and 2500 hZ

Conclusion:
Although probably not optimum due to me simply building a crossover from a calculator to be similar to the original crossover points, these speakers still sound great! I am really happy with how they turned out. The Morel tweeters really woke the highs back up without being overpowering.

About the Designer:
A regular guy that likes vintage hi-fi equipment and bringing it back to life. My system consists of a McIntosh C11 pre-amp, a pair of MC-30 mono block amps that I rebuilt, an MR-71 tuner, and a Dual 721 turntable in a base that I hand made. I rotate between a pair of Boston VR-975 speakers, a pair of vintage ElectroVoice Marquis that I rebuilt with Crites crossovers and rear firing bass port, and now these great sounding Fisher XP-10s.

I also have my first McIntosh piece that I rebuilt as well. An MA-5100 integrated amp.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
sirswank

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
8” 3-way “bookshelf” speakers in retro art-deco design. Simple sealed enclosure, MDF construction. Air space chosen based on woofer.

Design Goals:
Full range sound, large power handling, relatively flat response.

Driver Selection:
1” dome tweeter: 292-464

4” midrange: 295-160

8” titan woofer: NLA

All drivers are 8 ohm.

Enclosure Design:
Sealed 3-way

Enclosure Assembly:
Decoupage over MDF, magnetic grills

Crossover Design:
PE 800/5000 3-way passive

Tips & Tricks:
The finish was supposed to be smooth – glue down paper with contact cement, and seal with an acrylic spray before poly or use epoxy to avoid wrinkles.

Conclusion:
Successful enough build, learned some things. Hopefully I can find a home for these to fund the next project.

About the Designer:
Amature hobbiest working in my basement.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Joe

Project Category:
Portable Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
The Swamp Box is a portable, water resistant, rugged, wireless soundsystem.

Design Goals:
I wanted to build a portable soundsystem to take on my sailboat, to bonfires, and anywhere else I want portable wireless sound. I was able to add usb charging capabilities using the KAB INT add-on board.

Driver Selection:
I had the woofers sitting on a shelf waiting for a project. They are very durable, tuff drivers. The tweeters I had purchased when on sale. I liked the clean look of these read mount tweeters.

Enclosure Design:
It is an off the shelf storage/carrying case. It is IP68 rated. I wanted the waterproof and durability this case offered.

Enclosure Assembly:
All of the hardware is Stainless Steel and Brass for good looks and weather resistance.

Crossover Design:
I had this pair of crossovers from a pair of Polk Audio mobile separates. They were on the shelf and ready to use. Custom crossovers are a planned upgrade.

Conclusion:
I am happy with the sound of this box. I plan to design and build new crossovers and probably add a second battery pack.

About the Designer:
I am a prototype technician by trade. I have been an audio hobbyist since junior highschool.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Matt Doherty

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
This pair of bookshelf speakers was designed for hi-fi listening in a close-to-on-axis environment but was also designed to look as good as they sound. These will be in a very visible part of my dad’s home, so the visual aesthetic was as important as the sonic experience. I intentionally did not want to get into the business of “veneering” but would rather showcase the fusion of the beauty of hardwoods and the technology of state-of-the-art drivers in my projects.

Design Goals:
Beautiful natural wood, clarity in sound, unabrasive frequency production.

Driver Selection:
I chose the HiVi F5 woofers and TN25 tweeters due to their compatible frequency ranges and visual interest.

Enclosure Design:
Naturally, lots of factors go into the enclosure design, but as the TN25 tweeters are sealed with a proper enclosure, the only dimension to worry about is the volume as it pertains to the woofer. To determine the size of the box, I first used the “golden ratio” to decide the face dimensions of the front baffle. I then considered the thickness of the material – as all 12 corners were to be mitered – to determine a proper depth of the box. After lots of math (and some spreadsheet work), I was able to appropriately model the build in SketchUp. To accommodate the crossover and dimensions of the rear areas of the drivers, I planned on a 10% decrease in interior box volume which was adjusted by poly-fil.

Enclosure Assembly:
The twelve miters are difficult if you can’t guarantee consistent cuts or thickness of the case material. The bottom part of the box is removable via the rubber feet (with posts installed inside the box for mechanical fastening). The front baffle was carved out on a CNC due to the unusual and specific tweeter dimensions. Images will show the necessary dimensions. The miter keys were installed after the sides were glued up using a table saw and dado stack on a shop-built sled. The keys are decorative, but also support the joint for wood movement and end-grain glue connection.

Crossover Design:
Purchased the Dayton Audio XO2W-3K 2-Way Speaker Crossover 3,000 Hz (Part # 260-144). After pricing the components, the Dayton Audio XO was a better deal, and upon receiving the product, it was very high quality. I recommend this! The panel was hot-glued to the interior of the cabinet in a place that would not interfere with the drivers, binding posts, or vent tube.

Tips & Tricks:
I used a CNC (a learning curve for me; it was my first time), but if you choose a different tweeter, this is very approachable with a Jasper Jig! In fact, I had every intention of using my own router, but ran into problems as I didn’t have bits, nor do I have the shop setup, to get the curved radius correct for the HiVi TN25 tweeter cutout. The CNC was available for free for my use, so I did a YouTube crash course on path writing for CNC routing (and Fusion 360) and it turned out great.

