D.I.Y. speakers

[cooker]

I was google'ing around and realized there are a lot of DIY speaker sites. Some of them seem hi-end and I wonder if anyone has experience with this or is there anything suitable for mastering?

[OMNIFEX]

You can most definitely make your own monitoring system for mastering. Those who are very familiar with loudspeaker design, will rarely buy an off the shelf loudspeaker system unless they are used and, are very inexpensive.

One of the first things you need to familiarise yourself with is frequency response, TS Parameters, and knowing exactly what you want. Marketing plays no factor in DIY designs. Those who build can decipher rather quickly when someone’s motive is sales driven and, not qualifying what the customer really needs.

The link below is a good starting point.

http://www.parts-express.com/wizards...CAT&srchCat=72

Continue to explore loudspeaker design forums. As you become better acquainted on how loudspeakers work, you’ll realise many of the off the shelf designs that are praised by many do not offer the best frequency response. The user is very familiar with his or her loudspeaker system and, knows how to compensate the tone while mastering to achieve a perfect mix.

Cheers!

[cooker]

Thanks! most comments I readed were from audiophile sites and I didn't want to take them serious and wanted to hear from someone more familiar with the way I listen speakers

[lowland]

Wilmslow Audio in the UK offer many kits, but perhaps of most interest are the K50 and K100 which are ATC designs and use their parts.

https://www.wilmslow-audio.co.uk/cat...502df7949a7556

[cooker]

Thanks for the link, looks great but that might be overkill for me

The more I dig interesting things I found, like my adam woofers are oem there are some clones that got my attention like smaller proac-pmc clones. I wonder if anybody had the chance to compare.

[Kris Bang Boom]

Cooker I would offer that a kit like the Wilmslow Audio
is what is needed for mastering,
But when you start to really look into the parts in "good" speakers you find it is all the same parts that you would buy from Madisound or Parts Express to build your speakers,
Vifa Scanspeak HIVI DynAudio(when they sold to DIYers) ATC Volt etc
and all the same crossover parts and here you can even make improvements.
Having said that a well built cabinet and design is what you pay for and get when you spend real cash on speakers,
I would say unless you are a master carpenter find one give them the plans and pay them to build it buy all the materials your self and do the finishing.
Also if you are not soldering all day at work pay for the crossovers to be bulit it save major hassles,
You should see what reall electrical techs use to solder!!!!!!!!!!
After all this you could have a pair of $8000 speakers for $2000.

hint some ME's use Totem made in Canada,
they use HIVI drivers look like the Dyns but you can get a 9 inch driver for $98!!!!!!!!!
There big units run around $12000
JG

[cooker]

Originally Posted by Jaffa Gate

Cooker I would offer that a kit like the Wilmslow Audio
is what is needed for mastering,
But when you start to really look into the parts in "good" speakers you find it is all the same parts that you would buy from Madisound or Parts Express to build your speakers,
Vifa Scanspeak HIVI DynAudio(when they sold to DIYers) ATC Volt etc
and all the same crossover parts and here you can even make improvements.
Having said that a well built cabinet and design is what you pay for and get when you spend real cash on speakers,
I would say unless you are a master carpenter find one give them the plans and pay them to build it buy all the materials your self and do the finishing.
Also if you are not soldering all day at work pay for the crossovers to be bulit it save major hassles,
You should see what reall electrical techs use to solder!!!!!!!!!!
After all this you could have a pair of $8000 speakers for $2000.

hint some ME's use Totem made in Canada,
they use HIVI drivers look like the Dyns but you can get a 9 inch driver for $98!!!!!!!!!
There big units run around $12000
JG

Yeah I'm sort of surprised to see the more I look around I see familiar woofers and tweeters of very hi quality designs. Carpentary is cheap here and I've found someone who's experienced in making cabinets for the hi-fi market.

I'd have so much fun designing the speaker from scratch but thats a little scary for me right now DIY speaker of such quality is something very unfamiliar in the (pro) market where I live. I would be more confident if I could watch someone do it before I try.

Probably best for me would be to go for something like the wilmslow audio offers, build it and get the experience. It will probably be easy to sell with even profit to someone who's into hi-fi and then I'll take the risk trying personal designs. Thanks for sharing the info!

[Virtalahde]

I'm slowly working on a pair of DIY speakers. The cabinets are ~75% done by a professional carpenter - an extremely sturdy MDF/plywood sandwich construction. I'm going to do the inner bracing myself. The cabinet is a closed cabinet - one of the points of the whole project.

The drivers are already here, a 10" ATC woofer, the ATC dome mid and a Morel MDT-33 tweeter. The crossover is going to be analog & active, and the amps are Hypex amps.

When I'm done with the cabinet, the amps and the crossovers, I'll tune them by ear and then hire someone I know to really tune them up and to tell me how wrong I was. He's a professional and experienced in speaker building & measurements of all sorts.

If it wasn't a 3-way I was looking for, I'd actually build a pair of these:

Studio 101 Monitorcopyright 2009 ©

[cooker]

Virtalahde: Can you explain briefly how a speaker is tuned?

[bmanic]

Originally Posted by Virtalahde

When I'm done with the cabinet, the amps and the crossovers, I'll tune them by ear and then hire someone I know to really tune them up and to tell me how wrong I was. He's a professional and experienced in speaker building & measurements of all sorts.

.. the guy you talk about, he doesn't happen to be called Knif by any chance? :-)

Cheers!
bManic

[Virtalahde]

Originally Posted by bmanic

.. the guy you talk about, he doesn't happen to be called Knif by any chance? :-)

Possibly. But we'll see if he has the time.

[Riccardo]

Could you shed some light on the analog active crossover?

[Virtalahde]

Originally Posted by Riccardo

Could you shed some light on the analog active crossover?

Sure. It's not going to be anything special, just basic 12dB/oct filters (chainable to 24dB/oct), all pass filters (for tweaking the phase to "line up" the drivers correctly).. Much like ATC does. Cross-overs at 380hz (the woofer+mid were designed for that) and upper maybe at 2500-3500Hz. The off-axis dispersion of the dome mid starts to suffer above 3000hz IIRC, but ATC uses 3500Hz, so it probably works just fine.

The baffle step is going to be compensated simply by tweaking the woofer level, the cabinet was designed for that. The cabinet Q of 0,5 will also be bumped up to 0,7 by a touch of bass EQ. The -3dB is going to be at around -45dB (have to check out my notes), but the rolloff of a closed cabinet is 12dB/oct as opposed to 24dB/oct of a ported design. Such a slope is usually also easier to combine with a sub, if needed.

We'll see how it turns out. I've been r e a l l y slow with it because I want to do it right. At the moment the Questeds work for me, but in a new room in the future, these ATC-inspired speakers (in their 100 litre cabinets) will work for me.

Oh, why ATC?

I'm sure many other drivers would have worked in a different design. However, on the 2-year pre-planning period, a few drivers I was considering from Seas, Scan-Speak, Vifa etc. already disappeared from the market. ATC has been doing theirs for ages, and I'm not seeing any change in that. You've got to keep the maintenance in mind.

[Bruno Putzeys]

Originally Posted by Virtalahde

I'm sure many other drivers would have worked in a different design. However, on the 2-year pre-planning period, a few drivers I was considering from Seas, Scan-Speak, Vifa etc. already disappeared from the market.

Seas' product portfolio is quite stable. Scan-Speak / Vifa / Peerless are a moving target. Scan-speak, now having left the Tymphany house, might improve a bit.

[Virtalahde]

Originally Posted by Bruno Putzeys

Seas' product portfolio is quite stable.

You're probably right, it was a few years back so I can't really remember. I think I was considering a 5" paper cone midrange from Seas, but the actions of the other companies got me suspicious in how the Seas product range might change too.

But in the end everything in my plans fell together nicely with the ATC drivers.