Designer:
Austin Stradling

Project Category:
Freestyle Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Segmented wood turned cones.

Design Goals:
Make a set of speakers for my living room.

Driver Selection:
Dayton 8″ point source #295-346 and Galaxy Audio 5″ #290-020

Enclosure Design:
O chose to use tiger wood for the cones for the random pattern and padauk for the bases.

Conclusion:
These are powered by a 100w hybrid tube amp. It took some time for the drivers to break in but after about 100 hours I rarely use a subwoofer.

About the Designer:
I’m a carpenter by trade, these are my first speaker build.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
AmateurHi-fi

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
I wanted to try and build a bookshelf sized speaker with good sound. Sometimes you just need a project to distract you from how cold it is outside (full disclosure, I live in N. California so when I say cold I mean around 35 degrees). I have a few nice tools, but not much experience in building speakers. I’ve only build two before this project. But what the heck, let’s see if I can make these work. I purchased the parts as a kit, including a pre made crossover, since I don’t know what I’m doing in that area yet.

Design Goals:
Something that looked nice and sounded great.

Driver Selection:
Woofer – Tang Band W4-1720 Part No. 264-872
Tweeter – Fountek NeoCD1.0 Part No. 296-701

Enclosure Design:
Simple box with A bracing, and some additional small bracing on inside sides.

Enclosure Assembly:
.75 and .50 MDF with Walnut veneer covering.

Crossover Design:
Pre made.

Tips & Tricks:
Veneering is tricky, and takes a lot of time, but once done it’s really worth it. Makes the cabinets look beautiful.

Conclusion:
Conclusion: I’m very happy with them! They sound great, the TB woofer is really amazing. Nice bass. The time and effort that went into these is pretty considerable. I’m not sure how many hours it took to finsih everything, but be prepared for some long weekends. The cost of the parts (everything but the enclosure) was around $380, including a pre soldered crossover set.
So all in all probably a $425 project. Could I have taken the same amount and bought a pre made set, yes, but the fact that I built these, they sound great, and the pride of seeing my own work makes it satisfying. The speakers need a bit of power to drive them, since they’re somewhere in the 4-6 ohm range supposedly. I’m using a 75W amp. Thes will go near my computer set up for near field listening, and maybe someday I’ll
build matching stands and use them in a bedroom setting. Thanks to Paul Carmody for his sweet design!

About the Designer:
Amateur woodworker.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Andy

Project Category:
Tower Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
3-way tower speaker with sealed 10″ woofer and pass through mid-range. Made from schedule 40 10″ PVC pipe and 4″ PVC that houses a 4″ mid-range and passes through to the back of the speaker

Design Goals:
My design goals were to achieve a clean open baffle like sound while retaining strong bass.

Driver Selection:
277-062
290-4012
295-334

Enclosure Design:
10″ schedule 40 PVC pipe was used for the speaker cabinet.
4″ PVC pipe was used to house a 4″ mid and used as a pass through.
1×12 solid red oak was used for the base

Enclosure Assembly:
10″ schedule 40 PVC pipe was cut and drilled to fit 4″ PVC pipe that holds it’s own 4″ mid. the 4″ PVC was then sealed around seams to keep air from the woofer from escaping. The red oak base was then attached to the bottom using screws and a window seal as a gasket.

Crossover Design:
Crossover is a premade Dayton audio crossed at 375/3000

Tips & Tricks:
Like I said in my previous build.
Try to come up with a unique design and don’t stop adjusting,tinkering or manipulating until you achieve what you want.

Conclusion:
After building my first pair of speakers the Eliasound M1 and hearing how good they sounded I immediately wanted to try and improve them. So the Eliasound v2 was born. Although the v2 looks similar in design to the M1 it’s almost completely different,using a sealed woofer Instead of an open bottom design, this helps keep the bass solid on lower volume listening and not over the top on louder volume listening sessions.
Instead of a 12″ paper woofer a 10″ aluminum woofer was used In a sealed cabinet with polyfil. The same Eminence full range drivers were used because they proved to be extremely capable, the Dayton amt 8 tweeter was switched out for a morrel 1⅛inch soft dome tweeter partly because the amt couldn’t cross low enough and partly because I found it a little fatiguing, with the morrel I was able to use a crossover that was crossed lower and to my ears the morrels seem to have smoother top end
A new Dayton audio crossovers as previously mentioned was used,crossed at 375/3000 this helped keep any unwanted voices coming from the woofer and only coming from only the mids and highs.

