The Speaker Building Bible

[ryanbouma]

Re: The Speaker Building Bible - Thread opened for edits/input.

^

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/showthread.php?t=229930&highlight=HolmImpulse

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Re: The Speaker Building Bible

I'm opening this thread back up to take suggestions for edits and entries. I'll leave it open for two weeks, so hopefully you guys will notice and get your opinions in! :D

[evilskillit]

Re: The Speaker Building Bible

Updated on 11/17/10 to include a subwoofer section. The two links look lonely though. Thoughts?

Assuming Collo wouldn't mind I'd include his web page. Its got a ton of great DIY sub reference material.

http://www.subwoofer-builder.com/

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Re: The Speaker Building Bible

Updated on 11/17/10 to include a subwoofer section. The two links look lonely though. Thoughts?

[Wolf]

Don't leave out the LDSG...

A valid resource!
You can spend hours in there....

http://ldsg.snippets.org/idx.php

I had to find the updated link. Apparently the older one expired.

Later,
Wolf

[charlielaub]

some guidelines for "what" to build

I finally discovered this sticky thread, after being away from the board for awhile. All looks like pretty darn useful info, but it seems to be focused on "how" to build speakers. I thought I would add in a reference to an old post of mine that has surfaced from time to time that talks about "what" to build, depending on where the speaker needs to be located and what it is supposed to do, etc. It is aimed at people trying to come up with their own speaker design. It is not complete, and doesn't go in to detail about how to make the decisions, but it lays out an approach that I find useful. In case others would also this line of thinking, I am posting a link to it below, in this thread about speaker building info.

This link also references an earlier post in the thread made by Wolf, where he lists some good points as well:

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/showpost.php?p=1513896&postcount=16

-Charlie

[Patches9412]

Re: The Speaker Building Bible

Such an amazing help, saved me loads of time

[evilskillit]

Re: The Speaker Building Bible

Nobody likes my idea? :(

Well it would be neat, but its been asked for quite a few times with no results. Plus a lot of diy designs use some drivers not from here and are already hosted on other peoples sites, which then requires that you also get their permissions, and update the builds when they update them. Its a lot of work that no one is willing to do unfortunately. Tho a list of links to available designs or design caches would be handy, I'll agree.

[superspeeder]

Re: The Speaker Building Bible

Nobody likes my idea? :(

[superspeeder]

Re: The Speaker Building Bible

How about a section referencing complete speaker designs, even if just for the designs that have come from designers on this forum?

Maybe format it so that each design has the name and a one liner about the design (for a brief description), then a link to the build thread? I personally would find this very useful... unless I happen upon a thread that mentions the design I don't know it exists!

Oh, and list them alphabetically by name, just to be fair!

[dwigle]

Re: The Speaker Building Bible

Not a bad idea, subs are relatively low hanging fruit and almost everyone loves copious amounts of bass. Probably wasn't even thought of because its relatively elementary to the guys who are getting into crossover and speaker design.

There are a lot of write-ups on DIY subs, tho mostly on other forums. :( I know hometheatershack has a huge page with nothing but completed sub projects, and htguide has a sub project thread.

Tho technically anything that deals with box tuning, power handling, and boundary loading is really all you need to know for subs. But if you don't know anything about subs you won't know that. So yeah a sub section might not be a bad idea. I think most peoples first builds are subs. It was mine and everybody I know who has done DIY personally.

My thoughts exactly.

[evilskillit]

Re: The Speaker Building Bible

Not a bad idea, subs are relatively low hanging fruit and almost everyone loves copious amounts of bass. Probably wasn't even thought of because its relatively elementary to the guys who are getting into crossover and speaker design.

There are a lot of write-ups on DIY subs, tho mostly on other forums. :( I know hometheatershack has a huge page with nothing but completed sub projects, and htguide has a sub project thread.

Tho technically anything that deals with box tuning, power handling, and boundary loading is really all you need to know for subs. But if you don't know anything about subs you won't know that. So yeah a sub section might not be a bad idea. I think most peoples first builds are subs. It was mine and everybody I know who has done DIY personally.

[dwigle]

Re: The Speaker Building Bible

A number of noobs have posted recently looking for advice on building subs. Subs are certainly fertile ground for noobs - relatively easy to build resulting in a significant impact to 2ch or HT systems.

I thought of sending them to this excellent resource but after a review, it appears that there really is no beginners tutorial specifically on sub design, theory and construction. If I missed it, I missed it.

You could wade through a number of different links and pull the resources. It's there if you look hard enough.

It would be great to see a sub tutorial (I'm not volunteering).

Ok, now on to the big one. Another great resource would be a matrix or spreadsheet that has many of the popular proven designs listed in a configurable format. A format that could be searched by driver, enclosure size, designer, function (monitor, full range, floorstander, sub, etc.)

This list would be a challenging project, no doubt. But how often do we see posts asking "are there any projects that use XX woofer and YY tweeter"? Volunteers?

Frankly if the forum search function was more discriminating it wouldn't be such an issue. But a search for something like NP105 will either give you zero hits or 1500 hits. Neither is very helpful.

[auracle]

Re: The Speaker Building Bible

The Guide looks great so far. The only significant thing I think could use improvement on is the lack of a basic outline of speaker types at the beginning. A newbie should be given a general idea of what types of speakers have been made and a brief list of pros and cons of each design paradigm:

bipole, dipole, monopole, point source, line source, constant directivity, TM, TMW, MTM, MTMW, WMTMW, sat/sub, acoustic suspension, bass reflex, transmission line, horn etc........


If looking through the eyes of a newbie, it's easy to see how one could easily be overwhelmed with choices before getting started - the typical question always comes up - "What kind of speaker should I build"? Before getting to the point of making a choice, the stage has to be set for the person to have a broad understanding of what each design type seeks to accomplish with a list of typical strengths and weaknesses for each. The PE glossary of terms is a good starting point. But then you have to take the time to provide a little more background on each design approach so that the newbie can match his/her personal goals with the design type that best suits them.

The LoudspeakerBuilder.ca webpage does dedicate a few pages to this area but I'm a little reluctant to suggest using them as additional links because they aren't very comprehensive. Also, I found some errors in the Thiele Small page on that site - not sure why this link was selected as there are a lot of other sites that get it right and back up the basic explanations with actual mathematics.

BTW, there's no glossary entry for bass reflex or ported speaker types. There's an entry for "ports" but that's about it. Maybe a different term is used that I didn't see.

Edit: Looks like the BR alignment was covered in the "vented" definition but not explicitly named there. Since bass-reflex is such an important part of the industry - perhaps it deserves its own glossary entry.

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Re: The Speaker Building Bible

Awesome! Again Jeff, from every DIYer you've aided, thanks! Without your contributions we all could be on our 100th version of a re-worked crossover, without any idea of what was going on.