A journey through no-brand loudspeaker land - Part I Four, simple DIY projects Author: - TNT New Zealand Published: February, 2015 This is a tale of open baffles, vintage drivers, super-tweeters, and a fascination with simple enjoyment of recorded music. The 'loudspeaker' is often the simplest component in a music reproduction chain, yet it can have a profound impact on musical enjoyment. Speaker drivers come ready-made, so what can be done with them, and what if this was as simple as possible? Over the past couple of years, I've been exploring in search of full-range and open baffle projects. Music is my daily pleasure and my quest for an engaging experience is always satisfying but never finished.
As a member of the TNT-Audio team, I think an account of my experience traveling the road less travelled, far from the madding (some might say maddening) retail crowd in brandland might encourage and inspire DIY experimentation. By way of context for this story, a look at my introductory pieces for TNT-Audio (see and ) will indicate my penchant for finding another way to pursue my hobby without succumbing to the siren call to be the 'legal prey' of big-bucks brand-marketers. Why spend thousands on speakers? Could I side-step the large profit margins and excess of extravagance by turning to re-use? I don't believe that 'new' is always better, and enjoy experimenting and DIY. Could frugality be an audiophile virtue - part of the quality syndrome? I'm a self-confessed frugal-audiophile muso experiencing music highs without the high-end prices.
This is the classic make or buy choice, but we are profoundly conditioned by seductive sales promotion to buy, and especially subject to snake oil promises. So, why buy retail when this means marketed product and inescapable hype? A quick glance at my Pinterest board 'Loudspeakers that Inspire' shows two things: I like unusual speakers, and there is mega-variety in forms.
A search of the Internet reveals an almost endless variety in speaker form - shape, materials, colour, size, degree of complexity, cost - I was inspired and started collecting interesting projects on my. In thinking 'without a box', my criteria were: simple construction/easy home DIY, low cost / recycle, and a real enhancement to my listening experience. I previously used KEF iQ7s (cost in retail NZ$1,800 in 2007) with a recently new T&A Power Plant Balanced amplifer (which replaced a Cambridge Audio 840A that failed spectacularly). I was already using an REL Acoustics Quake Q200 powered sub-bass speaker (which operates down to 17Hz (-6dB)) in my music room which is 6.4 m x 3.9 m x 2.4 m, with three wooden doors, and glass doors on one side, and with a concrete floor covered with floating wood laminate.
Cabling is hand-made bi-wire by Brendan of RuleConnect, Waimata (New Zealand). I wanted to reproduce recorded music with a big soundstage and musical realism to experience the excitement of the musical performance by hearing and feeling what the musician(s) expressed in the recording. But I had no intention of becoming a loudspeaker engineer. What level of music reproduction satisfaction could be acomplished with a DIY approach using salvaged - perhaps vintage - full-range drivers and minimal woodworking skills? What is it achievable as a frugal audiophile? I sought appropriate technology for the purpose rather than what we are sold.
I have oberved in my more than 40 years of music and hifi hobbying the law of diminishing return on investment in over-engineered products made for profit. Put another way, I wanted as simple as possible - no cabinets, no cross-overs, no tuning, suitable for my room setting, and no specialist equipment rnecessary - cutting holes for the drivers would be the hardest task, so a router was to be the most sophisticated tool needed. Recent experience in certain discussion forums reinforced my desire to escape brand, model number and price boasting.
What could be achieved for my ideal price - as little as possible? I was told to leave one forum when I questioned the $10,000 to $250,000 price tags of the products everyone was advocating.
I was aggressively told that I was not wanted in the group if I was going to be critical and suggest frugal alternatives. In another popular audio discussion forum, a member recently asked other members for opinions on performance and value-for-money of a loudspeaker brand and model - after he'd bought them for $43,000!! Is this staggering naivety or stealth boasting? So, here I'm telling my story of four projects in a 2-year journey of adventures in 'no-brands/no fashion land' - largely inspired by my regular and avid reading of TNT-Audio reviews and other articles over several years. I began by asking why are loudspeakers usually boxes? Simplified, they are a baffle or mounting plate for the driver that controls the coupling of the driver to the air in the listening space. Keep looking long enough, and you can even find speakers without baffles!
A combined airflow controlling, driver mounting, and aesthetically pleasing box is a complex design problem. Solutions to volume, shape, bracing for rigidity to deal with vibrations and resonances and other colourations, drivers mountings, and other design problems require a compromise of cost of materials and machining, assembly, size and weight, packaging and transportation, storage, presence in the domestic setting, etc. Some speakers seem to have been conceived in the region where advanced carpentry and engineering and sales glitz are more important than musicality.