About the Designer:
I’ve always liked building things and working with my hands, I also love listening to music in my free time so why not have some fun building some that I can have fun listening to later.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Suitcase Boombox

Project Category:
Portable Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Build in 4 TangBand 6.5 inch shallower subwoofer.4 of 3 inch midrange and 4 tweeter from Speaker Craft. 2 Taramps 1300 watts amplifier. Link Play + Dac converter and Blaunkpunk Radi0 + Bluetooth.

Design Goals:
Loud & Clear Sound!

Driver Selection:
264-937

Enclosure Design:
Suitcase

Conclusion:
2 subwoofer power with 800 watts Taramps amplifier and the other with 500 Watts.

About the Designer:
Portable Suitcase Boombox

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Turnbachinator

Project Category:
Tower Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Tritrix TL Home Theater Upgrade. Walnut veneer, Danish oil ,natural finish.

Design Goals:
Smallish room, needed upgrade for mid range tones. Natural walnut,hand rubbed low gloss finish. Paired with a previous 5” subwoofer build. All part of a general home theater upgrade. Did not want to use a sound bar.

Enclosure Design:
Tritrix TL kit.

Enclosure Assembly:
Upgraded to SPAX 1 1/2” MDF screws for enclosure. Heavy duty velcro for crossover installation. Holes filled with Bondo.

Crossover Design:
Standard crossover design. Used small crossover boards purchased form Parts Express. Tie wrapped, hot glued components to board. High strength velcro at the outlet of the transmission line for serviceability is needed later on.

Tips & Tricks:
One of the biggest things was to use the SPAX screws. They simply worked better with less can out, and pulled together things better than the supplied screws.

Carefully labeling the interior wires was a plus as I tested them, then disassembled for veneering. Hot gluing the wires was a big plus too as my hands are pretty big and getting my hands through the holes was nearly impossible.

The PE walnut veneer was easy to work with. Used a flush trim router, finishing up with the face veneer last. Watco natural finish was plenty dark enough.

I did use sorbothane 50 durometer self adhesive feet as it will be laced on a hard tile floor.

Conclusion:
Came out way better than expected. The sound, especially the midrange is so clear. My Yamaha receiver is tuned to >80Hz with the lower frequencies pushed to the 15” DP, sub. They are the perfect size for my 12’ x 20’ room. They blow away by $400.00 bookshelf speakers.

About the Designer:
Second project using PE kit. Pragmatic inventory in the chemical industry. Enjoyed using those physics classes researching the crossover components and their function.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Bob

Project Category:
Furniture

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Tri-Trix ported build using in a vintage radio.

Design Goals:
Jukebox for daily listening of FM radio & Bluetooth podcasts.

Driver Selection:
Tri-Trix kit, two side by side two way speakers with 2-5-1\2″ woofers & a dome tweeter

Enclosure Design:
Alot of head scratching went into this cabinet remodel even though the Tri-Trix speaker layout was seemingly designed exactly for the constraints of this cabinet. Entirely salvaged & reclaimed material was used throughout so harder than necessary.

Tips & Tricks:
Small NobSound tube amp prefers pushing 4 Ohm over 8. Speaker terminals from amp go internally to binding posts & X-over. “surround” speakers can be run off external side of speaker terminals reducing load.

Conclusion:
sounding pretty good.

About the Designer:
Retired guy with lots of time & junk.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
JimmyJams

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Ok, these are larger bookshelf speakers. 22.5 tall, 11 deep, 9 wide.
I built these specifically for a 70 watt tube amp in my bedroom.

Design Goals:
My goal was to create a set of speakers for my bedroom that sounded big. They have more than met my expectations. They ROCK!

Driver Selection:
For the drivers I selected 6 inch Hivi M6N’S Paired with Hivi 1 1/8 textile dome tweeters in a 2 way configuration.

Enclosure Design:
The enclosers are simple. The woofers are in their own compartment at .60 cubic ft.. with the tweeters all by themselves in their own. Cabinets are 5/8 MDF sides and back, with the top, bottom, and front solid red oak 3/4 thick.i used 2 inch flared port tubes at 6 3/4 long for an F3 of 42.5 Hz according to my box tune app. And also some help with design from Partsexpress tech Troy. Many thanks to Troy.

Enclosure Assembly:
Enclosures are glued and screwed together with some vertical bracing front and back. Sides and back are covered with black ash vinyl wrap. front,top and bottom are screwed on from the inside with gaskets in between the oak and MDF. All sees on the inside are also caulked with quad clear siding caulk to make them air tight.

Crossover Design:
They are crooked over at 3500Hz with pre assembled 2 way crossovers from Electro Mavin. By the way Electro Mavin has nothing but good things to say about Partsexpress.

Tips & Tricks:
Do your homework first. Talk to the techs at Partsexpress, they are great guys are are always there to help.
Again thanks to Troy at Partsexpress for all your help.

Conclusion:
I am very pleased with these speakers. They have far exceeded my expectations. I have measured them down to 35hz playing Pink Floyd. They are smooth and pleasant and very clear.

About the Designer:
52 year old, old school rocker with the speaker building bug. So addicting it is!!

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Parts Express

Project Category:
Portable Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
2-4 Hours

Project Cost:
$249

Videos:

Project Description:
Portable, powerful, and fun… The easy to assemble Blast Box portable Bluetooth wireless speaker kit allows you to take high output, Hi-Fi sound with you wherever you go. The 2.1 channel design, capable of 200 watt RMS, uses a pair of 3″ aluminum cone woofers and 1″ titanium tweeters with a single 6-1/2″ high excursion subwoofer. This compact package produces crystal clear midrange and highs with incredibly powerful bass response.

Highlights

Project Parts List:

Designer:
BudgetBassHead
YouTube: BudgetBassHead

Project Category:
Car Audio

Project Level:
Advanced

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$500 – $1,000

Project Description:
Subwoofer: Peerless By Tymphany STW-350F
Dual Ports: 3 diameter, 5 1/4in flared, 18in length
Enclosure Volume:4.1cu.ft.
Port Tuning: 21Hz

Auxiliary battery – 120AHr AGM
Amp – Audiopipe 2000.1d
4 Ohm load: 800 watts RMS
LOC – PAC LC2i

Design Goals:
I wanted to build an enclosure that saved space and had optimum output capabilities.

Driver Selection:
Peerless by Tymphany STW-350F-188PR01-04

Enclosure Design:
Enclosure Volume:4.1cu.ft.
Dual Ports: 3 diameter, 5 1/4in flared, 18in length
Port Tuning: 21Hz

Enclosure Assembly:
3/4 in MDF Plywood
Carpeted

Crossover Design:
Crossover controlled internally by amplifier.
Amp – Audiopipe 2000.1d
Subsonic Filtered @ 80Hz

Conclusion:
I eventually removed the Peerless By Tymphany STW-350F from my car. This subwoofer is just too powerful was shaking all the paneling from my car’s interior. This will have an effect on the resale value of the vehicle and for that reason, I replaced it with something less powerful. The subwoofer is now part of my home entertainment center.

About the Designer:
Audio enthusiast since childhood. I was the little fellow ripping apart headphones to see the diaphragm vibrate.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
DonaldMIDI

Project Category:
Amplifiers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
Under $100

Project Description:
Cabinet for Footnote 5-watt amplifier with built in battery case.

Design Goals:
Cabinet to match speaker enclosures already built.

Enclosure Design:
3/4 particle board with routed edges. Covered with speaker cabinet carpet. Corners protected with Peavey style metal corners. Non-skid feet on bottom. Battery case incorporated into rear enclosure accommodates 6 AA batteries.

