Designer:
Bobby Kinstle

Project Category:
Subwoofers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Want more bass without a big ugly box in your room? Now you can have the deep bass that only comes from a big box, but also blends in with your furniture.

Design Goals:
The sub should not only look like the rest of the furniture in the room but also play very deep. However it should not play super loud as the kids are sleeping downstairs and the neighbors won’t appreciate it either.

Driver Selection:
I used the Dayton ND140 because in simulation it was able to achieve VERY deep frequencies at moderate volume levels. If you don’t mind having a 1 cubic foot box, this driver can play down into the 30s. Note: I would not recommend doing this in a 2 way setup as the midrange performance goes out the window when you treat the driver like a sub.

Enclosure Design:
The enclosure is made of 5/8″ MDF and the strips are made of Brazilian Redwood. I wanted to use the same wood for the top but good luck getting lumber out of Brazil during the pandemic. Instead I used Padauk which normally has a powerfully orange color that people fight tooth and nail to preserve but ultimately turns a rich chocolatey brown. Instead of fighting it, I left the top out in the sun a few days and then clear coated it. Port is 2″ precision port with both flares installed and tuned to 35Hz.

Enclosure Assembly:
The MDF panels were joined in standard butt joints with glue and brad nails. The redwood strips conceal the joints. Inside the enclosure I have a lot randomly placed corner reinforcements and a cross brace. The wood top goes on top of the MDF box and is held in place with screws form the inside and sealed with silicone. The top is not a functional part of the enclosure as that would be too hard to make a good seal with the MDF. The bottom has 4 shiny gold spikes to help keep vibrations out of the floor. Lastly I added poly fill inside to keep the bass tight and clean.

The outside has 4 coats of paint on the MDF, then after attaching the strips 4 more coats of clear polyurathane

Crossover Design:
The plate amp has built in crossover controls.

Tips & Tricks:
1. Pre drill all the holes for screwing things into the back side of panels before you glue. It’s mighty hard to do that after assembly from the inside.
2. Buy all the lumber you will need at the start of the project
3. Hardware stores sell paint samples in just about any color. Great for when you only need a little paint. Sample paint has no sheen, but if you are going to clear coat anyway, who cares about the sheen.
4. HVLP sprayers are the best way to paint and clear without brush or roller marks.
5. Hanging your project from a strap allows you to paint all sides at once. Best to do it under a tarp to keep dust to a minimum.
6. Clamps. Lots of clamps.

Conclusion:
I couldn’t be happier with how well this filled the need. It has an F3 of 32Hz! It won’t play home theater style explosions, but it’s highly musical and blends with the mains very seamlessly.

About the Designer:
I grew up in the Mojave Desert in a small community of scientists, craftsmen, and engineers. We were the kind of people who didn’t accept “it’s impossible” or “you can’t do that”. If I want something that doesn’t exist, I’ll just make one. Now I’m a thermal engineer in the computer industry and I currently hold 17 patents worldwide.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Riyaaz Shamsoodien

Project Category:
Tower Speakers

Project Level:
Advanced

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
Over $1,000

Project Description:
3-way Towers with Dayton Audio drivers and Radiators

Design Goals:
• Audiophile grade / high end audio. As I already have x2 Dayton 12″ subwoofers ported and tuned for 25Hz, I want my towers to support tight and responsive bass.
• Of course, an Aesthetically appealing woody design

Driver Selection:
• X1 Dayton Audio PT2C-8 Planar Tweeter
• X2 Dayton Audio RS125P-4 5″ Reference Paper Woofer 4 Ohm
• X1 Dayton Audio DS215-8 8″ Designer Series Woofer Speaker
• X2 Dayton Audio DS175-PR 6-1/2″ Designer Series Passive Radiator

Enclosure Design:
• African Black Wood CNC’d to size
• 16mm MDF double layered throughout
• Woofer / Radiator volume tuned to about 32Hz @ 25 litre net volume

Enclosure Assembly:
• Nail, glued and clamped
• Sanded to smooth finish
• Rust’oleum 2X clear coat on African Black Wood (5 coats)
• Duram Wood Sealer + Duram Durabak PU Liner Paint on MDF

Crossover Design:
• PF-3FH Speaker Divider 3 Crossover 280W Crossover Point: 550Hz, 4.8KHz

Tips & Tricks:
always oversize your natural woods by 2mm around the perimeter and sand off the excess to smooth flush finish.
Use Parts express drawings to accurately design your cut outs.

Conclusion:
Hours and hours of work but I am really happy with results

About the Designer:
3-way Towers with Dayton Audio drivers and Radiators

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Fernando Valente

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
When I was 16 years old, I made a pair off speakers with my father. We build the Cabinet´s and used drives from a used car. They sounded good all these years, and even spent some years with a friend. About 5 years ago, my friend returned the speakers and I mounted them in my backyard. This summer, tragedy, some assiatic wasps attack them, and the city hall took the speakers to kill the wasps, but they were very kind to return the cabinets. I decided to rebuild them with express parts. I study the sizes of the drivers and search for a sound with more bass, but still controlled. I think they sound amazing and the look is very good to

Design Goals:
Renew the speakers, introduce a crossover and improve the bass.

Driver Selection:
275-075 – Dayton Audio DC28FS-8 1-1/8″ Silk Dome Shielded Tweeter
295-309 – Dayton Audio DC160-4 6-1/2″ Classic Woofer Speaker

Enclosure Design:
Inspired by Monitor Audio studio 6 speakers.

Enclosure Assembly:
Wood.

Crossover Design:
260-140 – Dayton Audio XO2W-2K 2-Way Speaker Crossover 2,000 Hz
260-140

Tips & Tricks:
I loved doing the project, calmly and always with great attention to symmetry, so that the pair of speakers had the same length of cable, and loudspeakers placed in the same way.

Conclusion:
I was really pleased with the result, the speakers play like they’ve never played before. I changed the design a little, making the port tube bigger, improved the connections and plugs.

About the Designer:
I was born in 1977 in Lisbon, Portugal. I’ve always enjoyed listening to all kinds of music. During these years I have had and have several systems, stereo, cinema, with speakers from various brands and countries, JBL L46, Tannoy, Vienna acoustics, REL etc. I really enjoy improving systems, experimenting with cables, speaker placement, etc. I’ve been thinking about building a few more speakers for a long time and now that this second time went so well I’m thinking about the next project!

