My first ever (speaker) build

[Fatmarley]

He makes a whole range of interesting and well thought out speakers which have been well received. I see no reason at all to be wary of him. I haven't heard his modified cones so I have no idea if it improves the sound. Jury is out on that, but he must do it for a reason.

He mostly designs cabinets for fullrange drivers. I've never seen any measurements, for his cabinets or those little dots. For the little dots I'd want to see on and off-axis frequency response, and distortion before and after.
Edit: I've just deleted most of this post because it's against the forum rules to bring in arguments from other forums, and bad taste talk about someone who can't defend themselves.

 

[chris turner]

Spent a couple of hours this afternoon learning how to use a doweling jig and have to say I'm quite pleased with the results

I'm sure its not perfect but it seems to line up pretty accurately, I'm going to rout the base for the binding post plate and will dowel the back to suit the sides/top/bottom box before gluing everything together and then start work on the front baffle

Samples of veneer arrived today but am still thinking about the finish as the building goes on

 

[irb]

I'd be a little wary of Planet 10. He's a nice guy, but he paints little dots on woofer cones to supposedly improve the sound.
The Seas woofer can sound bass light in some rooms. It models with a lack of low frequency extension in a sealed box, so if you find it lacking, a port should improve things. I can upload a model with comparisons when I'm on my PC.

I know what you mean about the dots. But did you realise that Planet 10 namechecks you approvingly in that document in the link?

 

[Fatmarley]

I know what you mean about the dots. But did you realise that Planet 10 namechecks you approvingly in that document in the link?

That's embarrassing. I did say he's a nice guy, and I'm pretty sure it was him who I sent some money to, when he was ill (Sorry Dave?, I feel bad now).

One thing I've come to realise is that the low end is so incredibly room dependant, that what looks good in my model, may sound bad in your room. My room is so well treated that what sounds good in my room could easily be a bass boom nightmare in someone else's room.

My suggestion would be to build a larger box, because it's a lot easier to reduce it, than make it bigger. Say you build a large sealed (70ltr), but find it produces lean, but deep bass. You could keep it sealed, and reduce it to the recommended 28ltr. That would give you more punch and thump, but less deep bass. You can get the best of both worlds with ported (on paper), but ports can sound subjectively bad.

 

[fraser.]

Looks good so far. Certainly seems to be a box anyway

Which veneer samples are you trying? I've tried a few of the stick on veneers from wood veneer hub; I wouldn't hesitate to recommend those if you want an easy way of doing it. I've also used the iron on method with PVA, as well as using wet PVA+ clamps with thicker construction veneers. These I suspect give a stronger bond, but with a bit more effort. The biggest tip I'd have is use a razor sharp blade for hand trimming. If you're going to flush trim with a router, using some tape is surprisingly effective in preventing tear out.

 

[chris turner]

Looks good so far. Certainly seems to be a box anyway

Which veneer samples are you trying? I've tried a few of the stick on veneers from wood veneer hub; I wouldn't hesitate to recommend those if you want an easy way of doing it. I've also used the iron on method with PVA, as well as using wet PVA+ clamps with thicker construction veneers. These I suspect give a stronger bond, but with a bit more effort. The biggest tip I'd have is use a razor sharp blade for hand trimming. If you're going to flush trim with a router, using some tape is surprisingly effective in preventing tear out.

Hah, yes, when I posted those pics I did have a moment of wondering if anyone would actually be interested in seeing what is essentially just a box

WVH is one of the sites I've been looking at but I've also got an eye on originalmarquetry.co.uk and DFrichards who are the ones that sent me the samples to look over with my wife to get a second opinion on the end finish

Thanks for the tip on finishing too, its all incredibly useful as I haven't done any of this before

 

[James]

... I haven't done any of this before

We all start from zero experience. Kudos for giving it a go.

 

[Fatmarley]

I remember firing up my first ever diy speakers for the first time. I was like a kid at Christmas, so excited! Couldn't believe I'd made sound! - My girlfriend brought me back down to reality when she said they sounded like sh*t, and regardless of what I did to the crossover (and I was relentless), they stayed sounding sh*t for years.

 

[cobbers]

My first attempt at DIY was simply putting EMI twin cone ellipticals in a box - this must have been in the early 70's. that was followed by building Cambridge R40 kit about 10 years later when I had plenty of space after having had AR6's.
The final attempt was 'designing' and building Audax driver based speakers (when you could get them from Maplins) in the late 90's when you could get some DOS based software on a floppy which I can't remember the name of - they sounded ok - I thought.

I had previous to the design read books by Colloms and Dickason.

 

[James]

It'll be interesting to learn about the motivation to build DIY loudspeakers. Mine started when I wanted to upgrade the HF qualities of a pair of shop-bought Sonus faber Concertos. I replaced the original Seas tweeters with a pair of Hiquphon OW-1s, but made no changes to the crossover. It was a marginal improvement, and I bravely thought I could do better.

My main motivations boil down to three reasons:

• I liked the sound of sealed woofers, and there are bugger-all ready-made loudspeakers. All of my designs, bar the first, are sealed.
• I liked the curvaceous look of Sonus faber, and their aesthetic use of solid timber and leather, but they are all ported or sport bass radiators, and stupidly expensive.
• I wanted to see if I can build a better loudspeaker than money can buy. I'm particularly proud of the Ergo E-IX, E-IV, E-IIIR, which have been built by other Fishies. My only regret is I did not document the E-VII, of which I'm also proud and wished I did not sell. But there is only so much room in the house.

What are yours?

 

[chris turner]

I've really wanted to build something for a few years and, aside from scratching that itch, I'm keen to see just what can be done component wise and how good a sound can be achieved with a little work for not a lot of money (though this last point is all relative

The speakers I'm basing the build on cost £14k, use similar but modified versions of the drivers I'm using and look to have similarly constructed enclosures. Crossovers seem to be quite simple and I plan on using components of a reasonable quality because not many are required

I'm not kidding myself that I can do a better job than the professionals but if I can get close with the available resources and budget to build something I can be proud of looking at and listening to I'll be more than happy as I wouldn't be able to afford the "real" thing

 

[chris turner]

More boxy goodness, now that the carcasses are together

I have the dimensions for the drivers, prorts and binding post plates but as they aren't due to be delivered until later this week I'd rather wait until lI have them to start routing and sorting those apertures out

I've seen a lot of videos putting together MDF enclosures using 45 or 90 degree joints and simply adding a layer of PV, I wasn't sure about this with boxes that are quite a bit larger so I've dowelled them together before gluing, would be interested in any thoughts on this or alternative ways of construction

 

[James]

Are you going to install cross-braces to reduce box resonance?

 

[chris turner]

Are you going to install cross-braces to reduce box resonance?

I wasn't planning to, as I didn't think the originals have any internal bracing or much in the way of absorbing material

I think the design is intended to have a certain amount box colouration but do you think this could be a problem with boxes of this size? Its 18mm ply and they're 725x460x310mm (hxwxd)

 

[James]

That is quite a sizeable box. But if you're following a particular design to the letter, the box coloration may be part of the deal ... like some BBC designs.

 

[PaulMB]

If you make the back panel removable, say with a dozen screws and some kind of gasket material along the edges, you could add/remove internal bracing.

 

[Fatmarley]

If you make the back panel removable, say with a dozen screws and some kind of gasket material along the edges, you could add/remove internal bracing.

100% this ^

It will also help for adjusting internal volume if you don't like low frequency response (it would make it easy to put a shelf in to reduce volume).

 

[PaulMB]

It may be that once you've built it and fired it up you'll start thinking about how to improve it, for your ears, your tastes, your room. So it may be the start of an interesting journey......Good luck and have fun!