Enclosure Assembly:
3/4 particle board mostly glued (4 screws applied prior to routing edges). Speaker carpet spray-glued in place. Amplifier mounted to interior mounting points glued to corners.

Conclusion:
I will use this while camping to practice my bass guitar. I can use headphones or a speaker cabinet (already built). I’ll be able to use a solid-body bass at campground church services even if power is not available (amazing volume for only 5-watts).

About the Designer:
Built my first speaker cabinet at 15 years old. I’ve built many, many cabinets in the 53 years since then…infinite baffle, bass reflex, etc. Used mostly 15″ guitar speakers, but several were with 12″ triaxials for stereo systems.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Chris B

Project Category:
Tower Speakers

Project Level:
Advanced

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$500 – $1,000

Project Description:
RSX is a large floor standing speaker featuring a 10″ woofer and a custom 10″ coaxial mid/tweeter.

The project uses a open-baffle (dipole) loading of the midwoofer and passive radiators for the bass reflex loaded woofer.

The system is an eight ohm nominal load and has an F3 in the low 30s and output in excess of 100dB.

Design Goals:
The primary goals of this design was low bass, high output, dipole mid, and to create a 10″ coaxial driver with use of a dome tweeter as opposed to the compression driver typically seen in a 10″ coax.

Driver Selection:
I chose the RS270P woofers due to their attributed looking favorable for use as both a woofer and as a midwoofer which could be easily converted to a coax.

The RS270P can reach to frequencies in the low 30s or deeper while still having strong power handling before running into excursion issues. I am very impressed with the quality of bass the driver exhibits.

As for a midwoofer, the cone is heavy but this doesn’t seem to affect anything in a negative way. The breakup is well damped and does not require special attention. The RS270 has a large enough coil to accommodate a reasonably large tweeter. The phase plug is easily removed with a big bolt and a hammer strike from the rear through the pole vent.

The ND28 has a relatively low FS for its size and lack of a rear chamber. With the mounting flange removed (I used a bandsaw) it fits nicely where the phase plug was. I used large washers, along with a nut, epoxied to the back of the tweeter with JB Kwik Weld to space the tweeter and make a way to mount it. I recommend copper washers to replace the non-ferrous material removed with the phase plug removal (the phase plug acts as a shorting circuit in the RS270). I suspect the copper may also add a heat sink to the tweeter. The washers need to be notched to allow wire routing. A bolt cutter works nice for this. A brass bolt is recommended for tweeter mounting, as well as a rubber washer on the rear by the bolt head.

I used the DSA 10″ passive radiators and they look good and work well. there is 135g added to each one and two per cab. Use big washers to keep the mass close to the spider to help prevent the large weight from tweaking on the suspension.

Enclosure Design:
The woofer cabinet is 2.25 ft3. The drivers are flush mounted in the 1.5″ thick baffle (2 x 3/4″ plywood adhered together with construction adhesive around the perimeter and Green Glue in the inner area. The baffle has non-uniform facets to aid with diffraction control.

The baffles are 13″ wide and 48″tall. Drivers are centered at 6.5″ and the mid is centered 12″ down from the top and the woofer is centered 8″ up from the bottom.

The decorative pieces on the side of the woofer cabinet are functional as they trap Green Glue against the cabinet walls. The woofer cabinets are internally braced as well.

The baffle is veneered in curly maple and the cabinet is maple veneered plywood. Finish is TransTint coffee brown dye in alcohol and the finish is shellac/dewaxed shellac/laquer.

Enclosure Assembly:
Much of this was covered in enclosure design, however some additional details on the construction include that the baffle is glued to the cabinet with heavy duty construction adhesive (PL 8x). This must be done before the finish is applied.

The woofer and mid cutouts are chamfered on the rear with a large 45 degree bit to aid in breathing.

The finish is sprayed with a HVLP gun. The baffle is gradually sanded up to 1500 grit and buffed with scratch and swirl remover followed by machine glaze.

Crossover Design:
The standalone crossovers are not required. Internal crossovers are fine, keeping in mind to keep resistors away from combustible materials.

