End Game DIY Loudspeakers

[Schollaudio]

KEF drivers can be bought and used in DIY. Accuton sells SOTA ceramics. SB Acoustics and SEAS have a fine range of graphene coated drivers. Scan Speak has been making top drivers for decades now. Multiple entry horns and ATH are far more advanced most people realize, still available for DIY, but as commercial products 30k is no where near enough.

The materials cost for a commercial speaker is about 10-20 % of the final price. Other factors are work (wages), logistics, retailers share and profit. It's obvious that you can save money if you can Do It Yourself (DIY), if you know what you are doing.

For the gallery effort here is my personally made DIY speaker set with dsp amps, totalled less than 4500 EUR. This is an end game set (for the most at least).
View attachment 254613
Pic taken while testing the woofer capabilities with separate amp, but it's designed to run from the plate amp in the upper box.

Nice system, however, there are some folks who think a nice 7" two way are the end game. I like a JBL system configured like yours.

 

[Andysu]

These walls left and right of the speakers weren't planed first - they where needed to get rid of a side wall reflection I could not dampen with absorption. Can be removed, e.g. for testing and comparing speakers like KH120ii now. Normally you should build a pretty solid front wall but for my use these wood boards do the job.
View attachment 298274

The speakers are angled towards the listening position cause I sit pretty close. It would not be a big issue with the T25A but I wanted to use the T25B.
Btw only one of the 2,5" mid domes is active for listening, I needed both cause this speaker was also a prototype/concept for a measurement speaker.


The LF drivers are as close to the mid drivers as possible - which is not the perfect position for the bass array! It still works with a little lower useable range. Sealed volumes cause I like the sound more, want to fill the volumes to have no resonances, want no port resonance and want to EQ down to 20/25Hz. The 4 20cm drivers are at their limit for loud listening with 20Hz content.
The speaker stacks are very solidly built with metal sheets internally against resonances - these 3 pieces are needed to carry them. The brown spacer is for getting the tweeter higher - I'm pretty big ;-), ear level is at 1m30 with my office chair. Speaker reach the ceiling.


When you use the "side walls" how the volume of the speaker is formed is not important. As I planed without them - the back of the speaker sits flat to the back wall. And the side wall next to the PC monitor goes straight back. The baffle of the speaker is angled and the outer side wall is too. I wanted to reach a good transition to the back wall, it would be beneficial to make that more flat, but harder to build.
There is some damping material behind - but in the next build step this will be made better with a more solid side wall, some 19" space below and an entrance for sound waves at the top.


Yes - that's one of the key components of the design! Avoid reflecting corners, get everything flush and neat.
You always need to put some material behind cavities to avoid resonances in that volume. Especially if you want to dampen sound transition. But be careful with moisture when these are cold outside walls! (Yes - you need a pretty wide knowledge of stuff for that kind of installations ;-))


A non environment room is not a living room - it's made special for maximum precision at listening. Some people are sensitive to strongly dampened rooms, some for e.g have big problems in anechoic chambers. (ear & equilibrium & sickness in extreme cases). Therefor you have 2 reflective surfaces, the floor and the wall facing to you to still have a "feeling" for a room. But I had visitors who didn't liked the feeling in the room in the first minutes.
You get used to that quickly - I don't recognise it any more, but I'm also used to work in an anechoic chamber. For me it has a very calming character - it's dead silent and no influence from the outside. A floating tank for every day ;-)

Interestingly my mixes/masterings translate in that room better as ever. Even when it's acoustically total different to a normal living room - you hear what your source gives you. And people are used to the colouration of their room, so you need a "neutral" recording - and that's something you can produce/check in such a room perfectly.
The only thing I give my speakers a bass boost cause that's how most people listen in their rooms. Without I tend to overdo the low frequency area.

You ALWAYS can bring reflections back in to a controlled room! A few wooden pannels/beams with spacings, angled whatever (picture on alubond?) or a nice diffusor and you can create a more lively zone. This is often done in bigger control rooms ("reflection free zone" design) but in a small room you need to be very careful to not get too early reflections!
People confuse "dead" rooms with "dull" rooms cause you never eperience a really good and linear dampened room outside of a good studio. My recording room has the ceiling and long wall totally dampened - and has a fresh character with lots of top end, just very short "reverb". Feels great and works great for recording.

In the handfull rooms I designed we always leave the option to put something on the walls to get reflections back - nobody ever used that option.
(I have a wooden beam around my recording room where I could hang wooden/metal panels to have variation during recordings. Never needed but it's also great to hang guitars there ;-))

Hope that was not too off topic and I got most of your points
Btw - when digging deeper 1-2 books about studio acoustics and building are the best investment you can do!

JBL professional cinema , professional lucasfilm ltd THX sound system is thee end of all end games

 

[AudioFanMan]

What I would call Flagships of the DIY community, that are still available....

Diyaudio:
Open Source Monkey Coffin, lots of information.
Joe Rasmussen's "Elsinore"
<snip>

I finally was able to verify my account and that said wanted to comment on the Elsinore's as mentioned previously...

10-15 years ago I hoped to build the "best" designed speakers I could...
I use the quotes as best is "best for me".
Hopefully this will officially end all need for snide or never ending comments about my wording lol...
(Slightly seasoned audiofool here!)
I found the Elsinore thread, but life changed and I was not able to move forward on the project...

Fast forward, got a new life, got a new wife and the family is fine....
4-5 years ago I wanted to dip my toes into the pool, and at least in my life, AND FOR ME (another disclaimer LOL) I had learned the speakers were the most important piece of the puzzle..

At least for me, I have never read one post from anyone who build a pair ever say they were less than fantastic.
As a matter of fact, I dont believe I have even heard a single person say they had another speaker sound better at any budget.

That said, I figured the project was mature enough and whatever bugs has been worked out....
Ordered all of the parts, crossover components, wood etc and quickly found a project from start to finish is NOT always easy...
After a few months I finished.

I consider my self reasonably well spoken and ultimately literate....
That said my words cannot describe how amazing these speakers sound.
Throughout my journey and since and regardless of whats driving them (300B, KT120 Monoblocks, ACA, etc.) they have not once sounded less than amazing...

Id be happy to post pics, but figured I should do so only if folks are interested.. Plus the DIY audio thread has 6K+ posts with plenty of info!

 

[valerianf]

@AudioFanMan , could you please post a picture of your DIY speakers?

 

[Wolf]

Yes, please show yours off!

 

[AudioFanMan]

Attached are images of the build of my Elsinore's, Im posting this from my cell phone so speaking about each step of the build shown it a bit of a pain..

That said, if anyone has any questions I'd be happy to answer..

The one item I would like to talk about is crossover layout... I went through the positioning of all of the components to reduce the amount of induced cross talk, carefully aiming the components so the magnetic field they produce was virtually silent to nearly chokes.
Hooking up a signal generator to one coil and hacked up earbuds directly to coils nearby was an eye opener! How much signal could be induced was shocking. While distance was easy, the direction and angle of the component made the biggest reduction.
The crossover is attached the the back of the speaker, knowing the area I had to use with height as the bigger variable led me to the final layout that produced the least (if any) inductive coupling..

Somewhere in my files is the unbelievably flat frequency response graph from REW and calibrated mic, I will try to dig up later and post...

 

[audio.handyman]

Hello Folks,

I expect many of you have seen or contributed to (thank you!) the below thread I started …

$30K Budget - On the quest for my "end game" speaker

Howdy All, Just found this site few weeks ago, been a lurker since then, trying to learn, my first post here. Been in the audiophile "game" for decades, been through many systems, had some great ones to be sure, but always felt I was missing something. NEVER considered active speakers until I...

www.audiosciencereview.com

During the process of creating my short list, the idea of DIY has entered my thoughts as a potential way to achieve same/similar performance for much lower cost. Specifically I am referring to an existing design that has plans (crossover and cabinet) avaible for free or a reasonable cost. To say, I am not considering my own design as I have neither the ability nor the time for such an endeavor.

So, for all the DIY experts here, what would be your recommendation for an end game DIY loudspeaker that would equal or exceed what we on ASR would consider to be the best available on the retail market?

Thanks!

I would surely like to see pictures and a description of any internal unique design characteristics you may have included. Thanks

 

[audio.handyman]

Attached are images of the build of my Elsinore's, Im posting this from my cell phone so speaking about each step of the build shown it a bit of a pain..

That said, if anyone has any questions I'd be happy to answer..

The one item I would like to talk about is crossover layout... I went through the positioning of all of the components to reduce the amount of induced cross talk, carefully aiming the components so the magnetic field they produce was virtually silent to nearly chokes.
Hooking up a signal generator to one coil and hacked up earbuds directly to coils nearby was an eye opener! How much signal could be induced was shocking. While distance was easy, the direction and angle of the component made the biggest reduction.
The crossover is attached the the back of the speaker, knowing the area I had to use with height as the bigger variable led me to the final layout that produced the least (if any) inductive coupling..

Somewhere in my files is the unbelievably flat frequency response graph from REW and calibrated mic, I will try to dig up later and post...

Looks nice. The crossover inductors are positioned to mitigate mutual induction. When I my designs employed passive elements I found that until I fully stabilized all the connecting conductors there were noticeable microphonic losses. Once stabilized the system was noticeably sharper though my filters were much more involved including resonance compensation for all transducers.

 

[MKR]

I would surely like to see pictures and a description of any internal unique design characteristics you may have included. Thanks

Sorry, ultimately I decided to not go the DIY route … see below thread link for latest status of my “quest” and the characteristics that are important for me in my “end game” choice

End Game Speaker Quest - The Final Chapter

Hello All, I decided it may be best to start a new thread to make the update not so buried in my other very long threads. For those new to the party and would like some (long) history, Part 1 and 2 threads can be viewed below ... Pt 1 -...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[RickS]

Sorry, ultimately I decided to not go the DIY route … see below thread link for latest status of my “quest” and the characteristics that are important for me in my “end game” choice

End Game Speaker Quest - The Final Chapter

Hello All, I decided it may be best to start a new thread to make the update not so buried in my other very long threads. For those new to the party and would like some (long) history, Part 1 and 2 threads can be viewed below ... Pt 1 -...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Given your budget, looks as though you came closer to DIY in a custom-built speaker than otherwise.

The design harkens to the Statements II DIY speakers from speakerdesignworks.com (if made fully active rather than passive).

Anyway, the Soundfields seem a really good choice and hope you enjoy them!

 

[ta240]

Attached are images of the build of my Elsinore's, Im posting this from my cell phone so speaking about each step of the build shown it a bit of a pain..

Beautiful build. I'd love to try those speakers but they are beyond what I could do with a circular saw and a router. I've read a lot about them. We are in the market for our endgame speakers and if I could build the ones that fit that description it would be so much fun.

 

[MKR]

Given your budget, looks as though you came closer to DIY in a custom-built speaker than otherwise.

The design harkens to the Statements II DIY speakers from speakerdesignworks.com (if made fully active rather than passive).

Anyway, the Soundfields seems a really good choice and hope you enjoy them!

Thanks for the kind words … indeed DIY in the sense that I will end up with a full custom solution. As to comparing to the Statements, well, I suppose if the Statements were full active DSP design with variable directivity and full range cardioid, OK

 

[RickS]

Thanks for the kind words … indeed DIY in the sense that I will end up with a full custom solution. As to comparing to the Statements, well, I suppose if the Statements were full active DSP design with variable directivity and full range range cardioid, OK

ofc, primarily just meant the appearance reminded me of the Statement II.