Speaker DIY

My most recent DIY Subwoofer based on a 100W plate amplifier and 10" subwoofer driver.
Size 16"w X 12.5"d X20"h, approximate volume 50L.
Material-3/4" High density waterproof fibreboard laminated on both side (for wet kitchen cabinet application)
Design-tuned port with adjustable port length,currently tuned at 19hz for music listening.


Cutting- the board is so hard that jig saw or hand saw is a complete no no.
i have to use rotary cutter to do the cutting.

Putting the pieces together using industrial grade wood glue.
Binding posts are mount directly on to solid piece of wood for maximum strength
and to ensure airtight quality.

Cross and horizontal internal bracing are added.
Note the 2 standing pieces of wood also double up as a support for the
woofer magnet to minimize basket vibrations.
Hard felt and recycled cotton padding are use in different side of the internal walls to cut down standing waves.

Internal wiring is QED.

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Putting the last piece together.

I use 2 pieces of wooden Chinese chess bond together and grind to
the shape of cones for the enclosure footing (4 sets).

Veneered in black
Note the finished wooden "chess" painted in black.
The 2 pieces of cross bar are layered by foam padding waiting for the driver
to sit on.

Time to wire the driver

To be continue----

Nice work ....

Impressive.... now its time to sit back an admire your handy work. I bet your mind would be reeling on "what can I do next " on this box to get it a notch up .....

cheers

atoz wrote:
I use 2 pieces of wooden Chinese chess bond together and grind to
the shape of cones for the enclosure footing (4 sets).

Atoz...

Question : How / what did you use to hold the chess pieces on to the drill... ?

thanks

Hi Atoz,
Impressive DIY project. Mind to share how your rotary cutter looks like ?
Thanks.

Rotary cutter, also known as circular saw look like this.
To grind the wooden chess you must first glued and clamp it overnight then
drill a hole in the center and insert a long bolt and fasten the other end with a nut.
Then you can insert the protruding end of the bolt to the machine.
Use rough sand paper to grind.
(I use a rough sanding disk)

Very good DIY project there. It seems that this is a passive sub.

It is an active sub with the plate amplifier off board.
Reason i do this is because i find built in amp very difficult to do positioning
due to the many cables attached especially the power cord.
Off board means it has only 1 speaker cable attached be it long or short.
I also believe this will minimize the vibration to the amp unit for better
SQ.

can share the schematic of the active crossover?
which beand of driver you use?

Atoz,
Thanks for sharing pictures of your cutter...

I lined the edges with rubber weather strips instead of foam as foam tends to
deteriorate or soften in time.

Putting the adjustable spikes in place.

The driver is positioned with the 4 screws facing towards the side walls and anchored deep to the vertical plane of the cabinet to add strenght.
With the driver finally in place, it is now time to move to the next step-
the plate amplifier.

Hello hello!
Thanks for sharing this wonderful project Atoz. I'm wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction where to buy nice thick MDF or HDF for similar speaker building projects of my own.

Many thanks and gratitude in advance!
Bal.

nice work

can you share how you cut the circular holes for the woofer and ports?

Hi,
The woofer hole is done by jig saw while the reflex port is by hole saw.

New project, 2 way floor standing speaker.



Preparation for cutting

Cutting process

Slightly slanted front baffle design

Atoz, u r very power~ Thanks for sharing with good photo details. It said a thousand words~

Cutting holes for drivers and reflex port

Starting to take shape

With the extra long PVC reflex port glued to the front panel

2 pieces standing tall side by side

View from the back

Lining the internal wall with recycled cotton padding

Finally it's time to put them together.

It is time to put all the drivers in place to proceed for sound tuning

5.25" Bass driver is from Castle acoustic and 3/4" soft dome from Vifa

Inside is the modified 2 way crossover from the KEF C series speakers

After switching with a few different tweeters to match with the bass unit, i finally settled for a less expected combination which is a hybrid design tweeter. I would have to redo the mounting hole to accomodate the squarish magnet at the back of the tweeters.

A rectangular shaped hybrid tweeter. Don't know what brand but looking at the built quality is quite decent moreover they are made in Japan and also patented with individual serial numbers. Updated, tweeters are from the brand called Linaeum

Up and ready for audition!

close up pic.

hi atoz, how did you make dimension for driver hole before you cut the board?

gloraglory wrote:hi atoz, how did you make dimension for driver hole before you cut the board?

I measure the inner diameter of the woofer basket and use geometrical set to draw circles on the wood surface to guide the cuttings.

It is time to share a bit of my experience with this pair of speakers after a few listening sessions. First test i powered them with my old and faithful NAD 3020 Series 20 amplifier with Epos ES11 as the reference speaker, what immediately draws my attention was the coherence between the midbass and the high frequency units are superb. Worth the hassle of cutting and drilling holes to switch tweeters. Midrange is smooth with a good level of warmth and very well presented. The highs are crisp and detailed without any trace of harshness while the bass lines are clean and extended.

However the down side is that i will need to dail the volume up a little to push this speaker, comparing with my other speakers i estimated it's output sensitivity should be in the 86 to 87dB region only.

Conclusion-I am very satisfied with the initial test results. Next is to power them up with different amplifiers and sources to see if they can perform better.

I cannot stop saying good things about this speaker when i switched driving them with my class A+AB 50 watter intergrated Duson PA50 amplifier combo with a Pioneer 20bit cdp. Improvements in every area and proven that the earlier 20 watter NAD is under powered. The soundstage opened up tremendously and bass has more slam and authority. It goes loud without sounding harsh or bright when pushed hard where i can continue listening on a pile of CDs for hours. I believed that it could be due to the natural characteristic of the hybrid tweeters itself that contribute to the overal oganic presentation. I can say that it outshines the ES11 in many areas.

I am eager to test them with more powerful amplifiers.