How to make a loudspeaker

[nev]

Partially a woodworking how to

[youtube]PSKTT4IhKuA[/youtube]

 

[Eric The Viking]

Brill. That was heartwarming at many levels!

 

[NazNomad]

Imagine spending £4k on a pair of speakers and discovering they're MDF. :-D

 

[Harbo]

Nice and made in the U.K. with a fair bit of handwork.

Rod

 

[MrTeroo]

Or if you are in a hurry...........

https://www.techwillsaveus.com/resources/build-diy-speakers-cardboard-box/

 

[thetyreman]

mmh so just get some MDF and slap on veneer, doesn't look too hard to make to me, it's the electronics bit that looks complicated.

 

[bugbear]

mmh so just get some MDF and slap on veneer, doesn't look too hard to make to me, it's the electronics bit that looks complicated.

Actually, designing the woodwork (MDF-work?) is probably the hardest bit - you have to consider the resonances and echoes of the cavity at all frequencies from 20Hz - 20 KHz.

Speaker design is still partially a black art, not an applied science.

BugBear

 

[Beau]

mmh so just get some MDF and slap on veneer, doesn't look too hard to make to me, it's the electronics bit that looks complicated.

If you want to have a go try Wilmslow Audio. You can get a kit of the electronics and build your own box with the spec all worked out for you. Done a couple of their kits and both sounded pretty good.

Apparently chipboard is better acoustically. Learnt this from a guy who used run Heybrook speakers but they generally dont use it due to it being awkward for the manufacturing and design standpoint.

 

[Jake]

I did mine (many moons ago) from a Focal kit (pre JMLab) - cabinets are a sandwich of MDF/PolyUfoam/Plywood. Slightly impractical weightwise.

Wilmslow make nice stuff or did - I built my dad a couple of pairs of one of their bookshelf models which got me into the whole idea.

Cross-overs and tuning cabinet size/porting etc are the complex bit (which I ducked).

 

[flying haggis]

as am aside to this thread I have just come across this catalogue that I have had for lomger than I care to think about(30 + if i do think about it!!!!!)

it includes articles about making transmission line speakers and a ls3/5a equivalent

 

[Eric The Viking]

Does anybody know a source of Tygan these days, or anything similar that tightens with heat? I've found quite a lot of grille fabric on-line, but nothing equivalent.

I have repairs to make to what ought to be nice speakers, but which look far too scruffy. Redoing the grilles would be a good start

 

[ColeyS1]

I did mine (many moons ago) from a Focal kit (pre JMLab) - cabinets are a sandwich of MDF/PolyUfoam/Plywood. Slightly impractical weightwise.

Wilmslow make nice stuff or did - I built my dad a couple of pairs of one of their bookshelf models which got me into the whole idea.

Cross-overs and tuning cabinet size/porting etc are the complex bit (which I ducked).

Did you refinish some a while ago in high gloss, or have I got my wires crossed?

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[xy mosian]

Does anybody know a source of Tygan these days, or anything similar that tightens with heat? I've found quite a lot of grille fabric on-line, but nothing equivalent.

I have repairs to make to what ought to be nice speakers, but which look far too scruffy. Redoing the grilles would be a good start

This a big enough bit Eric?
http://www.retrospecialist.co.uk/pre-cu ... -681-p.asp
xy

 

[Racers]

I had a pair of Spendor BD3 a while ago nice in a polite BBC sort of way, but I preferred my Shahinian Arcs.

Chipboard is better as its made up of lots of different sized particles and swarf which helps to lower the resonances.

Pete

 

[bugbear]

I had a pair of Spendor BD3 a while ago nice in a polite BBC sort of way, but I preferred my Shahinian Arcs.

Chipboard is better as its made up of lots of different sized particles and swarf which helps to lower the resonances.

Pete

And yet (I thought) that a particularly hard/stiff grade of MDF (HDF) was the default option for good-ish speakers?

BugBear

 

[Beau]

I had a pair of Spendor BD3 a while ago nice in a polite BBC sort of way, but I preferred my Shahinian Arcs.

Chipboard is better as its made up of lots of different sized particles and swarf which helps to lower the resonances.

Pete

And yet (I thought) that a particularly hard/stiff grade of MDF (HDF) was the default option for good-ish speakers?

BugBear

It's easy to machine and you can stain exposed edges but not as good at absorbing sound waves. The problem with a heavy material as I understand it is they have momentum from the sound waves. You need something light yet dead when hit for the perfect materiel but it's all a compromise. All second hand info so could be talking cobblers :lol:

 

[skipdiver]

Interesting on a couple of levels for me. I have built a pair of speakers from a Wilmslow Audio kit. I bought the electrics and made the cabinets myself from a sandwich of normal ply and veneered ply. Didn't know much in those days as i was young.

Also interesting because i had a pair of Spendors once upon a time.

I now have AVI active speakers which are made in the Cotswolds somewhere. The guy that runs the company doesn't have much time for the big speaker manufacturers and says that most of their speakers are a huge rip off.

 

[Beau]

The guy that runs the company doesn't have much time for the big speaker manufacturers and says that most of their speakers are a huge rip off.

There is certainly is a huge mark up over the material costs. Back to the guy I knew from Heybook hifi Peter Comeau. He gave me a tour of the factory and talked about the prices they were paying for drive units and it was peanuts but there was lot of time and costs involved in the development side of things. Then there was an element of luck as well in the pairing of equipment working well together.

Got to sit in on a demo with Peter and John Shearn. Peter did not let on about the speaker cost and just let us listen. We had a very high end vinyl front end paired with a John Shearn amp. The sound was astonishingly good apart from when being cranked up to very high levels. John and me asked about this small bookshelf speaker and what it was going to retail for and nearly fell over when we learned it was their budget model coming in at just £95!

 

[nev]

I'd say that 90% of the speakers we sold were made from MDF or similar. Some from plywood (B&W 800 series £4-22k - which still have MDF bracing inside) and some from fibreglass type stuff (Nautilus £30k+) or carbon fibre (Wilson Benesch £2k+). I don't think I've seen a pair made from solid wood. I imagine its either too costly, unsustainable as a supply material for large scale production or dare I say it, acoustically inferior.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Does anybody know a source of Tygan these days, or anything similar that tightens with heat? I've found quite a lot of grille fabric on-line, but nothing equivalent.

I have repairs to make to what ought to be nice speakers, but which look far too scruffy. Redoing the grilles would be a good start

This a big enough bit Eric?
http://www.retrospecialist.co.uk/pre-cu ... -681-p.asp
xy

Thank you XY, but sadly no.

I need around 18 1/2" x 30", plus a bit for wrapping around the frame. But I'll ask them if they have larger pieces. I suspect, though, that it's NOS, as they seem to have only one style available: Ideally I'd like black or very dark brown.