The crossover is fairly straight forward and the schematic is included in the photos. I used multiple capacitors of varying values to accomplish the values I needed. Capacitors in parallel add together. This is not necessary if a single capacitor of proper value is had.

The series resistor after the tweeter crossover can be adjusted to taste. The difference between zero and one ohm is noticeable.

The tweeter had a significant HF rise after the loading in the cone waveguide and crossover. I added a 0.05mH inductor to help tame this.

One unusual item is the one ohm resistor in series with the woofer. The resistor helps tame the bump created by the low crossover and helps eliminate boom and bloat around 100hz. This resistor does not dissipate a real lot of power but as with all resistors should be kept free to breathe and away from wood, stuffing, etc.

Tips & Tricks:
Large value shunt (parallel to ground) capacitors in the woofer and mid circuits can be switched out with electrolytic to lower cost.

Conclusion:
I am very happy with the result. The 10″ coaxial dipole mid really does well. Off axis is very nice and bass is very tight and solid. This project has some additional DIY steps to create the coaxial driver but is worth the effort.

About the Designer:
I have been building speakers since I was quite young. I enjoy learning more with each build. I rely on help and advice from the members of the Tech Talk forum, who have taught me so much about speaker building.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Simsimphony

Project Category:
Portable Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Renovate two old passive wedge monitors to active powered monitors. This would provide a stereo submix for guitar effects, but could be used for any power speaker application.

Design Goals:
Vision:
Having wanted to experiment with spatial audio for the guitar for years, and after the failed OSSIC 3D audio headphone project I thought …. well now what? I’d always wanted to play with guitar stereo imaging and when I saw Larry Carlton’s explanation of a stereo submix for guitar effects on stage, as an ex audio engineer, it made complete sense to me. I’d used this studio technique hundreds of times, and loved the idea running dry into my main amp and the microphone, feeding a left and right monitors pair with stereo FX . So these old wedges were dusted off, and the goal creep set in:

1. Guitar FX submix
2. Keyboard mix
3. Electronic Drum mix

Budget:
I’d looked at all the powered audio monitors specs and budgets. Yes, I want a Meyer Ultra X40, but decided on a budget of no more than $400.00, bring it well under a pair of good active stage grade monitors for my first build, as I’m was sure I’d likely blow something up.

Specifics:
Since it was a first-time project ‘audio’ build project, I wanted to revisit many things I’d learned but hadn’t applied into audio hardware design.

My friend had raved about D2 chip advances so I decided this would be a good place to start, as I had been reading about FRFR (Full Range, Flat Response ) amplification used in the multi-effects Modeling guitar tone world. In the end I decided on an ClassAB amp from STMicroelectronics for the smoothness, SN ratio and lack of distortion.

Driver Selection:
A 2-way system was renovated and after a friend a gave me a great deal on some Eminence Patriot Red White & Blues 12″ Guitar Speaker 120W 8 Ohm Part # 290-814, I paired these with a pair of JBL Selenium D220Ti 1″ Titanium Horn Driver 8 Ohm 1 264-270.

Enclosure Design:
The enclosure is a five (5) sided trapezoid dual-ported wedge.

21″ wide x 14″ tall x 17″ depth
4.5″ back
6.5″ base
6″ under return to face

The enclosure was already cut, glued and covered with tolex, as it was a renovation, and this saved me a lot of time. I needed to add LPAD hole, an XLR mounting plate and cut an Electrical switch opening. I put rubber washers under the XLR mounting plate isolate it a bit. The LPAD sat in a hole which was previously cut. I needed a step down transformer with center tap for the amps power requirements and I screwed this to the inside nearest the power switch, but as far away from the crossover as possible; also I mounting on rubber washers.

Enclosure Assembly:
The enclosure was made of 1/2″ MDF product.

