Building Speakers

[Black Francis]

Over the past year or so, I have been in search of an affordable two channel music system. I want high quality speakers, and as I already knew before I started searching, you have to spend buttloads of money to get them. Over the past few months, I have been researching DIY projects, and trying to teach myself a bit about loudspeakers. Right now, this is my project of choice, but as you can see by the plans, they are not going to be easy to build.

http://www.aloha-audio.com/Ariel-5r.gif

Anyway, do any of you have any experience in this area? Offer me some advise maybe? I never knew how much was involved in speaker design and building until I started researching.....

One thing that I have learned is that most of the mid and low priced stuff on the market is extremely cheap and easy to build. No matter what price range you are in, there are much better and cheaper alternatives in the DIY area.

I shined a flashlight into the port of one of my Infinity speakers that I paid about $200 for, and found nothing but a rectangular box, cheap drivers and an easy to build crossover......I could probably build something much better for $50.

Anyway....enough rambling.....

[nomoney]

If this is your first time building speakers, I wouldnt go with something that complicated. You can build great sounding speakers w/o all those baffles. Try building basic "box" speakers. They can sound unreal if you do it right. Just get good drivers and make sure you get good compnents for the x-over. The x-over is usually what newbies try to save money on but it is sooo important.

Parts Express has really good deals and even some tech info if you search the site.

[DeepFreeze]

this creates a standing accoustic wave. BAD
also, use 3/4 MDF wood. excellent for home projects, can be found AT home depot, and lowes for cheap.
use self tapping screws. and wood glue, such as liquid nail.

[johnnymk]

There must be lotsa speakers out there that nobody wants that have blown or rotted components. You could then update them with high quality components. How about a pawn shop or friends that may have them laying around?

[flyingpig]

If you really want to make it a project, then do it. However, I was thinking about doing the same thing a few years back. What I ended up doing instead was frequenting the local pawnshops and getting really lucky at a garage sale.

You can make some great deals at pawnshops if you shop around and don't get impatient. Don't be afraid to try to deal them down from their asking price either. They're usually willing to take 25 or 50 bucks less for a set of speakers rather than have them possibly sitting around for another 2 weeks. I recently picked up a pair of DCM Timeframe 600 speakers for $200 at a local shop. They sound great!

Also, Sometimes you can make some great deals at garage sales - especially if you prefer vintage audio equipment. My main set of speakers is a pair of Klipsch Heresy speakers I bought from a garage sale for $150 along with an old silver-faced Yamaha receiver. They needed a little TLC on the woodwork, but nothing compared to the work involved in building a pair of speakers from scratch. You wouldn't know it now by looking at them. After buying them I ran an ad in the local paper and sold the receiver for $175, so the speakers were FREE! I have yet to find a set of speakers, new or old, that can stand up to them.