Project 1 - unknown drivers in simple transmission line cabinets. Simple transmission line project In starting this journey, two opportunities coincided that prompted action - Eric Cross at in Christchurch, New Zealand had a pair of 6.5' full-range drivers for sale for NZ$100. He had coated the diaphragms with Meranti Damar natural resin to enhance tone and they had an old Kauri wood puck glued to each magnet housing to 'reduce resonances'. I was intrigued. A local used audio trader had a pair of transmission line cabinets that were almost finished and a steal at NZ$25. They just needed drivers, internal wiring, and painting. I mounted the drivers on off-cut baffles that I attached to the cabinets, added CAT5 cable and banana sockets, and painted them.
In use there was an immediate impression of more punch, yet delicacy and detail compared to the KEFs (which were relegated to the TV room). By now I had the experimenter's bug. If that was the excellent result of a cabinet mount, what might an open baffle sound like with bigger and better drivers?
Project 2 - vintage full-range on an open baffle. Plessey 8' full range drivers I used new old stock Plessey 8' full-range drivers made in New Zealand in the 1970s (again from Vintage Audio World), and mounted them in waxed 900 mm x 450 mm x 35 mm Pine boards with the cable connectors soldered directly to the driver wiring tags. The baffles are held upright in position with hinged single leg props, so I can adjust their angle of recline. The sound is more open and detailed than the KEFs and punchier and more airy than the transmission lines. This project cost me NZ$200 total.
Assembly of working speakers couldn't have been easier! After a few months of enjoying my music and further exploration of DIY speaker projects for my Pinterest board, I accepted that brand names and model numbers on drivers are important as indicators of quality of performance - and cost!
(but for me not as a boasting badge). What could I accomplish with higher performance drivers? Project 3 - vintage 12' full-range mounted on a designed baffle.
Philips in JE Labs baffles A 12' diaphragm is about 2.25 times the surface area of an 8' driver and 3.4 times the area of a 6.5' driver, depending on the shape. Could I get greater musical realism from a bigger sound by moving more air? I got a pair of vintage 12' Philips AD 1256-M8 AlNiCo 8 ohm 30W dual cone full-range drivers in excellent condition (response range 45-16,000 Hz (98dB sensitivity) - some specs. Show the upper limit as 17 KHz), made in Holland probably about 1969, for about NZ$400 from Eric Cross at Vintage Audio World. These drivers are quite rare nowadays and sought-after when in great condition.
They are renowned performers, and have been described as 'probably the best sounding full range driver ever'. Eric promised me that they would sound great.
I initially mounted them in a popular - with a 900 mm x 800 mm x 30 mm waxed Pine baffle. Materials cost $160 plus 15 hours preparation and assembly time. In situ these proved to be way too big for the room - and sounded rather dull and muffled and lacking clarity and openness. This was a big disappointment, especially after so much woodwork (relatively), and I removed the drivers for a further experiment. What if I again went as simple as possible - but more so?
For the fourth DIY project you should wait for the of this article. © Copyright 2015 - www.tnt-audio.com.
By Drosen7900 / Most speakers use a separate driver to handle high and low frequencies—a woofer for lows and a tweeter for highs, with a crossover circuit to tell the signals where to go. Full-range speakers, on the other hand, have a single driver, eliminating the need for a crossover and allowing for more articulation and detail in the mid-range. Though they lack the power and dynamic range of multi-driver speakers, the increased mid-range clarity makes them excellent speakers for more subtle music—jazz trios, folk artists, or chamber ensembles. Since they’re a more specialty speaker, commercial full-range speakers are hard to find and expensive.
Full-range drivers, on the other hand, are widely available and affordable. A lot of audiophiles make their own speakers—and it’s not as hard to do as you might think. The first step is finding a high-quality driver (in this article, we use the 2 terms interchangeably, though if you want to be specific, all of the products below are drivers). The housing you buy or make for the speaker will have a lot to do with which driver you’re working with. Here are the 4 best full range speakers on the market (though, admittedly, that market contains ). Galaxy Audio S5N-8.
With a frequency range of 150-18,000Hz, this 5” driver will do full justice to whatever music is played on it, with a smooth, even mid-range. The magnet is made from neodymium, giving it about three times the output to weight ratio over a traditional ceramic magnet, making the speaker more efficient and eliminating distortion. The S5N-8 is video shielded and has a RMS of 100 watts, with a peak handling of 200 watts—all stats that mean it’ll work in most applications and work seamlessly with a broad range of music players. This is one of the best full range driver speakers period.
SB Acoustics SB65WBAC25. For a solid full range speaker driver, check out this SB Acoustics 2.5” product. The furrowed aluminum cone extends the frequency range up to 20,000Hz, and it doesn’t slouch on the low end, either, getting below 100Hz if it’s installed in the right enclosure. Like the Galaxy Audio, the SB65 has a neodymium magnet to get the most possible power, and is video shielded for safe use alongside other electronics. This driver also uses a vented gap cooling system to increase the power handling, and a copper cap on the pole piece to decrease distortion, resulting in a smooth, even tone across the range. Dayton Audio RS100-4.
Drivers in the Dayton Audio Reference series are known for their combination of sound clarity and affordability. The cone is made of rigid aluminum for bright highs and sharp detail. As far as handling, it’s got an RMS of 30 watts and a peak of 60 watts, with a copper voice coil for better performance. The low FS (free-air resonant frequency) gives it a better low-frequency production than many full-range drivers, especially those in the price range. The model linked to here is unshielded and has a 4-ohm impedance, but it’s also available in a shielded 8 ohm version, for those planning to use it alongside televisions or computer monitors.
Outdoor Range Baffles
This should be on anyone’s list of the best full range speaker. DROK 15W mini 3” driver.
Full Range Driver For Open Baffle Windows
The DROK 15W is the best driver you can get for less than twenty dollars. It’s got a good-sized effective frequency, starting at just over 100Hz and going up to 20,000Hk. As a brand, DROK does electronics more than it does speakers, and these are designed from the approach of getting the maximum handling out of a small device. There is some sacrifice in sound quality, especially in the frequency extremes, and does best with solo vocals and acoustic duos. Overall, this is among the best full range speakers if you’re on a budget. Choosing a Cabinet Now that you’ve picked your driver, you have to have somewhere to put it.
Though this may seem counter-intuitive, speaker cabinets often cost more than the drivers themselves. When you buy a speaker cabinet pre-made, you’re paying for both the quality of the materials and the cost of the workmanship. These Knock-Down brand MDF cabinets are inexpensive and a good functional first cabinet that’ll get a decent baseline sound out of most drivers.
However, you could expect to spend $100 or more on a well-made commercial cabinet. This might alarm you if you’re on a budget—but don’t get discouraged yet!
Making a housing for your speaker is no more difficult than making a box, and if you’re handy, it’s easily doable in an afternoon. Whether you buy or make your cabinet, the material used in its construction is important to getting the best out of the speaker. Thicker is better; you want to limit the effect of the soundwaves on the cabin and a thicker material—like high grade plywood or MDF—is going to have less flex than something thinner, like fiberboard.
If you’re shopping for cabinets, knock on the side to get a sense of how rigid it is—a lower pitched knock indicates a sturdier box. Solid hardwoods are generally going to give you the warmest sound, but you can also make great sounding speakers out of fiberglass. Closed Baffle The baffle is the front face of a speaker. It’s where the driver is mounted, and also keeps the soundwaves from the front of the speaker from interfering with those coming from the back. Open baffle speakers create a more spacious and immersive sound profile by interacting more with the room. Conventional speakers with a closed baffle will have a tighter sound imaging and less reflection off of the room’s walls and ceiling.
Baffle Range Hood
Corel wordperfect office x3. Cabinet Design The design of your speaker cabinet can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. Depending on the size of your driver, you want to have an interior volume of 30-45 liters, or 8-12 gallons—about the size of a small fish tank.
Smaller speakers are possible but may restrict the sound. Cut one hole for the driver and another either the front or back for a piece of 3” PVC pipe.
This will serve as the speaker’s port, allowing air to flow and increasing the response of the bass. Drill a few small holes in the back for the speaker wires, then seal the edges with some caulking or aquarium sealant to make it airtight. If you’re up for trying something more challenging, the bass horn cabinet design is considered most optimal for increasing low-end frequency response in the best full range drivers. In this version, the space immediately behind the speaker starts small, gradually growing as it snakes through the speaker cabinet until it reaches the port. This cabinet design is also known as a folded horn because the sound’s passage folds in on itself inside the speaker. Speakers using this cabinet are larger and obviously more complex to construct, but can give a fuller sound than more simple box designs.
The great thing about making your own cabinets is it lets you experiment without investing any more money than the cost of the materials. Listening to music on the best full range you crafted by hand, you just may find yourself becoming a budding audiophile.