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Great DIY speaker builds (for newbies) to learn about design?

Rick Sykora

Rick Sykora

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Have been asked and am sure others may have some good suggestions for beginners that want to learn about designing speakers.

It is a bit dated and, despite not having built myself, a great passive build is the Dayton BR-1. The kit is reasonably priced and available with or without cabinets. The instructions are the best I have seen… https://www.parts-express.com/pedocs/manuals/300-640--dayton-audio-br-1-manual.pdf

An active example is more expensive and more challenging, but tried to do with Directiva r1. It remains a work in progress. I have learned a lot from Linkwitz Lab‘s site. I highly recommend his LXmini and Fitz conversation posts.

Please contribute your thoughts and experiences. Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Rick Sykora said:
Have been asked and am sure others may have some good suggestions for beginners that want to learn about designing speakers.

It is a bit dated and, despite not having built myself, a great passive build is the Dayton BR-1. The kit is reasonably priced and available with or without cabinets. The instructions are the best I have seen… https://www.parts-express.com/pedocs/manuals/300-640--dayton-audio-br-1-manual.pdf

An active example is more expensive and more challenging, but tried to do with Directiva r1. It remains a work in progress. I have learned a lot from Linkwitz Labs’s site. I highly recommend his LXmini and Fitz conversation posts.

Please contribute your thoughts and experiences. Thanks!
Click to expand...
You can choose:

Journal Klang+Ton, DIY kits

Journal Klang+Ton, DIY kits
www.lautsprechershop.de
 
notsodeadlizard said:
You can choose:

Journal Klang+Ton, DIY kits

Journal Klang+Ton, DIY kits
www.lautsprechershop.de
Click to expand...

Interesting and was aware of Klang+Ton but have limited personal experience with the publication.

Seems like a great resource but a more specific example would help. A quick peruse of the posted link does not show how to access specific design information about the speakers.

Can you elaborate further please?
 
Rick Sykora said:
I have learned a lot from Linkwitz Labs’s site.
Click to expand...
Indeed!

I think that someone wanting to learn could start with a two way open baffle…it’s easy to see cause and effect as you change things, and it is much easier to both make changes and get a reasonable result than with more complicated enclosure dependent designs.
 
You select a model which you like and they will sell you the building plans.
Or (what is better from my point view) you can select a kit (or kits) what you like, there should be the precise magazine year/number data.
Klang & Ton has a system of archives ordering:

Archive

hifitest.de hifitest.de
Each their design is real, it's built and measured, and there are plans of course.
For example, these "cheap trick" floorstanders: https://www.lautsprechershop.de/hifi/ct308_en.htm
The project description was in K+T 2/2020.
Measurements (not full, there are more)?
For example:

1686307786810.png


So, you know what you get.
 
notsodeadlizard said:
You select a model which you like and they will sell you the building plans.
Or (what is better from my point view) you can select a kit (or kits) what you like, there should be the precise magazine year/number data.
Klang & Ton has a system of archives ordering:

Archive

hifitest.de hifitest.de
Each their design is real, it's built and measured, and there are plans of course.
For example, these "cheap trick" floorstanders: https://www.lautsprechershop.de/hifi/ct308_en.htm
The project description was in K+T 2/2020.
Measurements (not full, there are more)?
For example:

View attachment 291079

So, you know what you get.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but can I readily find the article for a particular speaker and research before I buy?
 
Rick Sykora said:
Have been asked and am sure others may have some good suggestions for beginners that want to learn about designing speakers.

It is a bit dated and, despite not having built myself, a great passive build is the Dayton BR-1. The kit is reasonably priced and available with or without cabinets. The instructions are the best I have seen… https://www.parts-express.com/pedocs/manuals/300-640--dayton-audio-br-1-manual.pdf

An active example is more expensive and more challenging, but tried to do with Directiva r1. It remains a work in progress. I have learned a lot from Linkwitz Lab‘s site. I highly recommend his LXmini and Fitz conversation posts.

Please contribute your thoughts and experiences. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Dennis Murphy based an iteration of his Affordable Accuracy monitor off of the br-1. He’s done several xo mods, as well, further fine tuning the kit. I bought an older version from him and did a mod to add the Morel Tweeter and new xo per his schematics for the AA+.
Agree: this is a very good basic kit that can be made to sound even better with a little work.

It was a great lesson for me in building a crossover circuit from scratch, using only his schematics to work it out.
 
If you can find an archive of Speaker Builder Magazine, you'd have tons of speaker projects and articles about speakers.
 
Last edited:
Rick Sykora said:
Am looking for something simple for a beginner use to get started.

These may be fine speakers but not seeing the content I would expect. Can you be more specific?
Click to expand...
Maybe I didn't well understand what you were looking for (my english is... perfectible) . If it a easy open source design of a great speaker that someone can build like a cooking recipe, I have some ideas. But I thought your goal was to share projects from DIY skilled designers with rules of what work and what do not given explanations and measurements. That is what I am trying to do before doing my own design (for instance see https://heissmann-acoustics.de/schraege-fasen/)
In a second time, I spent a lot of time playing with vituixcad software (trying different volume enclosure ; baffle geometry ; active crossovers, etc...) (it costs nothing and you can see and understand the interaction between parameters)
 
Wouldn't the LXMini provide an appropriate context for most speaker principles? Especially with some guidance they cover in and out of phase sound, crossovers, PEQ's, enclosures, adjustability, and as you mentioned the site is rich with details for all kinds of people. I have a hard time thinking of a better place to really "get" speakers.
 
D!sco said:
Wouldn't the LXMini provide an appropriate context for most speaker principles? Especially with some guidance they cover in and out of phase sound, crossovers, PEQ's, enclosures, adjustability, and as you mentioned the site is rich with details for all kinds of people. I have a hard time thinking of a better place to really "get" speakers.
Click to expand...

The LXmini is a special case...

Agree there is a wealth of info to be discovered from Linkwitz but not as much how to do as how he did.
 

Measurements for speaker MTG Designs AlTi DIY

www.spinorama.org www.spinorama.org

www.mtg-designs.com

MTG Designs - AlTi

Full measurements for the AlTi DIY 2-way Bookshelf Speaker Design Link to the AlTi Design Thread The following measurements were performed on my 10' tall outdoor turntable, measurements taken at 2.83v / 2M on the tweeter axis and scaled 6dB for approximate 1w/1m level. Measurements gated at 14ms
www.mtg-designs.com www.mtg-designs.com

MTG Designs AlTi DIY is a great value DIY speaker and people also report that subjective impressions are excellent. Good directivity (though not perfect) for a two-way with no waveguide.

Spinirama measured outside and processed with VituixCAD. Not a Klippel but the measurements are not smoothed.

Especially considering the part prices, budget Directiva, perhaps?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Rick Sykora said:
The LXmini is a special case...

Agree there is a wealth of info to be discovered from Linkwitz but not as much how to do as how he did.
Click to expand...
It's true that it doesn't follow a lot of "traditional" concepts, but from a newbie's perspective, especially depending on woodworking and finishing skill, it seems more natural making it out of PVC and basic mounts. Plus there's no crossover soldering, which depending on your perspective again is laying the principles on bare or is a missed opportunity for explaining traditional building styles.
 
InfiniteVersion said:

Measurements for speaker MTG Designs AlTi DIY

www.spinorama.org www.spinorama.org

www.mtg-designs.com

MTG Designs - AlTi

Full measurements for the AlTi DIY 2-way Bookshelf Speaker Design Link to the AlTi Design Thread The following measurements were performed on my 10' tall outdoor turntable, measurements taken at 2.83v / 2M on the tweeter axis and scaled 6dB for approximate 1w/1m level. Measurements gated at 14ms
www.mtg-designs.com www.mtg-designs.com

Great value DIY speaker and people also report that subjective impressions are excellent. Good directivity (though not perfect) for a two-way with no waveguide.

Spinirama measured outside and processed with VituixCAD. Not a Klippel but the measurements are not smoothed.

Especially considering the part prices, budget Directiva, perhaps?
Click to expand...

Welcome to ASR!

While a little weak on explaining the driver choices and design rationales, these are better documented than most. Since have not built or heard, not sure about the budget Directiva possibility, but appears to be a good effort.

Thanks!
 
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