I am an experience craftsman but have very little to no knowledge of speaker design. I would like to build a three way mid sized floor speaker for a room that is 216 sqft. (15'x16' with one angled wall). I have not purchased an amp or any other equipment. I imagine budgeting around $1,000 to $1,500 for parts. Is it reasonable to begin a system design with DIY speakers and room size, adding components or do I start with an amp purchase? My thought is that taking the cost of the cabinet out of the production of a commercially available speaker would allow me to invest that money into better equipment to mount in my own carcass. I am not trying to save money only improve the the component quality with the desired budget. Reasonable? Thank you in advance.
Speaker build resources
- Thread starter mewoods
- Start date
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- Tags
- diy diy speakers
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turnitdown
Well-worn member
Select your components and build your speakers the way you want to. They will dictate the amp as opposed to building your speakers to an amp.
DrTebi
Active Member
Definitely reasonable. And you may be surprised of how great DIY speakers can sound.
I build a pair of speakers for vintage Tannoy 2528 coaxial drivers last year, total cost (without labor) was about a third of the speakers they replaced, but they sound at least 10 times better to my ears.
When researching speaker building, I found these sites particularly useful:
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/
A danish speaker guru, probably one of the best known. A lot of projects on his website, from small to large to exotic, with measurements, explanations etc.
http://zaphaudio.com/
Another well-known speaker guru. Again many projects and great information.
http://www.silcom.com/~aludwig/Loudspeaker_construction.html
A great intro to speaker building, read this and you will have the basics covered
https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy-faqs-provendesigns
An interesting article for first-time speaker builders... in a nutshell it advocates to build a "proven design" instead of trying your own. Probably very true, I didn't follow that advise anyway
http://diyaudio.com/
A good place to post your ideas and designs, and get input from many advanced speaker builders.
Good luck and let us see your progress!
I build a pair of speakers for vintage Tannoy 2528 coaxial drivers last year, total cost (without labor) was about a third of the speakers they replaced, but they sound at least 10 times better to my ears.
When researching speaker building, I found these sites particularly useful:
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/
A danish speaker guru, probably one of the best known. A lot of projects on his website, from small to large to exotic, with measurements, explanations etc.
http://zaphaudio.com/
Another well-known speaker guru. Again many projects and great information.
http://www.silcom.com/~aludwig/Loudspeaker_construction.html
A great intro to speaker building, read this and you will have the basics covered
https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy-faqs-provendesigns
An interesting article for first-time speaker builders... in a nutshell it advocates to build a "proven design" instead of trying your own. Probably very true, I didn't follow that advise anyway
http://diyaudio.com/
A good place to post your ideas and designs, and get input from many advanced speaker builders.
Good luck and let us see your progress!
Don't forget Parts Express - they have a gallery of speaker projects submitted by their own staff as well as customers, using parts PE sells. Some impressive stuff with complete write-ups on the design and sound.
You might consider buying a good amp and a temporary pair of used speakers so you have tunes while you design and build speakers.
The amp, however, will have to be sized appropriately for your intended speakers. Especially in terms of power vs. speaker sensitivity.
You might consider buying a good amp and a temporary pair of used speakers so you have tunes while you design and build speakers.
The amp, however, will have to be sized appropriately for your intended speakers. Especially in terms of power vs. speaker sensitivity.
Phil-from-Tn
Super Member
I've finally got all the parts to build a set of these http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/David.html . They are basically a folded bass horn and some very efficient MTM (Midrange Tweeter Midrange) design on top. They aren't the smallest but in the right listening area they will sound as good as anything high end. if your looking for a bookshelf design I can highly recommend this build from Parts Express components. My son built a set for his senior high school project and they do sound very good.
http://projectgallery.parts-express.com/speaker-projects/the-d-iii/
http://projectgallery.parts-express.com/speaker-projects/the-d-iii/
Phil-from-Tn
Super Member
i chose the Davids because of the design. There isn't too much better than a horn for efficiency and I like Bills design. The speaker selection is based on the needs of the design and should produce some very great sounding cabinets. The DIII's were a simple bass reflex design that my son could get his head around and also be able to build. He did a pretty good job and the sound is very respectable. I compared them to my Speakerlab 7 clones and they sound pretty good. The dome tweeters are a very good match for the two 6-1/2 in bass drivers. They can take a pretty good bit of power and still remain clean. Their great for a medium sized room.