Project Parts List:

Designer:
G

Project Category:
Portable Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Small portable 2.1 speaker with sub 50hz response

Design Goals:
This was my first fully planned build. Listened to a friend’s shop bought Bluetooth speaker and wanted to make something better. Smallest possible size 2.1 with maximum low frequency response and linearity without DSP. Somewhat influenced by Oak 2.1 Boombox by Jonathan: http://projectgallery.parts-express.com/speaker-projects/oak-2-1-boombox/

Driver Selection:
Many months of grinding away plugging numbers into free design software trying to find the magic combo that can deliver much more than you expect in the smallest cabinet size. I then found Jonathan’s Oak 2.1 Boombox and began modelling around that, which was much closer to the power/response-to-size ratio I was after.

I knew I wanted to use the Tang Band W3-1876S 3″ Mini Subwoofer (#264-909), but until seeing Jonathan’s build I hadn’t considered the Tectonic Elements TEBM35C10-4 BMR 2″ Full-Range Speaker (#297-216). They suit well as the BMR’s can take the power and will allow small sealed enclosures while still just about getting down to the crossover frequency of the TPS3116D2 Class D 2.1 Bluetooth 5.0 Amplifier Board (#320-635). This is all powered by the Dayton Audio LBB-3v2 Battery Charger Board/Module (#325-201).

My modelling showed that 2x Peerless by Tymphany 830878 3-1/2″ Passive Radiator (#264-1060) handled the mighty but mini W3-1876S better and hit slightly better lowz with added weight.

Enclosure Design:
I concluded that I wanted a 1.4 Litre Enclosure and I believe I am somewhere near or just over that once displacement is subtracted (gross volume is ~1.73L). To fit two 3.5” Passive Radiators and the 3” sub, batteries and Amp board into my preferred shape of box required a fair amount of CAD work to understand how things would fit and resulted in a T shape enclosure for the sub when viewed from the top. A similar design to the Executive Portable Bluetooth Speaker Kit (#300-7164) except the T is facing vertically in the box rather than facing the front.

Each BMR satellite is in a 0.725L sealed enclosure. Due to the nature of the good dispersion of the BMR’s I didn’t want to enclose a mesh grille on the front and rear, even using a rubber finishing bead felt a bit thick due to the size of the speaker. I decided to use signboard standoffs and large section hex mesh so that I could leave a finished edge. Possibly not acoustically perfect but form follows function, and it looks unique for sure.

Enclosure Assembly:
I used 12mm (~15/23”) WBP Ply for a few reasons. I wanted to minimise costs and intended to paint the finished speaker, and I don’t like working with MDF if I can avoid it – don’t like having to wear a mask all the time and I hate painting/sanding it when it goes all fluffy.

All panels cut with a hand saw, then rabbeted/dadoed using a router. All driver cut-outs were made using a Dremel with a router bit and a circle jig. All through mounting components are mounted on 2mm steel plates which are rebated flush and glued in place.

Crossover Design:
Crossover is built into the TPS3116D2 Class D 2.1 Bluetooth 5.0 Amplifier Board. Allowing some fine tuning for subwoofer lowpass and can be totally EQ’ed, on the fly. I don’t have measurement tools so work by ear.

Tips & Tricks:
The BMR cut-outs required a creative solution (some trial and error on scrap) because the Dremel jig isn’t the most accurate. Four quadrants were routed out (to let speaker terminals and basket through) and a smaller diameter hole saw was used to leave additional material to fix into.

The amplifier cut out on the front baffle means the amp sits 10mm further forward, which is the only way it fits. After designing it, I realised before gluing that the amp would have to be fitted before the rear baffle was fixed (bottom panel is removable and sealed with neoprene).

I used automotive gasket paper for the BMR drivers as didn’t feel I could be accurate enough with neoprene and they are tiny, works well to seal them. Neodymium magnets are used to tune the passive radiators as there are no threads on the rear of them. You need to counter hold the weight to stop it being pulled back to the magnet and ruining the surround of the passive radiator. I made a plastic jig to assist with this. Approx. 20g of added weight per passive radiator(!!) to obtain desired response.

Conclusion:
It sounds a lot larger than it is. Without sounding forced and fatiguing like the Bluetooth speaker it was designed to outperform. The sub struggles with higher power levels and needs to be reduced to avoid distortion. Again, DSP on the branded Bluetooth speaker shows similar behaviour.

To my ears there is possibly a slight dip in response around the highpass frequency, more noticeable in certain genres than others. Upping the lowpass frequency results in a subwoofer trying to do mids which sounds muddy and forced, so it ends up with some “Disco smile” which suits my listening (thankfully!). Bass is impressive for the size, especially when corner loaded. Using a signal generator a 38hz sine wave give plenty of sound from the passive radiators. At higher volumes it can keep up with the sensitivity of the satellites but distorts at max. I have yet to hear a commercially available portable speaker the same size that sounds better to my ears.

I really wanted to mount the passive radiators on the ends of the enclosure to counteract and oppose one another’s forces. As it is – throwing 40+ grams, plus driver, plus the radiators themselves and air mass can make it walk along on its rubber feet. Energy which would be better put to use for moar bass!

Finish is mediocre but I struggled with the paint and I got impatient.

About the Designer:
Interested in speakers since 10 years old when I bought my first 2.1 PC speaker system. Never had much money to invest in the hobby but always been passionate. In a few bands when I was younger and dabble with audio production software. Self taught on a few CAD programs which I always use when designing to understand fitment and allow tighter tolerances. Learned structural carpentry as a builder.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Bobby Kinstle

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Advanced

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$500 – $1,000

Project Description:
A “bookshelf” speaker project designed to be ideal cabinets for the legendary TangBand W8-2314 8″ coaxial driver.

Design Goals:
I wanted some speakers that would make the most of these lovely drivers. They should be as beautiful as they sound and stand the test of time in my living room.

Driver Selection:
https://www.parts-express.com/Tang-Band-W8-2314-8-Coaxial-Full-Range-Woofer-264-9004 Part #264-9004

Enclosure Design:
The enclosures are made of 3/4 MDF with a double front. Internal volume is 0.9 cubic feet after accounting for the displacement of the driver and the port. We’re tuned to 49Hz. I wrapped the entire enclosure with angel step walnut veneer generously slathered with 100% tung oil and finally shellac on top. A set of pointy feet on the bottom isolate this already very damped enclosure from the table. Also pokes holes in the shelf too. Each enclosure weighs just under 30 pounds. The inside is heavily reinforced with MDF braces and corner joints.

