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DIY shoeboxes with drivers + external amp and active xover?

boogeroo

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I'm interested in building my own speakers but lack wood working experience, I do know which end of a saw to point forward, and I'm fairly confident in making smallish squarish boxes. With that in mind I wonder if copying Wilson Audio's
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would be a good place to start? I hate throw-away work, so I'm thinking this approach i can slowly build up a multiway speaker system.

The system will be active, because i also suck at electronics. First step probably is 2 boxes, one tweeter, one mid/woofer, minidsp for xover, and a 2 channel amp, I think i can manage that. Then maybe in the years to come I'll add dedicated woofers and make it 3 way etc, or MTM.

Realistically speaking how would such a modular system sound, or is this a totally terrible idea?
 
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behappybevegan

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I think it's a great idea.
All sealed I presume?

The advantages of this system, say you don't like how the tweeter came out or are curious about a different tweeter you can chance it with not much trouble.

Soundwise I think it will be fine.
The extra layers of wood will mean the distance between the drivers is a bit larger

A master diy'er can even copy the look of the big Focals.
 

voodooless

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I don't think you'll have that much of a builders advantage by making lots of small boxes. Every additional box is extra time vs a single box. Square or not should also not matter. Acoustically, the square box is at a disadvantage anyway.

The most demanding part is usually the holes for woofers and tweeter, and trimming those to flush mount the drivers. You'll have that with any box shape.

A good idea is to get a decent router (and some bits). That will help you with the holes, straightening edges, adding round overs etc.
 
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boogeroo

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I think it's a great idea.
All sealed I presume?

The advantages of this system, say you don't like how the tweeter came out or are curious about a different tweeter you can chance it with not much trouble.

Soundwise I think it will be fine.
The extra layers of wood will mean the distance between the drivers is a bit larger

A master diy'er can even copy the look of the big Focals.
Wow that Focal clone looks like the real deal, way out of my skill level lol, I'm for now small animal coffin maker level.

Okay I think i understand the point about inter driver distance, its a function of the xover point and distance between driver.

Alright sounds like a fun little project, time to start sourcing for parts.
 

Rednaxela

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In general your plan seems to be missing design goals. It talks about means but hardly about an end.

Everybody can make two boxes and integrate them with a crossover frequency and slope (or two). Especially with modern day tools. But that's not the same as working towards a speaker that does what you have in mind. Of course depending on what it is that you have in mind.

Between 1) a speaker consisting of two integrated boxes and 2) a speaker consisting of two integrated boxes that meets a set of design goals, is the potentially overlooked challenge of acoustics. Acoustics inside the boxes, acoustics outside of the boxes, and acoustics between the two boxes. Depending on your goals you have to be willing to get to grips with that. I know my very few DIY efforts all ended there and very quickly at that.

YMMV!
 

Calleberg

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Wow, to me this sounds like an absolutely terrible idea. I used to get ideas like this all the time when I was younger. ;)

Sooo I say, Go ahead and DO it!
It is not going to be pretty but you WILL learn a lot, and eventually even learn to throw away stuff. :)
 
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boogeroo

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In general your plan seems to be missing design goals. It talks about means but hardly about an end.

Everybody can make two boxes and integrate them with a crossover frequency and slope (or two). Especially with modern day tools. But that's not the same as working towards a speaker that does what you have in mind. Of course depending on what it is that you have in mind.

Between 1) a speaker consisting of two integrated boxes and 2) a speaker consisting of two integrated boxes that meets a set of design goals, is the potentially overlooked challenge of acoustics. Acoustics inside the boxes, acoustics outside of the boxes, and acoustics between the two boxes. Depending on your goals you have to be willing to get to grips with that. I know my very few DIY efforts all ended there and very quickly at that.

YMMV!
Yes, i don't really have a design goal other than to get 2 boxes making some coherent sound. I'm a software dev by trade and I'm looking at this project as a hello-world of sorts, mating drivers to a box, using 3rd-party xovers+amps, make some noise.

I know far too little to know what i need to learn. Baby steps :)

Wow, to me this sounds like an absolutely terrible idea. I used to get ideas like this all the time when I was younger. ;)

Sooo I say, Go ahead and DO it!
It is not going to be pretty but you WILL learn a lot, and eventually even learn to throw away stuff. :)
Lol, yeah I'm treating the project as a tutorial to get a feel of how I like to DIY...or not. I don't expect it would cost too much....apart from the minidsp, i could try using my computer to do software DSP, and use the left/right to drive one channel. I've done a smattering of WASAPI and gstreamer work, should be able to cobbler together something
 

Rednaxela

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Why don't you start with a full range driver in a closed box? Plenty of challenges already. Starting with box dimensions, which for instance are not just about volume.

DSP-wise all you'd need is EQAPO.
 

fpitas

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I have a modular system. As people above said, it's more work making separate boxes. Then you have to join the boxes somehow. Each of the four boxes is 50+ pounds and rather large, so it was done to allow me to move the things by myself. For your purposes, it might be a good solution if you go into it aware of these things.
 

gy-k

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This would work with a 3-way. For example looking at the Faital 6RS140 mid-woofer: a small sealed box with net volume of 2.5-3l would result in a 2nd order high-pass response with Q=0.5, same as a LR2 crossover slope, with -6dB at 136.5Hz. Use a matching LR2 low-pass on a woofer below and that should do it for the bass: no further crossover filter needed for the mid, and the low-pass on the sub/woofer could be even passive. Use a separate amp of course for the woofer and match sensitivity. You could sidestep making a box for the sub/woofer by going open baffle, using the MiniDSP to dial in its response, and passive crossover for mid-hi, which is fine, really. So not much more woodworking than a panel that holds the woofer, and a small 2.5-3l box.
 
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