DIY Floorstanders

[MarkLP]

Making some floorstanders has quite caught my eye, I've had a bit of a search and found some truly amazing designs and research to go with them but It's all abit too far for what I want.

Ideally I'd like to make something similar to your normal size/shape, I don't mind something slightly different but not keen on making some of these architectural masterpieces.

Has anyone here made any before? Or could give me some information on good speaker combinations. I don't intend to get mega technical working out graphs etc for crossovers.

Ideally I'd like to make some that I can then add to later on for my home cinema, build centre/rears/sub.

 

[MarkLP]

Did have a look at the site and caught my eye until I saw the prices of them!

 

[MarkLP]

maybe stands aswell at some point. But for now just the floor standers!

I've looked around to try and find a kit that isn't crazy money or a project based on a normal style floor stander. There are so many different designs out there that go into so much detail I'm a little overwelmed by it.

 

[MarkLP]

Thanks for the in depth replies. I was looking around £300, give or take a bit.

From my previous reading up I assumed I'd be able to make/build a better quality speaker then I could picking something off the shelf for around the same price. Maybe my budget is too low for this to work though and that only happens spending £500 and up?

Initially I was looking at the Monitor Audio BX5 or MR4, before I looked into DIY.

I wouldn't mind building my own cabinets from scratch but a design or something to follow would be nice as I like the reverse engineer idea, how cheap could I go with buying a set of 'off the shelf' floor standers and making a new cabinet for them?

 

[MarkLP]

Do you mean use the M73/M73i as parts to build a new cabinet from or to use as is. How would they compare with the BX5 or MR4 from monitor audio?

Thinking of the second hand idea, what would you recommend around the £150-£200 mark?

 

[MarkLP]

www.troelsgravesen.dk

some nice projects on there. I always fancied building the peerless floorstanders.

for parts, there are a few places in Europe http://www.europe-audio.com/intro.asp for example that sell drive units etc. although, frustratingly its often cheaper to buy European drive units, tweeters etc from the USA suppliers. Parts express for example.

Its not a cheap way of getting nice speakers, but you could get high end speakers, for mid price money.

I have browsed through that site and some of the designs and work gone into them are pretty awesome, but I think most if not all will go over my budget considerably.

Well it's your thread about building DIY speaker kits, and I mentioned about reverse engineering and then upgrading the cabinets on M73's as an example; so putting all those clues together what do you think I was getting at?

The MA's will whup the Missions. That shouldn't come as any surprise though as comparing RRPs you're looking at £200 worth of Mission versus £400-£500 worth of MA. Some of that extra cash pays for heavier and better braced cabinets as well better drivers.

Incidentally, the MR4 is a reworking of part of the old Monitor Audio Bronze (BR) which preceded the current BX range. They may be using different cabinet materials in MR vs BR though, possibly chipboard rather than MDF/HDF (?) but don't quote me on that.

Currently the MR4s sell for around £350/pr. The BX5's were £450-£500/pr bnut they're up for replacement so the remaining stocks are clearing through at £299...... That's less that the model below!!

There are almost too many choices. Much depends though on whether there's a supporting cast of centre and surrounds in the range and how much they fetch in the used market. It's no good getting a great deal on some used fronts if then you'll have to pay through the nose for a partnering centre and surrounds.

KEF would be a good shout. There's plenty of product about. Monitor Audio of course. B&W is a possibility but they tend to attract the badge buyer so prices are a bit elevated for what it is and the B&W Dipole surrounds are obscenely expensive; even the earliest DS surrounds which are frequency limited for Pro-Logic use. Dali might be worth a look. There's always the higher quality Mission speakers. You need to have a look what's turning up regularly on the auction site then read some reviews to get a feel for what's out there.

Again thanks for the informative post, much appreciated. I'm going to keep in mind the MR4/BX5 if I don't end up going down the DIY route. Also with regards to the second hand units I completely agree I could buy a really rare set which are great but then be stuck not being able to find other speakers to match which will be a right pain! Out of interest I could only find the BX5 at £349, are you able to link to the place you know of that's £299?

Just download WinISD and design them yourself. It's dead easy - I was doing it at 12. Speaker manufacturers will tel you it's complicated because they want to sell expensive speakers. But it's really really easy especially when you know how! If you would like to go down this route just post and I would be happy to go through the numbers that you would be looking for.

FYI passive crossovers are the hard bit. They are awful l and are the absolute weakest link in the audio chain. This is why they are hard to get right. Just for a comparison you can do the 'crossing over' before the amplifiers which yields approximately 100 to 10,000 times less distortion!

Thanks just downloaded this and had a quick look, would be very interested in knowing some more if you are happy to give me a quick run through? I remember my Dad used to use (I think) a Behringer Crossover for his PA equipment and he always said the difference between active and passive was huge. My only problem is at the moment the speakers will be connected to my AV receiver so not 100% sure where I could add the crossover in.

 

[MarkLP]

I'll probably try and post something a bit more informative while at work tomorrow. But the best drivers to use (without spending £1000s just on drivers) are by SB Acoustics.

http://www.sbacoustics.com/index.php/products/midwoofers/5-sb15nrxc30-8/

I have used this great driver in my desktop actives. They are a fantastic driver and some of the best around. SB Acoustics drivers are made in India I believe. I think the story goes Scanspeak (they make the best drivers in the world) sacked some engineers then they started or started working for SB Acoustics making awesome drivers. The build and audio quality are phenomenal at their price point.

I had looked at SB acoustics on a website I found the prices of the drivers seemed very reasonable. Your board looks very professional. Did you make it from scratch?

Would you mind if I sent you a trust/email and maybe you'd be able to give me some info on the WinISD? And other suitable drivers from SB acoustics.

Thanks
Mark