Also, the shop-built key jig (you can search YouTube for ‘spline jig’) was a 30-minute project that added additional detail that more than paid for itself in aesthetic ROI.

Seal the interior and exterior of your hardwood box. There is a product by General Finishes called “Seal-A-Cell” that will go on all surface areas that will not receive glue in the future.

Conclusion:
This is definitely more of a woodworking project than a speaker building project. The wire-up of the crossover to the binding posts and drivers was very straight-forward (I used female crimp terminals and shrink-tubing, and solder for the binding posts). Final assembly only took an hour or so, but the woodworking, truing up the miters, and multiple coats of finish (take time here!) are where the hours disappear.

About the Designer:
Matt is a high school band director and music teacher that pursues more hobbies than he cares to admit. These are his first attempt at building speakers, and will be opening a small custom speaker business. We’ll call these “Aurora”, named after the Roman goddess of the dawn – these are the dawn of what Matt hopes to be a lifetime fusion of what makes him tick: music, woodworking, and science.

Project Parts List:

Designer:

HILO

Project Category:
Freestyle Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
Under $100

Project Description:
This micro satellite speaker was designed for my 2.1 channels Desktop Speaker System (Using with My Small Cube 10” Band Pass LS10-44 Subwoofer, as I posted 2017). Very Slim and Slant enclosure was dedicated design for the usage of desktop PC Audio. Finally I could realize smooth frequency response 170Hz through 20kHz with small one-inch drivers. This was my technical challenge project with minimum sized speaker units.

Design Goals:
I had an idea to built 2.1 channel desktop speaker system. My band pass subwoofer can cover the low frequency range below the 180Hz. So I decided to build a satellite speaker, which covers from 170Hz or higher. Minimum sized speaker was hard to produce enough maximum SPL, so I used two 1” units in series connection. I used a simple trick to decrease the baffle step effect compensation. Only 3dB electrical compensation circuit was required in electrical series network.

Driver Selection:
Supposed listening distance was within 3 feet, so I wanted to use the unit as small as possible for this purpose.

Choosing a unit which has a following features…

– Not so much expensive

– Durable but reasonable response sensitivity.

– Small as possible

– Can produce big enough sounds.

Aura Sound NSW1-205-8A is a 1” Titanium diaphragm with 4.5mm excursion Xmax possibility. It seems to fit my purpose. But Fs=220Hz is too high to use with my subwoofer. Then I did computer simulation with WinISD which oldies but enough for this purpose. The result (fig-04) shows above 160Hz will be able to cover with 300cc vented enclosure.

Enclosure Design:
To forming the sound axis to point the listener’s ears, I designed a slant baffle which has 12 degrees slope from the angled position. I made 45 degrees cut-away both edge of the front baffle. A baffle step effect will appear around 2kHz with this sized enclose. (fig-15) Vent hole was placed on the front baffle, because there is not enough open space behind my PC desk.

Enclosure Assembly:
I used 12mm MDF for the front baffle and 9mm MDF for the rest of parts. Digging front baffle back, to mount the diaphragm as same surface level as front baffle. Vent is 9mm high and it’s width can adjust with small spacer plate.(fig-11) I made T-shaped resonant trap to kill the terrible pipe-organ resonant sound. (fig-17, fig-18) This works great as fig-19 showing. T-Shape vent design method is very simple, to attach a half of length single closed pipe at the middle of vent. A little bit wadding will reduce the resonant ringing sound of single closed pipe. After complete assembling, Surface finish material is urethane varnish (fig-21). But I cover them with wooden printed PVC sheet later.(fig-22) Inside the enclose was 50% filled with “Thermo-Wool” as a material of absorbing.

Crossover Design:
Upper side unit has parallel-connected 20uF capacitor to reduce the response above 2kHz. (fig-12, fig-14) In contrast, Lower side unit produce full range + upper unit-bypassed sounds. (fig-13)As a result of this, below 2kHz sound will be radiated both units, thus means +3dB gain will increase than higher range. A baffle step compensation required 6dB total.(fig-15) So the electrical 3dB L//R compensation circuit was connected in series. Total schematic circuit diagram will be found in fig-23. Overall system frequency response is fig-24. Overall impedance curve is almost flat and high enough to dive the most of amplifiers.

Tips & Tricks:
– T-Shaped Vent to kill the Pipe-Organ Resonances.

– Combined baffle step compensation (SP units 3dB, Electrical Boost 3dB, Total 6dB)

– Slant Baffle for the Desktop use.

– Printed PVC sheet to touch-up the bad finishing.

Conclusion:
I was almost stacked with the terrible vent’s Pipe-Organ Resonances.(fig-16) But I could eliminate ringing sound with the T-Shaped vent. In the best case, over 25dB resonance can be reduced with this method. It’s easy to try using with T-Joint if you using PVC pipe in your project. As matter of fact, I could get coloration-less and smooth response sound from my vented enclosure.(fig-26)

About the Designer:
I have been interested in DIY Car and Home Audio over 20 years. My hobby project activities are stated in my homepage. You can search and visit my homepage which named “CyberPit HILO”. (Sorry, most of my pages are in Japanese)

Project Parts List: