Show us your DIY speaker projects!

[rumblestrip]

Got these Magnats for free

One guy says he doesn't want the cabinets with only the tweeters and mids which needed refoaming, but no woofers, so I took them. A few months later someone else coughs up a set of woofers and the mids and one tweeter, so I took them. Put them in the first set, refoamed the mids and vwah-lah! They sound really good, too - well balanced and detailed. I think I done a good thing.

 

[dc270]

JBL "Opperation Jubilation"/ L-64 1/2

Well its been a little while since my last project- you should know me by now I always have a project on the back burner- either in my head or on the design table.

This project started out somewhat differant. Me and a friend travel out to the sticks to grab what I thought might have been a pair of JBL L65's! and the owner not aware of it. For $20 and an excuse to hang out with a male friend I said go for it. Long story short they were not the infamous L65's but actually a pair of no name knock offs from the day, HSL Model 20's to be exact. They were 7/8 the size of an L65, (24.75x 16.5" x 12.5") had 1/4" smoked glass tops and real walnut veneer cabinets. That is as close to an L65 as they were gonna get! The grills were glued, stappled, nailed, bonded, horribly secured to the baffles. I see why- the cheapy driver compliment of a 12" woofer wanna be, 5" sealed back mid and a junky cone 2" tweeter were well worth hiding- along with the 2 element xover network! There was suitable pink insulation in them- a quality high point here at last. My work was cut out for me. cut out the baffles and start all over! Oh ya the plastic cheesey spring clip for connecting 82 guage stranded wire.

Good news is that I instantly thought and wanted to make them into L65's Wanna-Becomes. I poked around through my plethera of driver stock and found some exciting pieces that I think would even enhance the looks of these as well. Newly refoamed Onkyo 10 cast frame Kevlar woofers, beefy 5" metal cone mids and nice metal dome Audax TW025A14 tweeters. All these piece look like they were meant for each other. The mids and tweeters are 4 ohm units the woofers are low 4 ohm dcr units, xover to be custom built later. Guessing a 500/4500 xover here.

The cabs actually were in good condition. With a proper thick baffle and rear pannel, internal bracing and refinishing, these could look quite good and give the classic L65's a run for the money in looks and perhaps in sound. If I can't run with the big dogs at least I can look good trying to!

Enclosed are shots of my "raw canvas" I.E. drivers and a start on the cab work with the original baffles cut out and the baffle bracing started. More to come as "Opperation Jubilation" or L64 1/2 begins!

Please offer comments as you like- good bad or indifferant!
Thanks DC

 

[Face]

Here's what I've been working on. They're a totally custom design using a Vifa 19mm ring radiator, Seas Nextel mid, and a Seas aluminum woofer. Madisound has been helping me out with the crossover, but I should have the rest of my testing gear next week. So far, I'm impressed with how good they sound.

 

[clydeselsor]

Great work guys!

 

[bastek]

These look like open baffle, are they not? Whats the size of the Seas woofer?

 

[Face]

No, there is a small enclosure for the mid, it's a 5".

 

[dc270]

Hey Face

Lookin' good! Those Seas drivers are nice indeed!
DC

 

[Face]

Thank you!

I can't wait to work on the aesthetics!

 

[dc270]

Operation Jubilation/ L64.5

I have got a little bit more done on these since my last post. Baffles rebuilt, walnut sides refinished, mid boxes installed, backs painted, etc.

They are coming along nicely and I am have fun. Hope that my next posting will have them finished and playing. I am working on the xover now, 500hz and 5000hz look best for these to work together. Will have two LPads in back of each cab to final balance the mids/ tweeters

Several people have seen the unfinished project and like the driver compliment with the cabinet styling. The driver metal does have a nice visual apeal with the smoked glass and walnut. Even my wife noticed them!
DC

 

[shrinkboy]

those look very cool, doug

 

[dc270]

They are getting there- just takes some time to do stuff like this, but well worth it!
Thanks again!
DC

 

[dc270]

JBL L64.5's

Well short of fashioning a couple of grill covers they are done! The came out looking pretty good, the glass tops really makes them!

The sound is better than expected. The kevlar woofers really hits hard and clean. The mids are very distinct, the highs open and detailed. I definately like the sound of these. One poor aspect is that they sit rather low to the floor so you have to tilt/ aim them.

Overall this was a fun interesting project to accomplish. Having a set of L65 knock offs is a neat thing to show off and fun to sit and listen to.
DC

 

[elwood127]

All vintage JBL drivers and xovers. Great sounding. Want to rebuild xovers next.

 

[von.ah]

Nice!

"The rug really tied the room together."

 

[PDRCanada]

Heres a open baffle speaker I built from a kit by GR Research
It has servo subs from rythmik, they sound fantastic.
The last project I did was a line array from Selah, it can be seen on
page 10.

Enjoy,

Perry

 

[Ron Pilgrim]

Stereo image enhancer

I have plans for a speaker setup that is supposed to improve the sound stage of any system. It consists of a set of signal speakers(they don't have to be high quality) that are hooked up in tandem with the existing mains with reverse polarity. The signal speakers are placed opposite of left to right with a capacitor to delay the signal and a variable attenuator to vary the strength. The theory is that as the audio signal is sent say from the left speaker, within a few milliseconds after it reaches your left ear, it also is audible to your right ear. With the imaging system, just as the main signal reaches your right ear the imaging signal also gets to your right ear in reverse polarity thus cancelling out the transferred left signal and producing an enhanced stereo effect. I have hand drawn schematics of this setup that I will post once I get them loaded into my computer. I used this setup several years ago with quite favorable results an am going to use it again with an old set of gettoblaster speakers that I have. Because there is more resources available now, I am sure the results will be great.

 

[djnagle]

These are the results of a years worth of trying different components to go up with what I thought would be the most synergistic speakers for my space.

I have my new-to-me JBL 4530 scoop bass cabs set up in my space and am just blown away by the tight bass. I couple folks said I'd need a sub, but I am starting to wonder. The bass goes very low....at least for me. The cabs are built of 13 ply Baltic bearch and are VERY WELL CONSTRUCTED. They are not JBL made, but that are exactly to spec. There are a couple of nail pops that are not noticable unless you really look. The Edgarhorns with the JBL 2441 (w/radian diaphragms) and Heils are seemless on the cab, top to bottom. The imaging, dynamics, and clarity are outstanding. I am very impressed overall. Each cab weights twice as much as my Jensen Imperals and are so much more beautiful.

My room is 20' wide X 30' deep and the speaker face are 14' from my nose. The ceiling is accoustic tile, carpet floor, cloth furnature, and cloth drapes. At the end of the room, it turns left into the living room and when the weather is hot I can open up four sliding glass doors, so winter or summer, the bass has somewhere to go. If any of you are in the S.E. Michigan area, you are welcome to stop by for a listen. Cheers and thanks for your help.

P.S., I stuck the JBL 136a in for the time being. If they sound this good, I can't wait to get the 2225s in. In the third pic you can see my old tenis shoes holding up the 2441s. That was fine with the old IMPS, but now I have to make a stand that matches the cabs.

I think when I get the 2225s in I will need subs as they don't go as low as the 136a. I think the FS is only 40hz or so. So I am using the two little corner cabs in the last picture for subs. I will use the Dayton 12" reference sub and some sort of amp.

 

[DS21]

Heres a open baffle speaker I built from a kit by GR Research

[/quote]

Very interesting. Probably the most interesting-to-me design Danny R. has yet done. Which P-Audio coax is that?

Here are two shots of my current mains setup, which is quasi-DIY.

The LCR mains feature drivers out of Tannoy's System 12 DMT II studio monitor in bespoke cabinets I commissioned from Nathan Funk (www.funkywaves.net). My goals with these cabinets were as follows:
1) Reduce diffraction to an absolute minimum by using large round-overs everywhere and scrupulously avoiding any form of superfluous ornamentation such as cuts or logos.
2) Significantly reduce cabinet depth, mostly accomplished by switching from a vented alignment to a mid-Q (about 0.6) closed box. (Don't need the extra extension, with an 18" main sub and two supplemental 12" subs)
3) Maintain the 12 DMT II's baffle dimensions, so that rather than mucking with the passive crossover I could use the 12 DMT II's stock crossover, relying on Audyssey MultEQ XT to iron things out if necessary.
4) Maintain to some degree the aesthetic of the DMT-series. I kept the "spaceframe" design of the DMT, with side/top/bottom walls glued to a wooden exoskeleton incorporating a CLD baffle, but had it rendered in a semicircular column to look more modern than the big old Tannoy boxes.

The only thing I would do differently were I doing it again is the finish. Instead of getting the "spaceframe"/baffle painted in textured grey I would have specified cherry to match my M-Design Eleganza Bella secondary subwoofers, one of which is pictured above.

The DIY subwoofer is rather more prosaic, an Exodus Audio Maelstrom-X 18" driver in a ~22" cube commissioned by me from Elemental Designs (www.edesignaudio.com) and finished in whatever they call their truckbed liner. A good, solidly-built no-frills cabinet at a very reasonable price with quick turnaround. Again, only thing I would change is that had I known the beautiful and impressive M-Design subs would fall into my lap I would've spent the money to match their aesthetic and quality of finish.

 

[PDRCanada]

DS21,

This is the Driver:

http://www.gr-research.com/pdf/BM-12CXA.pdf

 

[MIKEINEUGENE]

This is my latest build and one that sounds incredible.This is a pair of the Audio Nirvana Super 15" cast frame full range speakers in the 5.6 cabinets that i built.I used 3/4" birch ply and cherry laminate that gives them a great look.The dimensions of these are 18 3/4" wide x14 3/4" deep by 47" high and although i did not weigh them they are quite heavy.I recently sold a very nice pair of 84 Cornwalls that i liked very much to fund this project and these sound every bit as good as the Cornwalls and even better in some ways.These have great bass,imaging and a huge sound stage and they are very efficient as well.It was not easy to decide to sell the Cornwalls to fund this build but with what i have heard so far it was a very good decision.The bass on these may not measure as going lower than the Cornwalls but it sure sounds that way,very punchy without being excessive.The plans called for one big grill but i decided to include a center face panel and make 2 grills which has a better look to me.