As it happens, I started in parallel another project (to get rid of some wood), where I had to build the enclosure assembly. It was pine for the top/bottom and sides and 1.2″ plywood for front and back, It was my first 1 way single 12″ Guitar cabinet; based on the golden triangle 21″ x 13″ X 9″. I discovered the excellent use of vinyl 3/4″ trim for the mesh grill. After butchering some poplar 1/2″, It doesn’t split, very easy to hand-cut and sand into the form desired and holds 3M VBR double-sided tape for affixing the grill mesh beautifully. After filling the plywood painted the cabinet with a Rustoleum then light sanded it off as I wasn’t happy with it. Then applied a Krylon truck bed rubberized black paint. A professional cabinet builder told me about that and filling and sanding with Bondo (which another cabinet make relayed). Those were massive great tips!

Crossover Design:
After looking at few projects and models I went with a moderate price Dayton crossover from, though the Eminence ones were tempting.

Tips & Tricks:
1.)Before you buy your heatsinks off Ebay or Wish make sure you know the dimensions of what you need to buy. I bought 2 heat sinks at $11.00. It turned out that is enough for eight, yes 8, amp chips based on the heat dissipation I later found out about.
2) I performed signal tests on the a) with all components laid out on the bench b) then when partially laid into the cabinet (after much tinning and soldering) and 3) inside before screwing everything down.
3) Make sure to let everything run for at least 1 hr with no audio, then 1 hour with audio. You should be able to grab the heatsink and hopefully won’t hear any hum or noise.
4) Try to perform the soldering and initial signal tests in a climate-controlled setting. It was 95 degrees in my shed and I moved inside for this part.
5) Use Fasten signal connectors and grounding ring connectors to speed testing and grounding. It saved me so much time.

Conclusion:
It was a lot of fun and my cost overrun was only $30.00. I learned a lot and now have really caught the bug and look forward to my next project.

About the Designer:
Simsimphony is an ex audio engineer and interactive designer currently working with the Internet of Things (IOT). These were his first circuits.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
RafaHiFi

Project Category:
Loudspeakers/Cabinets

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Two way full range speakers. Suitable for both music and home theater

Design Goals:
Medium sized, reduced costs, two way, simple design and construction

Driver Selection:
Woofer: Dayton Audio RS 225P-8A (#295-577)
Tweeter: Dayton Audio RST28F-4 (#275-141)

Enclosure Design:
Bass-reflex 35 liter

Enclosure Assembly:
18 mm MDF for the box and 30 mm solid wood (Eucaliptus Grandis) for the baffle

Crossover Design:
3rd order High pass, 2nd order low pass, crossed at 2.5 kHz

Conclusion:
I was surprised by the sound quality and balanced response. At the beggining of the project I had doubts about the cross-over (2nd and 3rd order, phase and so on) but again, pleased with the results

About the Designer:
Engineer in electronics, Post graduate studies in architectural acoustics. Audio and speaker design enthusiast. I live in Gualeguaychú, Argentina.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
There are some that call me Tim

Project Category:
Portable Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
3 bottle bamboo wine box. Added walnut interior bracing. Finish is Envirotex pour on epoxy.

Design Goals:
College freshman gift – needed to look cool and sounds good.

Driver Selection:
295-349 Dayton Audio PS95-8 3-1/2″ Point Source Full Range Driver 8 Ohm

Enclosure Design:
11 liters

Enclosure Assembly:
Bamboo plywood. Walnut bracing.
Functioning sliding lid (screwed down)
Fabricated control plate (door push plate from Home Depot)
Champagne cork volume control
Epoxy interior and exterior to add stability -especially on the sliding lid which was a bit thin.

Crossover Design:
n/a – point source speakers

Tips & Tricks:
Do not try using a circle jg to cut bamboo. The fibers grab the blade and make for an uneven cut. Definitely want to use hole saw then come back with a rabbet bit.
Envirotex epoxy – the thicker the coat, the less likely yuo are to get bubbles. Bubbles pop with CO2, not neat, so just blow on them.

Conclusion:
Came out just like I wanted it.

About the Designer:
Novice – this is project #3

Project Parts List:

Designer:
SniktA Horn Speakers

Project Category:
Loudspeakers/Cabinets

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$500 – $1,000

Project Description:
Full Range Horns with 3 drivers. No crossover. 3rd driver is hidden in cabinet.

Design Goals:
To make a unique looking speaker that sounds as good as they look.