Enclosure Assembly:
First I cut a sheet of MDF into an Ikea flat pack. Boards were glued in butt joints with brad nails to keep them from walking off on the wet glue when I clamped them. I intentionally cut the front and back a little larger and then used a flush trim bit to cut them an exact match to the tops and sides. The holes were router cut with a circle jig. The double front was added after that and then trimmed to match with a bottom bearing flush trim bit. Next every seam and joint was filled with bondo and sanded smooth. This is important because the clear finish will shrink and crush the veneer into every seam and be visible on the outside. I also added some nice binding posts. I thought they would be easier to reach and manipulate with my fingers, which is a big plus, but it also means you can’t lay the speaker flat on it’s back anymore without putting a thick pad underneath it.

A 3″ precision port provides very smooth bass response that extends very deep in my room. TB suggested using a forward facing 3″ port to improve vocals and the vocals come out great.

Lastly I made some cosmetic rings CNC cut from purple heart. I styled them after the concentric rings of the tweeter grill. Purple heart is a very challenging material to work with and this part ended up taking longer to get right than the entire rest of the project.

Crossover Design:
After looking at the impedance curve for the woofer I decided it would be best to ask TangBand for suggestions. They were happy to help and so I used their design with quality components. Schematic attached in the images. Note the tweeter is reverse polarity.

Tips & Tricks:
1. The best way to make purpleheart more purple is to bake it in the oven at 350F for 30 minutes. This will make it shrink a little and may warp slightly too. Make your rough cuts, bake, and then make your final dimensional cuts. Don’t worry, it’s purple inside too.
2. Speaking of purpleheart, after baking, keep the wood in the dark and finish sanding expediently. Coat with a UV blocking finish such as spar urethane to prevent UV from turning the purple wood brown. This will still happen but you can slow it down by a decade or so if careful.
3. Never use those slip on anti scuff pads on your pipe clamps. When you clamp something big and heavy they can slip off and eject your work piece onto the floor.
4. Stuffing can have a big impact on your midrange performance. If the box sounds hollow or like it has harsh mids, add some stuffing until it gets better. But too much stuffing can make the midrange dull and flat. The 3″ port made it easy to add stuffing without opening the enclosure.
5. Cold press veneering is pretty difficult on large panels without an industrial sized press. Invest in a vacuum bag system if you plan on working with raw wood veneer.
6. You can practice veneering on the back and bottom of your enclosure where mistakes aren’t visible.
7. Speakers cabinet spikes will damage your table. It’s pretty hard to put a 30 pound box onto those little metal pads they come with.
8. The people who designed your components can be an invaluable treasure trove of knowledge. Ask them how to make the most of their products and you’ll probably learn a lot from them.
9. Use ratchet straps to hang things for painting and finishing. Much faster and no worries of drips or touching a wet surface.

Conclusion:
The bass is pretty good. That’s one nice thing about using the 8″ version instead of the 6″ version. They reach all the way down into the bottom piano keys and bass guitar notes so no complaints there. The transition through the bass is smooth and highly musical. If you like lots of bass you may want a sub. Bass is nimble and articulate which is great on those deep strings.

Mids are warm and smooth almost like tube amp smooth. Vocals are forward and clear but never harsh, and male vocals sound about the same level as female vocals which is great as I find a lot of speakers are weak on male vocals and then get overwhelmed by female vocals. Horns are buttery smooth, especially trombone and saxophone. Strings are like wrapping yourself in a blanket of love. The amount of stuffing you put in the box has a big impact on the vocal range. Without stuffing I found the mids were harsh in some areas so I just added a handfull of poly fill at a time until I liked the sound. I’d say it’s a sold 50% loose fill.

The highs are delicate and crisp. They aren’t bright but I don’t feel like I’m missing anything and I usually prefer a bright speaker. Spanish guitar music really sings on these tweeters. It’s not that you hear the notes, its that you hear the pick sliding off the string and the musicians fingers gripping the fretboard. *Drooool.*

About the Designer:
I grew up in the Mojave Desert in a small community of scientists, craftsmen, and engineers. We were the kind of people who didn’t accept “it’s impossible” or “you can’t do that”. If I want something that doesn’t exist, I’ll just make one. Now I’m a thermal engineer in the computer industry and I currently hold 17 patents worldwide.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Alan

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
Under $100

Project Description:
Having experience building several subwoofer TLs I decided to take on a full range. Mostly just a fun project to do something I had never tested before.

Design Goals:
To give as much extension into bass as possible in a single small speaker with reasonable high frequency response.

Driver Selection:
I originally had a pair of Kicker R4c midrange speakers form a 3 way car audio front stage build. Different speakers were used in my next car and I had them left over to experiment with. The original kickers fried with some heavy bass and I decided to use the Dayton RS100T as a replacement with lower Fs and higher Xmax. The Truncated version was used as to not block the vent.

Enclosure Design:
Behind the speaker, the pipe is 3” deep, tapering to a 1” exit. Enclosure width is 4” internal and length of the line is 74” tuning to 1/4 wave to 46 Hz.

Enclosure Assembly:
The exterior of the box is built out of 1/2” MDF, clamped and glued with tight bond II. The interior baffles are 1/4” HDF also glued with tight bond, temporarily held in place with cleats and staples until the glue set. 45 degree corners were held in place with small left over pieces of rubber foam during gluing.

Crossover Design:
Full range, no Xover used

Tips & Tricks:
Building a multi fold TL can be a little tricky, but get some graph paper and start drawing! You’ll figure out how to make it work eventually.

Conclusion:
During initial testing, it had a weird echo resonance that was eliminated by lightly stuffing the first section of line behind the speaker with polyfill. The bass extension of these is simply amazing for a 4” speaker. It’s not gonna shake anything down but for relaxed listening they are great. High frequency has a nice wide image and non fatiguing.

On a side note, the vocals with the RS100 are simply outstanding. I’m planning on using these as dash speakers in my next automotive build.

About the Designer:
I started out with family leftovers when I turned 16, and eventually got into spl competition. Fell out of that as I got older and started building more sound quality tuned cars. I dabble in home audio and guitar speakers from time to time.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Chris Hintz

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
This is a 3 piece soundbar. I call it the transformer as it can be pushed together as a continuous piece or separated as you like.

Design Goals:
This a soundbar I made to surpass what has been available in the market. I wanted something that would sit on the fireplace mantle underneath my flatscreen television. Yes, it is a little bit bigger than your traditional one piece soundbar however, it sounds so much better. I call it the transformer as it is really 3 pieces. You can place all 3 pieces together in the form of a traditional soundbar or separate them as you like.

