Getting hold of speaker drivers

alexthecheese

alexthecheese

alexthecheese

Soldato
Joined
10 Mar 2006
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Hi all

One day I'd really like to make my own speakers, DIY style, but I've been looking for a while into this and can never really find a good place to start speccing up some speakers that I can then tune and port and whatnot to get building.

Anybody done any DIY speaker projects before, and perhaps could point me in the right direction? With a few calculations and a lot of MDF I reckon you could build up something pretty good for not a lot of cash.

Cheers.
 
Not sure what sort of budget you have in mind, but Wilmslow Audio sell drivers and speaker kits. Doubt you'd find much that's cheap, mind, but might give you some ideas.
 
The net is full of such info and designs to copy or read up on.... Wilmslow are a good place to start for parts and kits.
What ever you do copy/build a tried and tested kit.... unless you want to spend a lot on software, measurement equipment and study for a PhD in the subject... or you could end up with something sound a bit ropey.

It's doesn't always workout cheaper though, but potential better sounding if done right.
 
Just echoing what others here have said about Wilmslow. DIY'ing a single pair of speakers isn't going to undercut a factory churning out thousands of pairs a year, but it's a hell of a lot more fun :D

If you fancy playing around on the cheap why not buy some second-hand speakers to use as a donor set. You can play around with cabinet and crossover design with a minimal outlay. There's loads of Missions in unfashionable colours or tatty finishes going cheap on the bay... :)
 
You can also try CPC, they sell a variety of drive units. (visaton, fane, celestion, eminance to name a few. The economy range at wilmslow look very similar to visaton.)

When i designed and built my own subwoofer during my GCSE's i used a piece of software called abacus 2 to work out the port diameter and length required for a given cabinet volume. The calculations require some data from the thiele small parameters of the speaker. (VAS, QTS & FS) Look into the various designs too. You've got infinite baffle designs that are sealed, ported, transmission line & bandpass. (of various orders) You will also need acoustic wadding material and some crossovers too. Make sure to use quite thick mdf for the cabinet 18mm+. My sub used 25mm thick mdf, and sat on some custom made aluminium feet. The ideal way of mounting the driver securely is some T-nuts hammered into the inside of the cabinet and bolts through.

Home made speakers can be very good, if they are well thought out. I've got some goodmans ministers that i'm considering upgrading, though they sound pretty good already. Old speakers tend to have a good sound to them if the drivers are in good condition, they are big and ugly though. This is probably why they sound good. My dad's celestion ditton 25's are some of the best speakers i've heard. But big sound comes at the expense of size as they are huge. Old Tannoy speakers have quite a reputation for a lovely sound.
 
Kei said:
... celestion ditton 25's are some of the best speakers i've heard. But big sound comes at the expense of size as they are huge. Old Tannoy speakers have quite a reputation for a lovely sound.
Click to expand...

Tannoy Monitor Gold - the ones at the back that look like big grey radiators

tannoy_mon_gold.jpg


Heard these when I was 13: Big enough to hide in, and make a noise like the sound of God. :D
 
Woah. Spec me up a design for one of those and I'll make it! :eek: :D

Good pointers, cheers. Was thinking of getting a design, but I couldn't find anywhere to get the drivers to start looking for an appropriate design for them.

Also I've read before about the thiele/small parameters, so I know there's a LOT of things that need considering before going solo.

I wanna go down the complete DIY build route - include making the cabinet. I wanna do it all myself, even if it looks a bit 'tardy at the end. :p

Good suggestion about CPC though, I'll check them out. Nice work guys.
 
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