Driver Selection:
Fostex FE206en 8 inch full range
Aurua NS-3 3 inch full range
FaitalPRO 3FE25 3 inch full range

Enclosure Design:
Folded Horn with Gramophone Horn Outlet. Victoria type flare horn for port.

Enclosure Assembly:
Folded horn type enclosure.

Crossover Design:
None

Conclusion:
Very fun project. I designed all aspects of the speakers and had a local woodworking shop put everything together for me. I would of done everything but arthritis prevents me from doing much detailed work anymore. The bass is very tight and deep. Mids are crazy good and the highs are very very pleasant. Could not have turned out better.

About the Designer:
Timothy Atkins…Announcer/D.J. for radio stations across the U.S. Including ZZ 99 Kansas City, KBPI Denver and The Moongoose, Virgin Islands. Always a stereo guy. Wanted to build a unique pair of horn full range speakers, that sound as good as they look…they do.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Chris B

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
The Safaris are an 8″ two-way large stand-mount speaker. It features a vented enclosure with an F3 of approximately 31hz. The speaker features the HiVi M8N woofer and large Peerless DA32TX corundum tweeter. These drivers come in at just under $200/pr. These speakers made their debut at the 2019 Parts Express Midwest Audio Fest.

Design Goals:
I wanted a reference quality 8″ two-way that did not break the bank. I wanted a low F3 and a tweeter that was suitable for a low crossover point without needing assistance from a waveguide.

Driver Selection:
I chose the M8N woofer (297-446) for its strong low frequency output and sound quality. People seem to speak highly of the HiVi metal cone drivers and there have been several good designs with various drivers from this lineup.

The large Peerless corundum tweeter (264-1678) was a no brainer. It can cross very low and do so effortlessly, with no signs of strain. On top of that it sounds fantastic!

Enclosure Design:
I chose the curved enclosure for form and function. I wanted something besides a rectangular box and also liked that the curve narrowed the baffle some near the tweeter. The curve also helps prevent as many parallel surfaces inside the enclosure. I chose to finish these in ribbon striped mahogany (with red mahogany transtint dye) and zebrawood, finished in sprayed amber shellac. The net volume is 1.5 ft3.

Enclosure Assembly:
I used a combination of materials for the enclosure. The front baffle is 3/4″ aspen, the top and bottom are 3/4″ particle board, and the rear is 3/4″ MDF. The sides are three layers of HDF (Masonite) glued together with a generous amount of wood glue covering the entire surface. Internal bracing is isolated from directly coupling to the walls with a rubberized sealing product similar to Dynamat.

Crossover Design:
The woofer section is fourth order electrical using two “tank” notch filters to tame the significant cone resonance of the metal cone.

The tweeter uses a simple damped third order electrical filter. The tweeter resistor is adjustable from 7 to 10 ohms to adjust tweeter level. When I debuted theses I was using a 7 ohm resistor but they were a touch hot in the treble. 8-9 ohms is about right.

Crossover frequency ends up being right around 1100Hz.

Tips & Tricks:
Dial the tweeter resistor to your taste.

A flared port (both ends) no smaller than 2″ id is strongly recommended.

Use some eggcrate foam or similar material on the walls behind and adjacent to the woofer, being careful to keep it away from the crossover.

Peel and stick veneer (3M PSA) is so easy even I could do it!

Conclusion:
I am very happy with the outcome of these. I really enjoy listening to them. I feel personally that they are a great comparison and alternative to more expensive hifi monitors. Both of the drivers are very detailed.

About the Designer:
Been dabbling in speaker design for a lot of years now, and still learn something new with every build!

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Hellsnki

Project Category:
Subwoofers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$500 – $1,000

Project Description:
Powered subwoofer

Design Goals:
To add that deep window rattling low end.

Driver Selection:
15″ Dayton ultimax

Enclosure Design:
Sealed

Tips & Tricks:
Spend time sealing your MDF it will look much better

Conclusion:
The build was relatively easy.Most the time was spent on the paint application

About the Designer:
Dad, musician ,audio nerd.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Bob G.

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Build of Passive Agressive Mini Speaker kit.

Design Goals:
I wanted to build my own speakers. I am otherwise a Dynaudio fan.

Driver Selection:
Dayton Audio ND91-4 bass driver
Dayton Audio ND90-PR passive radiators
Dayton Audio ND20FB-4 tweeter

Enclosure Design:
Passive radiator

Enclosure Assembly:
Glued MDF and Canary wood

Tips & Tricks:
The layout of the crossover parts requires care, there is not much room inside the enclosure. Make sure wires do not obstruct the passive radiators. I glued the fronts separately from the rest of box and this made checking clearances inside easier. Install the passive radiators last to make sure all is clear. I used the MDF front panel supplied as a pattern to make a front of Canary hardwood using a router to shape panel. Not sure it helped or hurt but I routed a 3/8″ radius around the inside surface of the speaker holes to improve air flow then added back the lost volume with a thicker front panel. Sides are vertical grade laminate.

Conclusion:
Great sounding speakers for my desk. Nice imageing. I drive them with a Topping TP32EX+ DAC/Amp with USB input from Tidal high res stream running off my PC

About the Designer:
Retired Doc and my first speaker build.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Ryan Clark

Project Category:
Subwoofers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$500 – $1,000

Project Description:
Entertainment Center w/18″ Ulitmax (sub, media rack, storage)

Design Goals:
Crushing bass, ascetically pleasing and functional

Driver Selection:
18″ Ultimax to replace my two 15″ Dayton Classic subwoofers which were each in a 3.6 cu foot cabinets. This design made my LCR entertainment center actually smaller with improved bass. The rack media section cleaned up all the gear so I don’t have rats nest of cables anymore. Love it!

Crown XTi 1002 – I wasn’t planning on using this amp but got a deal on it used and with its DSP functions decided to go with the smaller sealed enclosure with worked out fantastic. Now that I have this amp, I would buy it new for this project. It’s DSP functions with Band Manager application is amazing!

Enclosure Design:
Essentially replicated the Denovo Ultimax cabinet. Pretty straightforward ~4 cu foot sealed cabinet. I did design all 3 components to match in height.

Enclosure Assembly:
Used 3/4″ MDF with a double front baffle, although I used 1/2″ plywood for the inside part. I did this for two reasons; wanted to make sure it wasn’t too thick for the mounting kit I bought and the T-nuts set so much better in plywood than MDF (bad past experience).

The media section and storage section are made of 3/4″ and 1/2″ cabinet grade plywood.

Painted it all white

Crossover Design:
N/A

Tips & Tricks:
Plan every cut! I don’t have a big table saw or a truck so I have them cut down the full sheet in store so I can easily transport and handle.
Use plywood for internal baffle, recess using a spade bit to ensure the T-nuts set in well.
Before securing your baffle to the cabinet, measure, drill mounting holes. Set the T-nuts in place and then make sure they all line up, before you attach to cabinet.
If you build a rack rail cabinet make sure to space it out with actual components. Rack gear is 19″ but you will probably want to shoot for 19.125″ so you have a little wiggle room. I went a little too wide and had to add spacers between the rail and cabinet.

Files:

um1822_entertainment_center_with_subs um1822_project

um1822_project

Conclusion:
Very pleased!

About the Designer:
I have been an aspiring audiophile since I was a teenager. I still have my first speakers – Infinity SM-62’s I love building with wood – perfectly matched hobbies.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Will

Project Category:
Portable Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$500 – $1,000

Project Description:
A vintage 1950s West German Grundig Radio updated with the parts from the Blast Box Kit and made to fit within the original case and speaker locations

Design Goals:
I wanted to keep the original aesthetics of the radio but i also wanted to be able to update the internals in order to make it sound and play like a modern speaker system

Conclusion:
Overall, it sounds great and I’m happy with the way it came out. However, I think if I were to do it again i would sacrifice the functionality of the original buttons and switches in order to make sure the little pieces and cables had no room to rattle around.

About the Designer:
Recent graduate of UCSD and have been tinkering with and building things for most of my life. I hope to be able to build more of these using Parts Express’ kits!

Project Parts List: