Designer:
Wogg

Project Category:
Subwoofers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
Under $100

Project Description:
An inexpensive Isobaric loaded subwoofer when the most bass is required for the smallest amount of money in a small enclosure. This was an upgrade for an older cabinet that had used Pyle 10” woofers. The old woofers suffered from dry rot on the surrounds and were tossed.

Design Goals:
Cheap with good bass extension fitting into the existing 1 cubic foot cabinet. In order to minimize cabinet size, the drivers are to be used isobaric loaded in a face to face clamshell mount. This arrangement allows inexpensive woofers to play deep in small spaces where a higher end, higher power woofer would usually be required.
The compromises of the existing cabinet being used were not a huge deal, as this build is targeted for the trunk of a teenager’s car, which necessitates the low cost and maximum output requirements.

Driver Selection:
The GRS 10SW-4 woofers had similar parameters to the original Pyle speakers and modeled fairly well in the small existing enclosure. And at only $20 each, allowed a re-build with only $40 in drivers.

Enclosure Design:
The existing enclosure is a simple cube 13 ¾” by 13” by 13” made from 5/8” MDF tuned to 33Hz with a 2 ½” by 11” port. The port is cut at an angle internally in order to reduce the air flow restriction, a compromise for the small cabinet.
Building a new cabinet would be recommended to increase the size and volume to 11.5 cubic feet using ¾” MDF and doubled up baffle that will recess the driver clamshell assembly and allow a 3” port cut to 15” long for reduced chuffing.
The baffle is doubled up ¾” MDF, with a 10.25” cut out on the outside piece, and a 9” cutout on the inside piece for the recess of the drivers. Apply cross bracing internally using a window brace or dowels or 1×2 lumber. The inside surfaces should be covered in egg shell foam or other thin damping material.
The resulting response in the 1 cubic foot box reaches 34Hz at -3dB with a peak between 60 and 70 Hz. This is improved with the increased volume, resulting in a 27Hz F3 and a reduced response peak around 50Hz.
Both designs allow the drivers to use all 240W of input power without over excursion and approximately 107dB peak output.

Enclosure Assembly:
Nothing special here. The original enclosure was assembled with external screws and dado joints, using wood putty to hide the screws. This was sanded a bit and cleaned up using some more putty and finished with Duratex.

Crossover Design:
What crossover, this is a subwoofer.

Tips & Tricks:
The drivers are mounted face to face directly against their gaskets. The gasketing was sufficiently thick to avoid the driver surrounds touching and ensures a clean seal with minimal air space between the cones for maximum isobaric efficiency. I used pocket screws for the mounting of the clamshell because they were the appropriate length, course thread, and color.

Conclusion:
In the 1 cubic foot design, this subwoofer does really well in an automotive installation. The combination of cabin gain, and masking of noise by way of trunk mounting really covers up the less than ideal peak in response and the chuffing from the undersized and poor clearance port.
With the larger enclosure design, this woofer would be an excellent and inexpensive general purpose subwoofer. Stand it up on 5” legs and down-fire the woofer clamshell assembly to fit it in your living room décor, unless the wife is good with the industrial looking exposed baskets.

About the Designer:
Paul Graves has been building woofers since he was a teenager with his dad and is an electronics engineer. I’ve always loved the bottom octaves of the audio spectrum and am a bass player. This is a project to help my teenager learn about the usefulness of DIY woofers for those with no money.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Woodman

Project Category:
Freestyle Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
Under $100

Project Description:
Compact Bluetooth receiver/amplifier that would blend in with a midcentury teak look.

Design Goals:
Create a Bluetooth receiver with minimal controls that could be driven by a smartphone and sound good in a medium-sized living room with a mix of hard and soft surfaces.

Driver Selection:
264-872 Tang 4″ underhung woofers (2) to act as left and right channel speakers, along with an old tweeter I had laying around used in a center channel configuration. Very non-traditional but despite that it puts out amazingly good sound.

Enclosure Design:
Used the Golden ratio 2.6 x 1.6 x 1 to give me the cubic I needed and just laid out a basic rectangular shape. Added a lighted switch to serve as on/off indicator.

Enclosure Assembly:
1/2″ x 6″ oak with 3/4″ ash or poplar front baffle and MDF sealed back.

Conclusion:
Not back for a first effort, considering it was essentially just thrown together with a lot of what I had laying around.

About the Designer:
Hobbyist with more woodworking than electronic experience, I enjoy putting together functional projects rather than buying pre-made from stores. Now working on 50 watt 2.1 home theatre project with 6″ ported subwoofer cabinet.

Parts Used:
320-3519 Wondom bluetooth receiver board amplifier with two surplus passive crossovers I had.

Designer:
Wogg

Project Category:
Home Electronics

Project Level:
Advanced

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
A self-powered 2.1 system contained in a compact 8” subwoofer enclosure.  With the addition of a signal source and a pair of small satellites a fully independent full range system can be setup.
A set of satellite speakers to pair with this sub will be in the works in the coming year.

Design Goals:
For the subwoofer, the design goal was strong output to below 40Hz suitable for a small room.  The electronics were required to power the subwoofer and a pair of satellite speakers with an active filter on both sets of amplifiers for true bi-amplification.  A simple analog crossover will be used with a fixed frequency of 100Hz, so the crossover slopes should be reasonably steep. All power supply, electronics, and controls will be fully integrated into the subwoofer cabinet.
Existing off the shelf 2.1 amplifier boards were not considered for this project due to what I consider a fatal flaw, the lack of a true high pass on the satellite outputs.  Typically these board either provide a full range output to the satellites, or have a fixed slow slope roll off.  This increases power to the small speakers, limiting output when the amplifier clips, and increasing distortion due to the small woofer working when it shouldn’t be.  For that reason I wanted to design my own active crossover, and utilize full range chip amps to power the speakers.

Driver Selection:
The Dayton SD215-88 woofer was chosen due to its proven use in reasonably small cabinets with good low frequency output, its low cost, and the dual voice coils allowing it to be powered from an inexpensive dual channel chip amp.

Enclosure Design:
The enclosure is a simple trapezoid 12” wide, 15” deep, and 16” tall constructed from 3/4” MDF.  The rear panel is inset 2” to accommodate the plate amplifier installation.  The baffle is doubled with the 7.125” required internal cutout for the woofer concentric to an 8.75” cutout for recessing the driver a full 3/4” and allowing a simple circular steep grill to be placed to protect the woofer.  A 2” Precision Port 9” long is used to tune the net 0.914 cubic foot box to 31Hz.

This gives the box a -3dB point of 36Hz with a physical limit on power handling of 40W due to Xmax at 43Hz.  The amplifier is capable of 35WPC, and will be able to overpower the speaker but not enough to risk physical damage.  Estimated peak output should be around 105dB at 70W.

Enclosure Assembly:
The enclosure was built from raw MDF stock using only hand tools.  The wood was cut with a skill saw and a clamped on aluminum cutting guide.  Mating edges were cut with a 3/8” rabbet bit using a hand held plunge router.  All cut outs were made with a Jasper Circle Jig and router.  The lack of a table saw led to some tolerance issues on the box edges, so a thicker adhesive was used to help fill gaps while assembled.

Bondo was used to fill the gaps, which were then sanded down with a hand held belt sander, then rounded off with a ½” roundover bit in the router.  A few goof ups due to hand holding the router against the bit’s bearing were cleaned up with the belt sander.

The Precision Port was recessed using a 3/4” straight bit in the Jasper Circle Jig, and flush mounted with the front.  Some Bondo was used to hide the seam and the port was sanded flat with the face of the cabinet so the finish would be seamless.

A single side to side brace was added using pine 1×2 stock, which was also used to provide rails in the rear recess cavity for mounting the plate amplifier.

The inside of the enclosure was covered in egg crate foam for some damping before finishing and assembling.  The enclosure was finished with black Duratex and a white small cell foam roller with the intention of being a lighter texture than the typical finish using the included blue roller.  My supply of Duratex was low, so I didn’t have the time or supplies to sand and re-coat.  The finish ended up with some texture ghosting where the Bondo was applied that I was unable to smooth out.  I intend to get some more Duratex at some point, then sand and re-apply the finish to this cabinet.

Crossover Design:
The crossover in this project is a custom designed active filter at 100Hz to provide signal to the pair of Parts Express TDA7492 amplifier boards.  The design is textbook 3rd order Sallen-Key butterworth filters with a gain block to overcome an audio taper volume pot.

This schematic is a dedicated design for this purpose.  The master volume may be connected before the gain buffers, or after.  If the master volume is connected after the buffers as shown in the schematic, there will be a risk of clipping the gain block given sufficient input signal.  With 21dB of gain and a 24V supply, the op-amp will clip with just over 1V peak input, which may be a concern.  The advantage of putting the volume after the gain block is an improved noise floor, however the potential to clip may be a larger problem.  When built using a volume control in front of the filter board, simply install jumpers where the master volume connections would be.  A complete design package is available on woggmusic.com for anyone who wants to prototype these boards themselves. Total cost for building these yourself is just under $60.  That is a premium over pre-built 2.1 boards, but still cheaper than DSP options and worth the cost to provide that true bi-amplification in my opinion.  The Mini DSP 2X4 would be an upgrade option at $80 for this project, but would require an additional power regulator to provide the 5V for the board.  Using the DSP board would allow far greater flexibility and tuning options.

For this build I had a pair of prototyped PCB assemblies on hand from the PPA 100 project completed the year prior that contained the layout for the filters needed.  This cut the crossover board cost to under $20.  The boards were modified to be powered from the single ended 24V Meanwell supply, and populated with values to provide the 100Hz crossover at 18dB / octave.

All parts were laid out in SketchUp to create the mounting plate for the electronics with all required connectors. The electronics were all assembled onto a steel plate painted black to be mounted on the back of the woofer enclosure.  A bit over an inch of space was allowed at the top and bottom of the plate to allow a channel of air flow to remove heat.

Additional electronics were added to the plate including the power circuitry, a remote turn on solid state relay, a blue power indicator LED for optimum sound, and independent level controls for master level, the high pass amplifier, and the low pass amplifier.

The plate amplifier was assembled and tested prior to completion of the woofer, with some additional modifications made to eliminate turn off thump.  A great deal of attention was put on the ground wiring of the plate amp, particularly since the crossover boards used were not designed for a single ended supply resulting in what would have been the ground being +12V instead.  In order to minimize noise issues, I used the potentiometers as a centralized grounding connection and ran a total of 4 18ga wires from the power supply to ensure a very low resistance path to ground centralized between all boards and connectors.  Bench testing using a digital oscilloscope confirmed the 35WRMS of output capability into 8 ohms from the TDA7492 boards.

Tips & Tricks:
The woofer enclosure construction is really quite basic as far as speaker projects go, however the electronics assembly required is extensive and best left to those with existing soldering skills and a background in dealing with 120V connected power supplies.
For the Duratex finish using a smooth white foam roller, take care to look up some experienced instructions first.  My attempt did not finish well, and I understand that slightly thinning the Duratex may have helped, as would using a second dry roller while wet to smooth the resulting coat.  As it is now, I’ll need to sand and re-finish this box to get the results I was looking for.

Conclusion:
This project is currently powering my bedroom system, sourced from a PC and running a pair of Dayton B652 speakers as satellites.  The B652’s are wall mounted, and my current weak points.  I run some EQ to compensate for the wall mounting and some room acoustics, and I also have plans to build compact 2 way micro satellite speakers in the near future.
Even with the lowly B652’s, the sound is enjoyable for relaxing on the bed and chilling to some music.  The bass output from the woofer is very strong and really fills the space.  It may not rattle the walls, but given its size and power efficiency it easily does what I wanted.

About the Designer:
Paul Graves has been designing woofers since he was a teenager. I’ve also worked on amplifier designs for 25 years and have built and currently use several prototype pieces of audio equipment, primarily for my life as a bass player.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Barracoustic

Project Category:
Portable Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Portable Bluetooth sound system

Design Goals:
A system that can provide background music for weddings, camping trips, and other outings.

Driver Selection:
Tang Band W3-881SJF 3″ Full Range Speaker

Enclosure Design:
Ported design, .05 cu ft., tuned to 95 hz
Cabinet is constructed with 1/4″ and 1/2″ poplar. Front control panel is Honduran rosewood. Rear access panel allows access to amp and battery components.

Enclosure Assembly:
Panels glued and clamped.

Crossover Design:
Single driver

Tips & Tricks:
Pay attention to powering up the amp with the batteries for the first time. I suggest purchase of the 19 v AC adapter to “initialize” the amp and battery card. Parts Express will answer any technical questions you about this procedure.

Conclusion:
Very pleased with the outcome. Very smooth sound across the frequency range. All parts were purchased from Parts Express, with th exception of wood for the cabinet.

About the Designer:
IT professional by trade, however I love these types of projects, am an audiophile at heart. Have built many speakers, over the last 45 years.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
SRL Loudspeakers

Project Category:
Subwoofers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
This project entailed building two (2) 18″ PA sub-woofers utilizing the best materials, components, and construction techniques.

Design Goals:
Build an enclosure that had very high SPL, power handling, and excellent fidelity.

Driver Selection:
Eminence Sigma Pro-18A-2 18″ Cast Frame Driver

Enclosure Design:
3/4″ Baltic Birch plywood with zero fasteners. Entire enclosure is held together with beach-wood biscuits and glue. This method while taking longer actually ensures a stronger bond and zero chance of vibration and resonant frequencies from fasteners coming loose.

Crossover Design:
Crossover was electronics by choice of Ashly Protea 3.6SP

Conclusion:
While this project was very time consuming, it yielded a product far superior than any big name sub-woofer that could be purchased. We utilized the finest materials, construction methods, and Eminence Drivers for a high quality product.

About the Designer:
SRL Loudspeakers (founded 2017)

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

Designer:
Steve Rogers

Project Category:
Freestyle Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Bookshelf/Standing 2-way speakers with handmade enclosures. Woofer housing is a custom molded copy from a 1937 Chevy headlight housing. Tweeter housing was hand formed mold. After completing the bookshelf design I decided to mount them on stands as I do not have bookshelves to set them on.

Design Goals:
To create a one-off Art Deco or Retro style enclosure with “bullet” or “torpedo” look.

Enclosure Design:
Mold formed copy of 1937 Chevrolet headlight housing.

Enclosure Assembly:
Molded using a polyethylene resin and painted with automotive paint products.

Conclusion:
Completed project was what I had envisioned when I began. I learned a lot during the build and would do a couple things different if building a second pair.

About the Designer:
I’m not an audiophile, more of a designer. Hobbies include woodworking, welding, automotive and motorcycle customization, firearms manufacturing, construction, screen printer, custom t-shirt designer.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Kenny K

Project Category:
Portable Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
Under $100

Project Description:
I took a 1950s radio, and gutted it except for the old speaker. I used the Dayton 2×15 amplifier, along with all the recommended brackets, battery pack, LEDs, and function cables. I made the volume work with the original knob, and turned the tuning knob into the on/off switch

Design Goals:
I wanted to hide the modern tech inside the old radio. I wanted the sound quality to be better, but still old school.

Enclosure Design:
Rogers Majestic Model No. 560

Enclosure Assembly:
As I found it at an automotive swap meet.

Tips & Tricks:
Spending the extra time to hook up the original volume and making use of the tuning knob is really rewarding!

Conclusion:
This all works, except it’s a stereo amplifier powering a single speaker. I’d like some feedback on how to make this work better if possible.

About the Designer:
This is my first project. I’m very new to this and am hoping to tackle more complex projects in the future (ideas are already there).

I’m very passionate about hot rods as well, and would like to apply this to a car one day as well!

Project Parts List:

Designer:
SRL Loudspeaker

Project Category:
Loudspeakers/Cabinets

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
This project entailed building two (2) small format MTM PA speakers utilizing the best materials, components, and construction techniques.

Design Goals:
Build an enclosure that had very high SPL, power handling, and excellent fidelity.

Driver Selection:
Eminence Delta-10A 10″ Midrange Driver 8 Ohm
Eminence PSD:2013-8 1″ Titanium Compression Horn Driver 8 Ohm 2-Bolt

Enclosure Design:
3/4″ Baltic Birch plywood with zero fasteners. Entire enclosure is held together with beach-wood biscuits and glue. This method while taking longer actually ensures a stronger bond and zero chance of vibration and resonant frequencies from fasteners coming loose.

The only fasteners that were used were 10-32 T-Nuts and grade 8 SHCS’s to hold the drivers in place. 1/4″-20 grade 8BHCS’s and clamps were used to hold the grills. Pan head wood screws and finish washers hold the aluminum wave guide in place.

Crossover Design:
Crossover was electronic by choice of Ashly Protea 3.6SP

Conclusion:
While this project was very time consuming, it yielded a product far superior than any big name PA speaker that could be purchased. We utilized the finest materials, construction methods, and Eminence Drivers for a high quality product. This design is very unique in the sense that there are next to no PA speakers in the MTM format using a wave guide like this. We steered in a different direction than the typical line array MTM design. This gave a much more versatile use for its application

About the Designer:
SRL Loudspeakers (founded 2017)

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

Project Parts List:

PLANS:

bivens_plan

bivensspeaker_xover

Designer:
David Byboth

Project Category:
Loudspeakers/Cabinets

Project Level:
Advanced

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$500 – $1,000

Project Description:
The Bivens 01 is a mid-sized ported two way audiophile level design with a retro look built to go with a classic Mcintosh receiver and Thorens turntable.

Design Goals:
Being from Texas, the client wanted a mainly Mesquite wood finish and was looking for something unique and extremely high quality. I chose a two way design with an 8″ woofer to keep the size reasonable.

Driver Selection:
The AMTPRO-4 Air Motion transformer was an intriguing choice for the Tweeter. It was on sale at Parts Express and had several features that I liked. The Consistant 4 ohm impedance across its range and a relatively low crossover point gave flexibility on the woofer selection.

The Peerless by Tymphany 830869 8″ Nomex Cone HDS Woofer was chosen for it’s relatively low Fs of 30Hz and it’s ability to extend up to 2K, above the designed crossover point of 1800.

Enclosure Design:
Simulations using WinISD Pro showed a 1.6 cubic ft. box with a 2″ port of 2.3″ long ended up with a system tuning of approximately 38 Hz. I wanted a trapeziodal cabinet. The cabinet was designed in Sketchup. The boxes were built of 3/4″ MDF with the Mesquite laminated to the outside of the box. Alternatively the boxes could be painted or covered with veneer.

Enclosure Assembly:
The MDF boxes were cut into kits on a table saw and glued together with wood glue. The drivers, crossovers and ports were installed temporarily to verify the design data. The Mesquite “skin” was made from laminating Mesquite Flooring into planks and planing/sanding until smooth. Birds Eye Maple veneer was used as a contrast on the front piece. The back, sides top bottom and front pieces were glued to the MDF Box. The entire thing was sanded and finished with a Satin polyester.

Crossover Design:
The Crossovers were designed using “Passive Crossover Design” an Excel based crossover designer that takes into account the impedance of the drivers over the entire frequency spectrum.

The crossover is a basic second order crossover with a crossover point of 1800 hz. There is a Zobel circuit on the woofer for impedance leveling. The tweeter is connected out of phase due to the crossover’s phase shift.

Tips & Tricks:
This is not a simple build. There are few square angles. Plan and measure carefully!!! The better the pieces fit the better the project will look and work!

Conclusion:
These speakers have exceeded all design expectations. The detail, soundstage and stereo image is pretty incredible. They get low enough to be perfectly acceptable in a medium sized listening room with no sub.

About the Designer:
David Byboth is a degreed Engineer the owner of a Pro Audio production company. Building speakers has been a hobby of his for more than 40 years.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Sebastian

Project Category:
Tower Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
34″ tall, 8″ wide, and 16″ long. About 2.3 cubic feet and about 180 watts rms each. 2 way design. 4 woofers and 1 tweeter crossed at about 3200 hz, simple 1st order. Woofers are wired in series and parallel for a 4 ohm load. Whole impedance is about 4.8 each First time using vinyl wrap and passive radiators. The 5.25″ woofers produce very nice mids and lows and the silk tweeters have really crisp highs and clear mids. Sound quality is outstanding and the bass is super clean and rattles my bedroom and the mirror in the bathroom. The loudness of the bass matches that of my diy Dayton ported 10″ subwoofer. The speakers alone do not need a subwoofer as they produce audible bass down to about 35 hz. Passive radiators are the way to go, they give your speakers twice the bass of using ports.

Design Goals:
Sound quality to match high end speakers. Lots of bass and a beautiful finish

Driver Selection:
Dayton Audio ND140-4 5-1/4″ Aluminum Cone Midbass Driver 4 Ohm
Dayton Audio ND25FA-4 1″ Soft Dome Neodymium Tweeter
Dayton Audio SD175-PR 6-1/2″ Passive Radiator

Enclosure Design:
3/4″ mdf. 2.3 cubic feet sealed.
34″ tall, 8″ wide, and 15″ long.

Crossover Design:
First order 2 way crossed at around 3200 hz

Conclusion:
I am very happy with the end result. It’s just how i pictured it. Very happy with all products i used in this project and will definitely purchase them again in the future for other projects. If you’re curious about using passive radiators i’d suggest trying them out but do some research on them first.

About the Designer:
I am only 19 when i built these and built my first speakers when i was 17 for a school project my senior year. I’ve built tower speakers, home subwoofers, car subwoofers, and install car stereos. I love audio, it’s one of my passions.

Project Parts List

Designer:
Bensen

Project Category:
Tower Speakers

Project Level:
Advanced

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
Over $1,000

Project Description:
Tower speakers with a design to fill a larger room but to have accurate reproduction in smaller rooms as well.

Design Goals:
1.) Detailed highs
2.) Airy mids
3.) Good midbass with deep extension
4.) No cabinet resonance. Very sturdy cabinet

Driver Selection:
1.) Dayton Audio RS225P-4 8″ Reference Paper Woofer 4 Ohm
Part # 295-377
2.) Dayton Audio DC130B-4 5-1/4″ Classic Woofer Speaker
Part # 295-307
3.) Dayton Audio PT2C-8 Planar Tweeter
Part # 275-085

Enclosure Design:
Tunable to different rooms
1 3/4″ particle board (two 3/4 glued together)
In line array
Accessible crossover
1.) Sealed mid box with two 5 1/4 midranges separated by divider, tweeter between division
2.) Top 8″ driver slot ported midway on backside of speaker for adding airy texture to low mids
3.) Lower 8″ woofer in sealed box.

Enclosure Assembly:
4 4×8 3/4″ Particle board
1 piece 1″x3″x8′ oak for front corners
1 1 1/8″ x 24 x 6 benchtop for base

Crossover Design:
Dayton Audio XO3W-375/3K 3-Way Speaker Crossover 375/3,000 Hz
Part # 260-150
——————————————
Added for Mid attenuation
Parts Express Speaker L-Pad Attenuator 100W Mono 3/8″ Shaft 8 Ohm
Part # 260-262
————————————-
Added for high attenuation
Speaker L-Pad Attenuator 100W Mono 1″ Shaft 8 Ohm
Part # 260-265

Tips & Tricks:
I knew I’d need some tweaking on the planar tweeters but had to get an additional Lpad to attenuate the midrange drivers.
Dual midrange drivers chosen for greater surface area and flat response and the planar tweeter was specifically ordered for the flat response and higher DB sensitivity

Originally I had the top woofer ported in back and bottom ported in front. this added to much air to the airy effect I was going for. I ended up removing the port from the bottom driver by simply shortening the cabinet and reducing air space in the lower driver. The result was very desirable

Conclusion:
Very happy.

After a moderate amount of tweaking the result is great. I own multiple semi expensive towers that just did not fit the bill I trying to pay. I almost went to electostat or planar ribbon towers but didn’t want to sacrifice the bass for a more open midrange.

The end result is much airier mids then my other midrange (cost wise) speakers but still very tight bass with good bass extension.
The planar tweeter was intended to blend with dual mids for airy presence and a good sense of detail and did exactly that.

Very flat response depending on the settings of the Lpad mixed with the the mood I’m in
Adding the Lpads did not degrade sound enough for me to ever care. Still much more pleasing and detailed to me than my Def Tech 9040’s or my Paradigm Studio 60 V5
I still have to paint the speakers gloss black but am taking a break !!!

About the Designer:
Unix Specialist @ IBM. Always geeking out in one way or another.
Many technical degrees but focus in IT in programming.
Former Home Renovator and General Contractor
I’ve been a sound enthusiast for my whole life.
I have never been able to find the perfect sound for me so figured since I’ve researched for years I’d just bite the bullet and start making my own ideas come to life.

Parts Used:
2 Dayton Audio XO3W-375/3K 3-Way Speaker Crossover 375/3,000 Hz
Part # 260-150
———————————————
2 Parts Express Speaker L-Pad Attenuator 100W Mono 3/8″ Shaft 8 Ohm
Part # 260-262
————————————-
Added for high attenuation
Speaker L-Pad Attenuator 100W Mono 1″ Shaft 8 Ohm
Part # 260-265
—————————————–
4 Dayton Audio RS225P-4 8″ Reference Paper Woofer 4 Ohm
Part # 295-377
—————————————
4 Dayton Audio DC130B-4 5-1/4″ Classic Woofer Speaker
Part # 295-307
—————————————-
2 Dayton Audio PT2C-8 Planar Tweeter
Part # 275-085

Designer:
larryducas

Project Category:
Guitar and Bass Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
Under $100

Project Description:
PA amp for my band

Design Goals:
CHEAP!! COOL!! EASY!!

Driver Selection:
4 CELESTION GT12-75 speakers

Enclosure Design:
4 x 12 cabinet, plywood, covered with carpet, ruined by the cat

2×8 ohm or 4x4ohm selectable

Enclosure Assembly:
home made cabinet, I had made years ago ….

Tips & Tricks:
save your used crap, and reuse it

Conclusion:
works great,, enormous bass

About the Designer:
EE for 30 years, guitar player, surfer, grandpa

Designer:
Watts

Project Category:
Subwoofers

Project Level:
Advanced

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
$500 – $1,000

Project Description:
The project is a home theater subwoofer. It uses a 12 inch Daytpn Audio Reference HO DVC subwoofer with 15 inch Dayton Audio aluminum cone passive radiator. It is powered with the SPA500 plate amplifier with active crossover and parametric equalizer.

Design Goals:
The goal with this project was to build an extremely strong subwoofer with very durable components for long term use.

Driver Selection:
Dayton Audio RSS315HO-44 12″ Reference HO DVC Subwoofer

Enclosure Design:
The enclosure uses a 15 inch passive radiator and 12 inch subwoofer. The woofer was mounted outside of the enclosure and is inverted under the bottom to save on box volume and give it some distinction from a classic subwoofer. The recommended vented volume from Parts Express for this subwoofer was 1.36 ft^3, also knowing the driver Qts from specification, I was able to determine the theoretical box alpha. The alpha parameter is the subwoofer’s volume to air compliance ratio to the recommended box volume. Knowing alpha and the subwoofer Qts I was able to figure out the recommended alignment and is a SBB4 according to the loudspeaker cookbook. Once the enclosure was constructed with all components in place I used a used a loudspeaker measuring system to physically measure the enclosure alpha parameter. I simply continued to add wood (to decrease enclosure volume) to the inside of the enclosure and remeasure alpha until I got the recommended alpha of the enclosure.

Enclosure Assembly:
The enclosure was really easy to construct. I simple used a jig say to cut the PR, subwoofer, and plate amp holes. I also caulked the removable front and back panels.

Crossover Design:
The plate amplifier has a built in crossover and so I did not add a passive filter network.

Conclusion:
It’s awesome!!! This thing is a total beast. I have a large living room and you are completely enclosed in the sound from the subwoofer during a movie. It also work very well with music too. You can tell the subwoofer is higher SQ grade. The 500 watt plate amp with parametric equalizer has plenty enough power to push the sub hard. You can’t though, Its almost too much. It is so powerful, it feels like the air is being sucked out of the room when it hits.

About the Designer:
The project creator is has been building loudspeaker enclosures since the early 90’s. He has developed many subwoofer enclosures and has done development for a few major car audio manufactures. In addition he has built studio monitors for a few recording studios. He has a B.S. degree in Physics and is a working Nuclear Engineer and has been in that industry for 18 years.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Tom Zarbo

Project Category:
Tower Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$500 – $1,000

Project Description:
This is a mid-size tower speaker using very high quality speaker drivers in a TMM slanted-baffle design layout.

Design Goals:
Most of the speakers I design and build utilize drivers that are more modest in price than those used in this speaker. However, I’ve always wanted to do an ‘all-out’ speaker system to see what was possible with higher-end drivers. This was my chance to build a ‘special’ set of speakers that will hopefully grace my home for many years to come.

Driver Selection:
After hearing both Esoteric woofers in several designs, I wanted to try them out for myself. Wanting to build a narrower mid-sized tower, I decided to double up on the smaller 5 1/4″ woofers while hopefully maintaining adequate bass capabilities.
I had a set of unused silk domed Reference Series tweeters in my stash already. The silk domed RS tweeters seem to be less used than their aluminum domed brothers, so I thought it would be a good chance to see what they could do in a high-end system.

Enclosure Design:
My goal for these cabinets was to build a unique looking, but still fairly easily constructed cabinet that would stand out in a crowd of normal box-type speakers. I wanted this cabinet to be able to be built by others fairly easily with fairly basic woodworking tools that many folks would likely have in their woodshop. The cabinet is around 41 liters, vented with a 3″ by 11″ Precision Port tuned to 32 Hz.

Enclosure Assembly:
The cabinet with its angles may look difficult to construct, but it’s not hard if you have a compound miter saw or table saw. Included in the pictures is a cabinet drawing with all the dimensions and angles needed to reproduce the cabinet. I made the side slabs slightly oversized and trimmed off the excess with a straight cutting router bit after the sides were glued on. I used strap clamps to hold the top, bottom, back, front, and front angle pieces in place during the glue-up process. I suspect carefully tacking these pieces together with an air-gun and brads would work as well. Those pieces were also glued to one of the side pieces at the same time. After some clean up and applying caulk to the inside seams, I glued in the side-to-side and vent braces. Then I glued on the second side panel using polyurethane glue to help seal things up.
All that was left was to build the base, transition piece, and machine the driver/port recesses and cut-outs with a circle jig and router.

Crossover Design:
The woofer filter is second-order LR with an additional .5 filter on the lower woofer. The tweeter filter is third-order LR. There are a few response-shaping bits added to take care of some dips and peaks in the drivers natural response, as well as level matching on the tweeter. The crossover point is approximately 1,700 Hz and uses 10 parts. This is a 4 ohm speaker.

Tips & Tricks:
In order to minimize the chance of the end grain of the MDF showing through the veneer in the future, I applied 1/8″ HDF (High Density Fiberboard) to the front, top, and lower angled front pieces of the cabinet as well as 1/16″ Maple veneer to the back.

Conclusion:
My goal was to build a higher end, or ‘reference’ type of speaker using the best drivers the Dayton Audio brand had to offer. I’m happy with the results and I feel that the clarity of these speakers, even at higher levels speaks volumes about the level of refinement and quality of construction of these updated Esoteric woofers.

About the Designer:
I’ve been dabbling in speakers since I was a teenager when I built my first set of speakers. They were probably not the best sounding speakers, I had little to compare them to… but I had been bit by the bug — and have been striving for better sound and more creative cabinet designs ever since.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
nkb dancer ver 1.0

Project Category:
Tower Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
Over $1,000

Project Description:
This speaker made with hi end technology.

Design Goals:
Make the real sound for customers enjoy for their life

Driver Selection:
Usher woofer and tweeter

Conclusion:
Finally. I want to build a speaker by my hand and looking like high quality speaker in body and sound

About the Designer:
My name Binh Ho. I am from Vietnam and just moved to US 3.5 years. I love made and design speaker. This is my passion and i will develop my ability is high and high.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Allgood

Project Category:
Freestyle Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
Under $100

Project Description:
I wanted something to carry out by the grill. Do a little grillin and chillin with a mixed drink.

Design Goals:
Something small enough to carry outside the wouldn’t take up to much space, with decent sound.

Driver Selection:
264-1062 Peerless TC9FD18-08 3-1/2″ Full Range Paper Cone Woofer

Enclosure Design:
Built out of 1/2″ poplar glued and nailed. The rear panel has piano hinge and push to release magnetic latch, for easy access to charge and get to power button on PE3W-BT Rechargeable Portable 3W Bluetooth Amplifier.

Enclosure Assembly:
glued and brad nailed.

Crossover Design:
single driver

Conclusion:
I’m very happy with the results. I bought the Bluetooth amp speakers from sound express. the wood and bourbon dispenser were bought at Lowes.

About the Designer:
I’m a manufacturing manager for oilfield products. I have some automotive experience.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
AlexianaBritmonkey

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$500 – $1,000

Project Description:
This is a project based on Jeff Bagby’s Tango MT’s.
The difference between his design and my design is that my
plans are in metric, and use a slot port. This makes it easy for European people to build these speakers as buying a port pipe from overseas proves to be expensive!

Design Goals:
Make the Tango MT look as faithful to Jeff’s design.
Make it Metric.
Make it slot ported.

Driver Selection:
The drivers used are the same as Jeff Bagby’s designs.
This includes these speakers:
Dayton Audio RS-180 (8 Ohm)
Dayton Audio RS28A (4 ohm)

Enclosure Design:
The enclosure design is just slightly different from the original by Jeff Bagby, but close attention was paid to ensure the inside usable airspace is identical to that of Jeff’s design. This meant that I had to calculate the port, the decrease in port length because of its slot port properties in drag, and all the used up space. I then had to convert the airspace required to a cube-ish design, and extrude it to the required shape using Metric measurements. The enclosure was made out of Baltic Birch Multiplex of a very high grade (hence the big price tag), meaning that I didn’t need any mid-box bracing except from a crossbeam.

Big thanks to the DIY-Audio community for the help and support!

Enclosure Assembly:
Enclosure assembly was fairly simple thanks to the rabbet-design.
The enclosure was made out of Baltic Birch Multiplex of a very high grade. The rabbets were routed at school and the faceplate was routed by hand. We didn’t have access to a CNC router for this.

Crossover Design:
The crossover design is identical to Jeff’s design. Photos of the product down below.

The crossover was built and mounted on scrap pieces of MDF, with the parts being through-hole. I like this clean look even if it’s inside the speaker.

Big thanks to the DIY-Audio community for the help and support!

Tips & Tricks:
Glue tip: let the glue dry partially do you can easily scrape it off.

Tip: the last picture shows the new vs the current speakers.
I’m yet to use the speakers on my desk due to the sheer size. :p

Conclusion:
The speakers sound really neutral and clean. I’m yet to notice any port chuffing or port defects (calculation errors, eg. I don’t expect there to be any). These speakers were built by me, for me, for my home studio as monitors. They work really well as monitors knowing that the RS-180 and RS28-A were practically made to be brother-sister. You can’t go wrong with this for either a home studio or nice Home Theater setup.

About the Designer:
The original design for this bookshelf speaker was by Jeff Bagby.
I edited the plans to be metric-friendly and use a slot port.

I, myself, am Anna. I’m a 15 year old electronics enthusiast and audiophile girl from Flanders (Basically all of northern Belgium!)

Designer:
Kevin and Kole Kendrick

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
A Father-Son Project for 2017’s MWAF. Kole has always enjoyed helping me build speakers. This was the first set he could call his own. Due to time constraints, we shared the workload but he got a taste of everything involved and learned a lot. Hopefully he can pass some of that on to a son of his own some day.

Design Goals:
A unique MTM Bookshelf speaker capable of making a 14 year old smile from ear to ear as he showed them off to his friends. Mission Accomplished!

Driver Selection:
We decided to try the new aluminum versions of the Designer Series drivers and have no regrets, lots of bang for the buck! Driver choice ended up being the 5″ versions, two DSA135-8’s in parallel with a ND25FN-4 tweeter. Just a little over $120 dollars for the full set of MTM drivers, sweet deal! This also made it easier to justify spending a little more on the crossovers.

Enclosure Design:
Kole’s only request was it needed to look “Cool”. We decided to build an enclosure that a theme could be tied to, hence the name of the speakers, The Black Widows. The enclosure has an internal volume of 20 liters and is vented with two 1.5″ ports. Tuning is 45hz which yielded an F3 of 48hz.

Enclosure Assembly:
Due to the complex shape of the enclosures, fixtures were made to help in the assembly. After the enclosures were assembled came the long arduous process of creating the piano black finish. Primed first followed by lots of block sanding. Painted next and then clear coated which again was followed by more block sanding. And finally, buffed out with several different compounds and pads. Once we got to that final stage and saw the end results, it all felt like it was worth every minute.

Crossover Design:
Ended up 2nd order on the woofers and 4th order on the tweet. Acoustically summed around 2300. A few more parts then we had hoped for but there was plenty of room left in the budget due to the great pricing on the drivers. This was only the second crossover I’ve done on my own so there is probably room for improvement. As is, it doesn’t appear to have any blaring issues screaming to be fixed.

Tips & Tricks:
The unique cabinet shape didn’t come without issues. We had a large null in the Frequency Response right around 1K, a midrange leak through the ports. After extensive trial and error followed by lots of measurements, we found a combination that alleviated most of the dip. We installed a piece of UltraTouch Denim insulation towards the middle of the enclosure and added elbows to the ports with the elbows aimed towards the floor. This addressed most of the midrange leak and the Frequency Response improved considerably.

Conclusion:
This was a fun project, one the both of us will remember for a very long time. They won third place in the Dayton Audio class at 2017’s MWAF and they also won “Fan Favorite”. Kole was very happy with how they were received by the rest of the guys. They are now hooked up to his PS4 for his gaming and I also catch him frequently just listening to his favorite songs (at an above average listening level), so I know he’s enjoying them. He loves the fact that I have to tell him to turn them down on occasion.

About the Designer:
I was a CAD Designer in what seems like a previous lifetime now. Currently, I’m a Production Manager for a growing company that just happens to have some 5-axis CNC’s. The boss allows me to tinker on the weekends and use the CNC to cut parts for enclosures, by far the best company benefit he could ever offer. My son and I both love to work with our hands and building speakers is a blast! There’s always room to challenge yourself in this Hobby which will keep it interesting for years and years to come.

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Doublsmm

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Beginner

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Small rear bookshelf speakers that are designed to fit beside my couch in a small room. Whilst maintaining a full sound and overall great clarity.

Design Goals:
Small full sounding speakers that are dominant in the top end to counteract my 90 degrees off axis listening position.

Driver Selection:
Woofer Part # 290-226
Tweeter Part # 275-095

Enclosure Assembly:
9mm MDF, Small nails and wood glue.

Crossover Design:
Assembled Passive parts express crossover at 5khz (providing a boost on the treble whilst being easy for anyone to use)

Conclusion:
In conclusion I am very happy with the ending sound I am getting from these speakers! They suit my needs perfectly and perform just as required.

Thank you to 123Toid (youtube) for helping me with the response graphs for the selected crossover.

About the Designer:
My name is Doublsmm and I am an Australian based youtuber who builds speakers and creates videos surrounding them!

Project Parts List:

Designer:
Doublsmm

Project Category:
Home Theater

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
1-8 Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Center channel with 4 woofers to provide warm vocals whilst not over powering the AMT tweeter.

Design Goals:
Center speaker that provides excellent sound on vocals whilst also being crisp on the highs and just having an overall great sound!

Driver Selection:
Woofers Part # 290-214
Tweeter Part # 275-095

Enclosure Assembly:
18mm MDF, nails and wood glue

Crossover Design:
Dayton Audio XO2W-4.5K

Conclusion:
In the end I am very happy with the sound of this center speaker. It provides smooth vocals and very crisp highs.

Thanks to 123Toid (youtube) for helping me out with the graphs for the crossovers!

About the Designer:
My Name is Doublsmm and I am an Australian based youtube who build speakers and makes videos surrounding them!

Project Parts List: