DIY speaker building hints, links, and several modest proposals on how speakers REALLY should be built.

Important Note! This was written under the assumption that the reader would be a typical speaker building hobbiest. If you don't have much experience yet, please do more research before you do anything expensive. As a rough rule of thumb, if you are already a current subscriber of Speaker Builder then you should be OK. If you aren't, then subscribe. At the very least, get The Loudspeaker Design Cookbook.

Speaker building resources

• First, you need to check out the empire of Audio Amateur. They publish several magazines devoted to, um, audio amateurs. In particular, Speaker Builder. Their Old Colony Sound division offers a large collection of books, kits and software. I recommend the The Loudspeaker Design Cookbook and Bullock on Boxes books. Get them!
  
  
• Modest Proposals. Note: the (first) three articles are my opinions only and I'm not responsible if you go hog-wild and fill your living room up with equipment. And I'm definitely not responsible to your living partner. (I wish I had somebody to blame.)
  
  
  • How to get real life dynamic range using an electronic crossover.

  • Reasons why you want to build a subwoofer rather than buying that cute one from Radio Shack that is always on sale:

  • A description of my 3-way electronically crossed over system. The truth is finally out! Upated 09/18/2002. With photos .

  • The Ancient Audiophile's Quest for the Ultimate Home System was not written by me. (But I wish it was!) It was written by Drew Daniels, who was Applications Engineer at JBL Professional from 1984 to 1989.
    
    • Construction and Setup Detail for Drew Daniel's High-Efficiency Loudspeaker System
    • Drew's Clues
  • The above articles are a part of the Lansing Heritage site. "Dedicated to the Legacy of James Bullough Lansing and the Companies that Bear his Name"

  • 20,000 Watt Home System Another modest attempt.

  • Tom Brennan's Horn Loudspeaker and Home Theater Page

• Madisound is a great source of drivers and other parts. Request a copy of their catalog and you will get a thick sheaf containing complete specs on a lot of drivers. Passive crossovers are a real bear to design. Madisound will do a custom design for you, starting at $25. (They also sell a quality electronic crossover, which is the right way to do it!). They have a large archive of speaker related downloadable software. Descriptions are in catalog.txt. Check out Box Plot.
• Parts Express. Get their catalog. Driver specs aren't as comprehensive as what you get from Madisound, but they have a lot of other stuff.
• MCM Electronics has a minimal web site, but has a great 770 page paper catalog. Reasonably priced speaker boxes. 1-800-543-4330
• Zalytron is another good source of drivers and kits. Amusing catalog, with detailed driver specs. $50 minimum, though.
• Mouser is an large industrial electronics supplier. Good for more mainstream parts, like soldering irons, etc.
• Marchland makes electronic crossovers and power amp kits.
• Meniscus is another good supplier. They offer raw drivers and other speaker building supplies.
• Sonic Craft is another speaker parts distributer. "Bringing Loudspeakers and the Hobbyist into the 21st Century."
• Speaker City U.S.A has a complete line, including the McCauley professional line of woofers. (Hint, make a real subwoofer.) Drivers, enclosures, speaker kits, subwoofer amp with x-over, and more--descriptions available on-line.
• North Creek Music Systems (315) 369-2500 is a very selective supplier of critical parts that you can't get anywhere else, like their inexpensive soft dampening glue. Call them up and request a copy of their catalog. Also make sure to get copies of their North Creek Cabinet Handbook and North Creek Wiring Guide ($5 each, refundable when you buy parts from them.)

• Boxplot is a good shareware speaker box design program to get started with.
• Liberty Instrument's Audio Suite is a great speaker testing system. Do your own frequency response tests! And more.
• LspCAD is a a very powerful, but easy to use speaker box and passive crossover design and modeling program. It can use driver frequency response and impedence measurement data that are created with the Liberty Instrument Audio Suite. Highly reccommended.

• How to Scrounge Up a Cheap Computer. (And what to do with it once you've got it.)

• The Better Woodworking Guide & Directory

• Steve Ekblad's - Free Audio Software Page.
• Steve Ekblad's - Web Audio Sites.
• The Audiophile Links (all of them).

• Not really about Speaker Building, but Mix Books is real handy if you are any kind of musician. Originally was recording studio oriented, but they now carry a lot of books of interest to musicians.
• Audax
  
  
• My Electronic Crossover Primer.
• It is often a good idea to step outside of the world of home audio and investigate pro sound. Particulary because electronic crossovers actually exist there. And pro sound can be a lot cheaper! (400 watt amps for less than $400.) I'm a firm believer in using electronic crossovers. Rane makes some good ones. Their new Mojo series 24 db/octave crossover sells for about $320 in a stereo 3-way configuration. (XLR balanced only, although.) Also check out their extensive collection of tech notes.
• DBX makes a very popular $250 3 way stereo 24 db/octave xover.
• Ashly makes electronic crossovers that have variable filter slopes.
• Carvin's XC 3000 ($279) 2/3 way electronic crossover is also good. (That's what I use.) Also 24 db/octave Linkwitz Riley.
• Musician's Friend, and American Musical Supply are good musician/pro sound suppliers.
• Your stereo equipment probably uses RCA jacks. Most pro equipment uses either 1/4" or XLR jacks. (You can use "unbalanced" connections. Thats just the same as your regular RCA connections, only with different jacks. Watch out for any piece of pro sound equipment that only has balanced XLR connections. That's probably more pro than you need. You have to watch out for input level specs. If it says +6db, you can't drive it directly with your consumer stereo equipment. (However, you can usually use an electronic crossover as a buffer/booster....) The -10db "semi-pro" level spec is the same as regular stereo levels. You probably aren't going to lash up several six foot racks of power amps. At least not for a while.) A real good source of quality cables (say, RCA on one end and 1/4" on the other) and plugs is Conquest. (No web site--(800) 323-7671.)
• You can also buy 6 foot Radio Shack cables (the good ones with the gold ends) and cut them in half, strip the wire, and solder 1/4" jacks on the ends. That's what I do, after buying a bunch of Switchcraft 280 1/4" plugs from Conquest. ($.81 ea. no minimum.)
• You also could get a handful of RCA to 1/4" adapters from Radio Shack, but THAT WOULD BE WRONG.

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