Driver Selection:
Dayton Audio TCP115-8 x 6
Dayton Audio TD20F-4 x 2
Dayton Audio ND20FA-6

Enclosure Design:
All 3 enclosures are identical in size. They measure externally 16 inches wide x 5 inches tall x 6.5 inches deep. The cabinets are sealed.

Crossover Design:
The center channel has a different tweeter so that crossover is a bit different for the center than for the left and right channels. However, each have 7 components. See attached pictures.

Tips & Tricks:
Make sure you have your positive and negative hooked up correctly.

Conclusion:
I am very happy with this. I had a Canton Soundbar prior to this. While it was very slick and minimalistic and frankly, did some quite nice, this certainly sounds better. And can you believe 1 of those costs $650.

About the Designer:
I am an orthopedic physician assistant in San Antonio.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Jubby

Project Category:
Furniture

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
This is a Heaven Hill whiskey barrel with an MKBoom BT speaker mounted internally.

Design Goals:
Wanted to see if I could integrate an MKBoom BT portable speaker from Parts Express inside a whiskey barrel. Also, wanted to have the controls for the speaker to be accessible on the top of the barrel through one of the many bottle configurations that I had in mind. Also, wanted to have dancing lights and a barrel-head shelf with a lazy susan.

Driver Selection:
Dayton Audio MKBoom Portable Bluetooth Speaker Kit Part #300-7166

Enclosure Design:
Provided knockdown kit.

Enclosure Assembly:
Followed the instructions, with the exception of the controller boards and rear panel control panel locations.

Crossover Design:
Provided in the kit

Tips & Tricks:
Patience. Also, having a router circle jig proved to be very helpful.

Conclusion:
There was plenty of trial and error, but overall I would say that if you have done any woodworking or home DIY projects, you can figure out a way to get this to work.

About the Designer:
Just a guy who likes finding the next fun little project. I think a couple of DMLs will be next.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Don A

Project Category:
Portable Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Another take on the retro boombox using a passive radiator instead of a port and Boston Acoustic speakers instead of ADS as in Part 1.

Design Goals:
Incorporate a SB Acoustics SB15SFCR-00 5×8 passive radiator with Tang Band subwoofer and Boston Acoutics Micro90x speakers. I also used the 5 cell PE battery board LBB-5V for more volts to the amp.

Driver Selection:
264-917

Enclosure Design:
Enclosure was increased to about 7.1 liters for the woofer/passive radiator and separate similar size sealed enclosures for the Micro90x speakers as the originals.

Enclosure Assembly:
Same 1/2″ Baltic birch plywood with dados to assist in assembly.

Crossover Design:
Crossovers from Boston Micro90x were used.

Tips & Tricks:
This time I used a switch to turn VU meters on and off since there is no switched outputs on the battery board or amp.

Conclusion:
Passive radiator is the way to go with the Tang Band 5.5″ subwoofer. It will go louder before distortion sets in and it seems to sound better to me. The Boston speakers sound great with this design even with the weird tweeter mounting I had to accomodate. I really didn’t notice an increase in output level with the higher voltage going to the amp but battery seems to last longer.

About the Designer:
Degreed electrical engineer and avid woodworker, have been building speakers and audio components for 30 years.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
henhez

Project Category:
Tower Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
This is a version of Dr. K’s MTM, in a ported 41″ floorstanding enclosure

Design Goals:
I wanted to build a furniture quality speaker that would rank highly on the WAF. I also wanted to use paper-backed real wood veneer for the first time.

Driver Selection:
Drivers are identical to Dr. K’s MTM.

Enclosure Design:
Enclosure is made of 3/4″ MDF with three window pane braces and roughly 1/2″ roundovers on the baffle and rear.

Enclosure Assembly:
I wanted to build the entire cabinet without using screws, nails, biscuits or any other fastener except wood glue. I cut a rabbet on all four sides of the baffle and rear panel so they would slot right in.

Crossover Design:
The crossover is identical to Dr. K’s MTM.

Tips & Tricks:
You can use regular Titebond to apply the veneer. I rolled a thin layer on the cabinet and on the veneer then let it dry for roughly 30 minutes. Then I used a dry iron to melt the glue and apply the veneer, see pictures.

Conclusion:
I am very pleased with the way these speakers look and sound. It took me nearly 6 months to finish them but, it was worth every minute!

About the Designer:
I’ve built half a dozen projects from Parts Express but I’ve never made anything that looks and sounds as good as these!

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Bobby Kinstle

Project Category:
Freestyle Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$500 – $1,000

Project Description:
This project was to create a nice sounding and aesthetically pleasing speaker system in an alpine vacation condo near Lake Tahoe that would be used mostly for classical or ambient music, and TV watching.

Design Goals:
It needed to blend into the existing room, connect to the existing amp, and play full range at moderate volume levels but not annoy the neighbors or the kid’s bedroom downstairs. It also needed to be 8 ohm and connect to the receiver already installed. The interior is wood themed so I opted to used end grain balsa rather than the usual foam core.

Driver Selection:
295-240 Dayton Audio DAEX30HESF-4 High Efficiency Steered Flux Exciter with Shielding 30mm 40W 4 Ohm. Two in series on each channel for 8 ohm load

264-1678 Peerless DA32TX00-08 1-1/4″ Corundum Dome Tweeter for the center channel tweeter because of it’s proximity to the fireplace I was concerned about heat on the AMT tweeters.

275-095 Dayton Audio AMT Mini-8 Air Motion Transformer Tweeter 8 Ohm

½” thick medium density end grain balsa sheet

Enclosure Design:
Each panel has a radius on the corner templated from a quart sized paint can to control unpleasant high frequencies. Each main channel consists of 2 panels. One wide panel with one exciter, one AMT tweeter, and the crossover. The second panel is larger and has one exciter to strengthen the lower midrange registers. The center channel is one large panel with the tweeter and crossover mounted to the edge closest to the TV. I plan on adding a second panel below it to strengthen the male vocals more to my liking. Wires, drivers, and components are generously secured with hot glue and solder joints are extra heavy since this is a high vibration environment.

Enclosure Assembly:
I glued small squares of hardwood to the corners of the panels for the eyelet screws to bite into securely and hung them from vinyl coated steel cables. Electrical connections zip tied to the cables helped conceal them. Each tweeter sat into a hole drilled into the panel and then filled with hot glue from the back side. The AMT tweeters were light enough they didn’t need additional support but the big Peerless dome screwed into a piece of wood glued on the back of the center channel. Wires were secured to the panels with hot glue.

Crossover Design:
All panels use 2nd order Linkwitz Riley crossovers for the exciters and tweeters. 2.1Khz on the center channel and 6Khz on the mains. All tweeters are wired reverse polarity. The preprinted Dayton 2nd order crossover PCB’s sure came in handy. I mounted the crossovers onto a thin piece of wood glued to the panel so the high mass components wouldn’t shake off. The center channel is crossed lower because I wanted it to be more directional towards the TV.

Tips & Tricks:
1. Vinyl coated steel cable is super strong, attractive to look at, can be made yourself in any length, and has no rattles whatsoever. Just make sure you strip the coating off underneath the crimp ferrule or it may slip out.
2. A glue injector is handy for filling in the cracks on balsa panels.
3. End grain balsa sounds fantastic but it’s mechanically poor. Screws won’t stay threaded into it. However, you can glue a 1/4″ thick piece of hardwood to it for heavy objects that need to be screwed down. The panel will break before that glue joint fails. This worked for threaded eyelets for the cables and as far as I can tell had no impact on sound quality.
4. DML panels make great midrange speakers with a range of around 120hz for big panels and 150hz for small panels to around 7ish Khz on the upper range. You are definitely going to need a woofer for them to sound right and it’s going to go high enough to be directional. Two small subwoofers mounted under the main panels would be ideal to play frequencies below 150hz. You can use a single sub but it will be directional in some frequencies.
5. AMT tweeters are spectacular for picking up the high end since they don’t weigh much, have stable impedance, and the smaller ones are really only good above 6K anyway. The Dayton AMT-mini-8 is super small and won’t change the sound of a large panel when mounted by an edge. It’s super crisp and blends very well with the panel.
6. Make sure you low pass the panel at the tweeter frequency as they can have some mighty unpleasant high frequency breakups.
7. Always mix at least 2 different sizes of panels on each channel. This blends the characteristics of the panels together in a pleasing way. I’m going to add a second panel under the center channel as the vocals feel a bit thin in home theater mode.
8. The VHB tape is holding so far but if it fails, most folks use epoxy to glue them back on.
9. While a multi channel amp, active crossovers, and a DSP can significantly “correct” the sound, I think chasing the usual goal of flat perfection will be and frustrating process. Instead embrace the beauty and character of the DML imperfections. Expect to listen and tweak before finalizing the project.

Conclusion:
When the music plays, the entire panel vibrates and acts like a giant speaker cone. This makes a huge sound field that swallows up the listener and mimics the sound of very large instruments like concert grand pianos that you just can’t replicate with small speakers. It sounds like the entire wall is playing music. Almost as if you were sitting in front of the band instead of through 2 distinct points trying to blend together. The huge surfaces replicate the fullness of large instruments like concert grand pianos, strings, and horns with a presence I’ve never heard from a speaker. The panels have their own character, and the sound is smoother and mellower than most speakers. Adding the AMT tweeters brought the crisp details back in and contribute to a truly enjoyable experience. The bass comes from the end table subwoofer I posted earlier and has no trouble filling the room with lots of deep bass. Best of all the subwoofer is hardly audible in the bedroom below this room thanks to it’s non resonant chassis and spiked isolation feet.

Sip your favorite spirit and relax to something classical.

About the Designer:
I grew up in the Mojave Desert in a small community of scientists, craftsmen, and engineers. We were the kind of people who didn’t accept “it’s impossible” or “you can’t do that”. If I want something that doesn’t exist, I’ll just make one. Now I’m a thermal engineer in the computer industry and I currently hold 17 patents worldwide.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Paul Graves

Project Category:
Subwoofers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
IKEA furniture hack into a real Home Theatre subwoofer.

Design Goals:
This project was born of necessity to replace a 30 year old DIY cabinet that had been beat up over the years and left in pretty rough condition. Years of moving, pets, and re-builds had taken a toll on the wood. A new and improved cabinet was needed to keep the woofer running for years to come. My home entertainment center equipment is in an IKEA Besta cabinet already, and I had another cabinet sitting in storage that was just about the right size for the woofer and amp to be transferred into. This allows me to complete a cabinet for little money, avoid the hassle of finishing the cabinet to match the rest of the system, and focus just on the internal structure, baffle, and rear panel finishing.

Driver Selection:
This was predetermined as an Eminence Lab 12 driver purchased and fitted into the old cabinet a little over 10 years prior. The woofer had been doing a fine job in the old cabinet powered by a 200W subwoofer plate amplifier, so there was no reason to hunt for a replacement.
Since this driver was in use for so long, the woofer was measured with DATS to determine its current parameters. Using added mass technique, I took 2 measurements and averaged them to get a good set of specifications to model the box.

Enclosure Design:
With the IKEA Besta as the target skin, I set to design a method to strengthen the particle board structure with an internal MDF shell of ½” stock, a double thick baffle using ¾” stock for a total of 1.5” of MDF, and a ¾” MDF rear panel where the plate amp will live. The baffle will use the ½” inside as a rabbet joint, increasing strength. The ½” MDF is a little thin for subwoofer standards by itself, but together with the IKEA shell consisting of ¾” particle board on the sides and 1.25” composite board on the top and bottom the structure should be more than rigid enough to handle the woofer. Mocking up in SketchUp using the measured dimensions of the Besta pieces gave me my target volume to validate the woofer alignment. Calculations came up to 3.4 cubic feet, and modeling with the OEM parameters and the actual broken in driver measured parameters came up with a target tuning of 23Hz. The modeling was compared between the OEM specifications and the current parameters of my woofer. Even though the parameters definitely changed over time, the model was remarkably similar. The red line is the OEM spec, while the yellow is as measured. In this cabinet, my Lab12 will achieve a -3dB point of 27Hz and be down only 7.6dB at 20Hz. That’s plenty deep for an enjoyable home theatre experience and overkill for music. The port was choosen as a 4” Precision Port kit, the combined diameter and large flares will all but eliminate chuffing and power compression. The assembly will be on 4” high feet, so the port can fire out the bottom without any worries. The box size is a bit big and the tuning is a little low for the Lab 12, leading to a little drop in maximum electrical power. However, Xmech is large in this woofer, and the plate amp in use is only 200W so this is no threat to the woofer at all. The internal MDF shell will be glued to the IKEA cabinet using some flexible construction adhesive, and Titebond for the baffle connection. The rear panel will be removable and screwed and sealed against 1×2 hardwood around the back side lip. Since this is a powerful subwoofer, cross bracing will be utilized using 1×2 stock to minimize cabinet resonance. Aesthetically, the majority of the cabinet finish is dictated by the Besta assembly, with a Stubarp 4” high feet, and a glass top. The baffle was planned as gloss black, and a JL Audio 13” grill was picked to hide and protect the woofer cone recessed ¾” into the baffle. The rear panel was planned with a simpler Duratex finish as it will be hiding.

Enclosure Assembly:
After some measurements of the port kit and grill, the cut plans were made for the MDF and all pieces were cut and set aside for assembly.
First up was the port. The 1.25” thick top and bottom panels of the IKEA Besta are a special kind of assembly made of 1/8” hardboard with a cardboard lattice in the middle for strength and rigidity. The cardboard is glued throughout, so there is no risk of rattling but this still necessitates a bit of creative cutting. The port was cut to fit in 3 different size holes corresponding to the outside surface, the in-between surface, and the ½” internal MDF panel that would be the glue point to hold the whole thing in place. With the holes in place, the ½” MDF internal was glued to the assembled Besta shell one side at a time using glue and weight for the top and bottom, and a couple wood screws to apply pressure on the sides where the particle board had a chance to hold a screw. Meanwhile the baffle was cut with the inside hole to mount the Lab12, and the outside hole dimensioned to press fit the JL Audio grille. The rear panel was snugged in there to keep the whole assembly square while the glue cured. When that was solid, the 1×2 lip was miter cut and glued on one side at a time with clamps, this time using the baffle board to keep things square. The rear panel was prepped for hardware and the plate amp, and 10-32 inserts put in to run hardware for mounting the panel. Now it was time to work on the gloss black finish for the baffle before mounting it. This was started with the tedious process of primer, sand, primer repeat until thick. That was followed by black enamel, one coat at a time with 48 hours of cure time in-between. After each coat, wet sanding with 600 grit. Each round resulted in fewer spots of primer coming through until it was thick enough to start the increase in grit and polish process for a good gloss. While the baffle work was in process, the 1×2 cross braces were cut to press in and glued in place for rigidity. Then the baffle was dropped into the assembly on a liberal bead of Titebond for permanent assembly and left to cure. Once the wood glue was done, a bead of the construction adhesive was applied around the inside to ensure no air leaks were missed. Finally, some denim insulation ~1” thick was cut to size and hot melt glued around as much of the outside surface as possible. Now it was organ donor time! The old sub cabinet was emptied and put out to the curb. The sound of Taps could be heard in the distance as this 30 year old cabinet built by myself and my late father was honored for its years of faithful service. After some struggling with 8-32 inserts, screws, the amp cutout that never seemed to get to the right dimensions, and some mild explicatives, the assembly was ready to roll. The JL Audio grill fit right in the recess cutout and finishes the box with a slick look.

Crossover Design:
No crossover in this thing, so the design validation consisted of testing the port tuning with DATS prior to gluing up the Precision Port. The tuning came to 24Hz using the full length of the Precision Port kit in the cabinet, no cutting needed! After an initial test, the port was fixed in place with a little super glue. Note these cross braces are glued together where they meet to eliminate the chance of rattling internally. Some sine wave sweeps to test the end results were successful, no rattle, leaks, whistles, just loud and low bass!
Off to the living room to take its place next to the Besta with the equipment.

Tips & Tricks:
Make sure you add glue to your threaded inserts as you put them in place. Forgetting to do so may result in them pulling out!
Gloss black enamel is time consuming, have patience! Also, it’s fragile and will shatter if hit, as evidenced when I dropped the woofer a fraction of an inch on the edge of the cutout. This was very difficult to fix, and ended up permanent. It’s small enough to not notice, but I know it’s there! Other things I messed up while assembling: Didn’t measure the front / back spacing around the perimeter when I glued in the 1/2″ MDF. I had a little slop around the port to get closer to center, but I didn’t even check. The front will be recessed slightly while the back sits proud. The rear panel was beveled to make it look like it was on purpose. Mis-assembled the top panel of the Besta by putting it on backwards. There is a very slight difference in the faux finish on the front vs. back edges of the Ikea cabinet, it will likely only bother me. I meant the port to be firing out of the rear left of the cabinet, but wasn’t paying attention to front / back there either so now it’s firing out of the front right. Due to the baffle coming in 3/4″ I had to shave a flat spot in the internal port flare. Will have no effect on the result, but will annoy me slightly. Moral of the story: pay attention!

Conclusion:
Mission successful, this thing kicks butt. Compared to the old cabinet, which was thinner material, not braced at all, and had a smaller 3.5” port, this cabinet produces cleaner and tighter low bass. The only distortion I can hear is the various rattling things around the house.

About the Designer:
Paul Graves is an electronics engineer and speaker enthusiast, working on woofers and full range speakers since being a teenager in the late 80’s. Find Paul in TechTalk posting as Wogg.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Tony

Project Category:
Subwoofers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
I bought a subwoofer off this woman. It worked there, but did not work when I got it home. I spent all weekend, I determined it was a bad plate amp.

Design Goals:
The replacement plate amp was smaller than the original one. It fit inside the hole cut out.

Conclusion:
I made an enclosed to bolt the plate amp up to then drilled the frame onto the back of the sub.The plate amp looks like it was originally there.

About the Designer:
I am 42 yr old ,love when a problem exists, I always find a solution!

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Luke (zx82net)

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Tiny 2-way speakers with 40Hz bass response, suitable for desktop, shelf, or wall mounting and optimized for small to medium sized rooms. The enclosure can be fully 3D printed, or part 3D printed with wooden side panels. The 1.85 liter enclosure is tuned to 44Hz with a folded 55cm port. The assembled speaker is 14cm x 19cm x 17cm (5.5 x 7.5 x 6.7 inch). A 4 channel DSP amplifier functions as the crossover to split the signal between woofer and tweeter at 200Hz.

Design Goals:
To squeeze as much bass response as possible out of a package small enough to fit comfortably on a basic 3D printer, and provide a very wide listening sweet spot, so I don’t need to clamp my head in place to get a good sound stage at my work desk.

Driver Selection:
The low frequency section, Tang Band W3 1876S: #264-909
This 3″ driver is a legend, the star of many compact subwoofer designs and youtube videos, nothing else can match it in small enclosures.

The high frequency section, Tectonic TEBM35C10-4: #297-216
I chose the 35mm BMR driver for its wide dispersion and incredible frequency range, comfortably playing down to 200Hz.

Enclosure Design:
I modeled a range of bass reflex and passive radiator alignments in WinISD and found to get the absolute maximum bass response out of the W3-1876S I had to use a reflex enclosure with a very long port, about 55cm. Since the maximum dimension of the enclosure is 19cm, the port had to be folded several times to fit. A 3D printed slot port was the obvious choice. I wanted to avoid any resonances in the port, so I had to cut off the bass driver well below the first resonant mode, which is 315Hz. The mid-tweeter enclosure is 0.4ml and is a curved, roughly triangular compartment within the main enclosure. The enclosure could be 3D printed with a wide range of different plastics, but I used PLA, each half took around 20 hours, on a moderately fast printer.

Enclosure Assembly:
The enclosure prints in 2 halves which glue together with a tongue and groove joint. I used Gorilla Glue. The M3 and M2 screws self tap into the plastic. I used bluetack to create gaskets for both drivers, and to seal the holes around the cable exits. The HF enclosure is stuffed with polyfill, the bass enclosure has no stuffing.

Crossover Design:
The crossover is provided by the DSP, its a 200Hz 48dB/octave Linkwitz-Riley with -6dB gain on the tweeter. I also used a +2.5dB high shelf at 10kHz to make the tweeter response level out to 20kHz.

Conclusion:
I’m very pleased with the results of this project. The bass output is quite incredible for the enclosure size and I love the clear sound of the BMR mid-treble driver.

All the 3D model files required to print this speaker can be found on my thingiverse page here:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4980197

About the Designer:
I design cameras, but I like speakers too!

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Graham De Partee

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$500 – $1,000

Project Description:
Bookshelf using simpler design methods and lower cost internal materials, all around the Designer Series 8″ paper woofer

Design Goals:
This, like all my other builds is screw free design. I used 3/4″ Baltic Birch for the main cabinet, including the inner bracing and offset baffle for the woofer and tweeter time alignment

Driver Selection:
The Designer Series has very pleasing response curves, better than the reference series IMHO. So I wanted to give the DS a try.

Enclosure Design:
This, like all my other builds is screw free design. I used 3/4″ baltic birch for the main cabinet, including the inner bracing and offset baffle for the woofer and tweeter time alignment. The front baffle worked out to simply double the thickness with two sheets of 3/4″ wood to provide the proper alignment of the tweeter and woofer. I added a 35 degree end to help with reflections, though it is not ideal, this was the “easier” way to design the baffle given the more advance cuts needed would require more than your typical table saw.

Enclosure Assembly:
I glue all 4 main pieces at the same time. My primary workbench was supporting a large project at the time so my table saw and a level table was used during the clamping drying stage. Not recommended because this can make it more difficult to ensure things set nice and square.

While the glue is drying on complete the cutouts for the woofer, tweeter and port. The back side of the baffle where the woofer is requires chamfered edges to make sure the woofer can breathe properly and pass all energy evenly when it moves both forwards and backwards (gasp! so you mean speakers send energy backwards too?… yes).

The braces typically requires circle cut outs to limit and tuning fork like resonance, but a jigsaw will prove to be “easier” if you do oval cuts.

I usually only scree on the back so that it could be removed later should the inside need any sort of service or I want to try something with the crossover. Makes for better access than the woofer hole. After putting the bracing and generic dynamat in place, added felt or in my case, egg crate foam.

Sand everything down to a 240 starting at at least a 80 or 100 crit. IF you used finished plywood you can start at 150 or 180. After sanding and assembly I paint with 6 layers of clear polyurethane paint.

Crossover Design:
crossover is mostly Jantzen and Dayton Audio parts:
027-938
027-214
027-940
255-946
257-552
257-808

If you use any other drivers, even the different version of the 8″ DS woofer you will need a different crossover.

Conclusion:
The overall sound is quite nice. The sound stage is far better than I expected it to be. vocals and strings come out crisp and clear. Low end is a bit on the light side but in hifi that lower end should be address with a larger woofer that can properly replicate the lower end, not through boomy resonance of an oversized cabinet or abused woofer.

After 2 weeks of running these even my wife liked them better than a pair of Klipsch RP-6000F I have.

About the Designer:
More to come. This is my 4th build but 1st posted. Next builds will be a 3-way and a full range 4-way using the DS 12″ sub and a DSP plate amp on and for each main tower.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
HolyEvil1975

Project Category:
Portable Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
Under $100

Project Description:
Made of spare parts

Design Goals:
Some thing with stereo sound without having to turn entire surround sound.

Driver Selection:
2 ohm 4 inch X4 and 5.5 subwoofer

Enclosure Design:
Made of spare plywood laying around .Enclosure is divided internally per driver .

Enclosure Assembly:
Enclosure is divided internally per driver .

Crossover Design:
Just used caps on tweeters

Conclusion:
Sounds excellent. Full sound from small package.

About the Designer:
Always tinkering with audio design and woodworking

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Redneckjap

Project Category:
Portable Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Portable, rechargeable, Bluetooth speaker system

Design Goals:
The primary design goal that I had was to make a portable Bluetooth speaker just to “see if I could do it”. Of course, I wanted the end result to sound better than any $40 speaker that can be bought at discount stores.

Driver Selection:
295-549, 295-417, 275-022

Enclosure Design:
At first, I was going to build a sealed design (and probably should have for the sake of size) but decided to add a passive radiator. I used two Dayton Audio GF180-4 6.5” woofers and the Dayton Audio DSA215 8” passive radiator tuned to approximately 40hz. Installed in approximately 2.5 cu ft.

Enclosure Assembly:
I may regret it, but I used some leftover shelving boards for the cabinet construction. Once I assembled the wood and completed cutouts, I took it to a local truck shop and had it coated with Line-X bed liner.

Crossover Design:
I purchased a ready-built 3,500 hz crossover that seems to work ok for these drivers.

Tips & Tricks:
Hone your soldering skills! Use plenty of glue on your wood joints.

Conclusion:
I probably need to attenuate the tweeters slightly because they do seem to overtake the system, but I must say the for a first attempt, this thing ROCKS!

About the Designer:
Just a hobbyist that enjoys learning.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Stephen

Project Category:
Tower Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$500 – $1,000

Project Description:
Rummaging through a junk shop and spied this pair of Infinity SM120s up in the loft. I said I’d think about it. The fella shrugged and suggested “ten bucks?” I thought this might be fun and a deal was struck. They were bigger than I thought and I’m still not sure where they’ll fit. But they sound good!

Design Goals:
I wanted primarily to build a good sounding set of speakers appropriate for the kind of music I really like, i.e. mostly 70s rock but still competent on other things. I still use amps that can adjust the sound as well as processors in Audirvana if it needs a lot of work. Often though I’m using Volumio on a Hi-Fi-Pi with an Allo top hat through a Topping DAC and into a either a newish Pioneer D-class or a vintage HK with 300 watts of grunt. I’m not seeking “purity” but something that I like the sound of.

Driver Selection:
The photos show how NOT to do a refoam job on a woofer. The mid-range had been replaced with car speakers, and the tweeters – one original but shot and another shoehorned into the opening with a drill and a screwdriver. Obtained original PolyCell tweeters but used a full-range driver as the mid and a Dayton aluminium cone 12″ woofer. Selection was largely what would fit and not what was on the spec sheet. About the only consideration was whether the crossover points were adequately covered. The full-range driver might not be the best choice as a mid but, actually, it’s good.

Enclosure Design:
The enclosure is an Infinity SM-120 with no baffles, braces, or sound dampening provisions. No enclosure around the mid-range. It was veneered in vinyl which was removed over several tedious hours with a heat gun and a stiff putty knife. Reviews vary, as they always do, but armchair experts aside, most speaker makers knew what they were doing. Whether the result pleased buyers is another story. Most commonly these were party pleasers.

Enclosure Assembly:
Assembly of a new speaker might have been easier and as the finishing went along it became apparent that applying a new veneer would be futile and look silly. I sanded it clean, making sure all adhesive was gone. I did have to design a mounting system for one of the tweeters and it worked out fine. I chose not to add bracing or baffles or enclosures. More about laziness and thinking “they designed it this way so let’s see how it sounds.” I did add an inch of poly. The finish turned out remarkably well — BIN shellac based primer, a couple of coats with a gentle sanding, followed by Lowes best quality trim paint to match my home interior. Just careful rolling and about three coats. It’s a good result actually.

Crossover Design:
I replaced the caps on the original crossovers with high quality ones from PE but when I tested the speakers one of them was tripping the overload on the amp. The other one sounded great. I shrugged my shoulders (a lot of that in this project) and ordered new 3-ways from PE. Turns out I had misread my diagram and wired one wrong. It was probably fine. I’ll use the L-pads with the Dayton 3-way.

Tips & Tricks:
Put aside all the audiophile debates and advice on forums and YouTube. In seeking perfection that last 20% is expensive and time-consuming and even after you’ve done it, you’ll likely spend your time listening for faults rather than enjoying music.

Spend good money on drivers and try to match them fairly closely to your box.

You’re not making a piece of furniture. Make a speaker instead.

Preparation is the key to getting a good finish, no matter what finish you choose. I was dubious but latex trim paint worked well and looks nice. BIN shellac primer on MDF is the only way to go to seal MDF.

On a rebuild, try not to reinvent the wheel. Go with what you’ve got and if you can improve it without too much trouble give it a go.

Conclusion:
Last night a group of us from the 70s listened to Styx, Kansas, James Taylor, and others with great satisfaction. The bass is strong and clean (yes — size matters), the midrange is precise, and overall these are very musical for the purpose intended. They are huge. 34 inches high and 16 inches wide with a heft to match. In rebuilding speakers remember that someone who knew what they were doing — at least on mainstream companies — and that the rules for much of speaker design hasn’t changed although materials have improved. Although I was beginning to doubt how they would turn out — the result is spectacularly good.

About the Designer:
I built my first speakers in 1974 using a book from Radio Shack. I still have it. It works. Now 63 with an upper range of hearing around 14khz and, yes, this influences my driver choices! Did a decade as a nuc in the navy. More in computers. And now sort of retired. No audio expertise — this is a plus, in my opinion.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
1895 Underwriters Fire Extinguisher speaker Box

Project Category:
Portable Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
– 1970 water fill fire extinguisher used for other purpose.
– Build in 2X100 Bluetooth 5.0 amplifier board.
– Has 2X speaker the one on top using 6.5 inch and the bottom using JBL purchased from Parts express.
– Custom Lithium ion battery 24.7 Volt

Design Goals:
Don’t get confused with real FIRE EXTINGUISHER this is just for fun I know fire is REAl dangerous!

Conclusion:
Enjoy the show

About the Designer:
Just pop in my head and build them right away.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Mark Bushinski

Project Category:
Subwoofers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
My relative receives quite a few of my audio projects. He has been using the original Dayton Titanic 1200 that I purchased in 1999. I thought he would enjoy upgrading 20 years of subwoofer technology so I helped him install a Dayton Audio RSS315HE-22 12″ Reference Series High Excursion Subwoofer.

Design Goals:
More clean bass than the existing subwoofer with minimal time involvement.

Driver Selection:
Driver selection could be considered overkill. The past year I’ve been taking harmonic distortion and Intermodulation distortion measurements of 12″ subwoofers. Of the 15 drivers I tested the Dayton RSS315HE-22 Part # 295-291 did the best in the deep bass. More info here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DIYLoudspeakerProjecPad/permalink/1542634879425677/

Enclosure Design:
It is 100 liters which is a big box for the HE. The QTC is .54 modelled f3 is 52 and f10 is 24hz. Which doesn’t sound that impressive, but with low bass gain from room acoustics this thing is a monster.

Enclosure Assembly:
My friend help me put the box together 20 years ago. The box is 3/4 oak MDF with a double thickness baffle. Solid oak trim.

Tips & Tricks:
Although the driver dropped right in the surround on the HE is so much higher than the Titanic so I still need to modify the grille.

Conclusion:
My relative is happy he likes the deep bass with a solid kick! This actually turned out to be less of a project than I thought. I had brought along my jigsaw, router and drill as I thought I would have to modify the cutout and drill new holes. To our surprise the HE dropped in and the bolts lined up as well. In fact many 12″ drivers including the Dayton Ultimax, The Dayton RS HF, GRS 12SW-4 and Eminence Lab all mount in the same cut out and bolt center diameter so it’s easy to upgrade to a HE.

About the Designer:
I’ve been building speakers for 25 years. I’ve been trying to get into making more “traditional woodworking projects” but what good is a piece of furniture if it doesn’t play music?

Project Parts List: