Great sound for less? first diy speaker project

[Fantomas]

I've been lurking here for the past 3 days preparing for my first build and most of the posts relate to building a sound system comparable to Martin Logan...

I don't feel confident shelling out $50 for a crossover which I could would most likely screw up on or $80 for a driver. Eventually I'll see the light, but for now I just want to open my eyes.

Back to the point, what I'm wondering is can I build a decent set of bookshelf speakers around $100 for materials? I'm not looking to impress audiophiles, just have a better listening experience than my Altec Lansing computer speakers but do it with my own hands.

[WillyD]

Here is an intriguing design.

You could definitely build those for under $100 including every single thing you needed to buy. I am sure the other much more knowledgeable members will have a better recommendation. ops:

I know how you feel though.

[JonMarsh]

That's going to be a challenge- including drivers, crossover, cabinet, wiring, acoustical stuffing, etc? How much do you figure your time is worth? I.E., it takes about the same amount of time to build a $100 pair of bookshelfs (if you can find a design in that price range for materials) as a $250 set- but you really might like the latter a lot more and be willing to keep them longer.

OK, one of the cheapest decent 6-1/2" midwoofer I've come across is a carbon fiber one from MCM. It's the 55-2321, if I remember correctly. Looks like this.



That isn't what the current pic MCM posts looks like. These are about $25 each now, when I bought 16 to play around with for a line array, I got them for $22. That's about 2/3 of what an RS180 costs, but buy two of them, pay for shipping, and you've already used up half your $100 budget. There are a LOT of crap tweeters out there that you couldn't pay me to listen to, but the really pretty good ones actually start as low as $28-$30. Seas 27TDFC, or H1212, for example. OOOPS, two of those will put you over your budget. See what I mean? If you build junk, you won't want to listen to it, you'll be mad at the time and effort you spent, and you'll just want to throw it away, in all likelihood.

Save up a bit more money, and go for the gusto. There's a huge difference in what you can do for $100, versus $200 to $250.

Good luck, and what ever you do, have fun.

~Jon

[KeithM]

It would be better to save your money up for a bigger project, but if 100 dollars is your limit, try this.

[Fantomas]

Thanks guys for your suggestions. Money is not really the problem, it's justyfing spending $400 for a project only to never finish it or screw up requiring another $200 to fix it... etc.

I'll spend as much time as I needed to get it right, I really don't consider this aspect when doing something I'm so engrossed in.

[Fantomas]

Here is an intriguing design.

You could definitely build those for under $100 including every single thing you needed to buy. I am sure the other much more knowledgeable members will have a better recommendation. ops:

I know how you feel though.

Thanks, I think I will do just that for my office to replace my muddy Altec Lansings.

That's going to be a challenge- including drivers, crossover, cabinet, wiring, acoustical stuffing, etc? How much do you figure your time is worth? I.E., it takes about the same amount of time to build a $100 pair of bookshelfs (if you can find a design in that price range for materials) as a $250 set- but you really might like the latter a lot more and be willing to keep them longer.

OK, one of the cheapest decent 6-1/2" midwoofer I've come across is a carbon fiber one from MCM. It's the 55-2321, if I remember correctly. Looks like this.

[IMG]http://audioworx.virtualave.net/MCM65CarbonSS.jpg[IMG]

That isn't what the current pic MCM posts looks like. These are about $25 each now, when I bought 16 to play around with for a line array, I got them for $22. That's about 2/3 of what an RS180 costs, but buy two of them, pay for shipping, and you've already used up half your $100 budget. There are a LOT of crap tweeters out there that you couldn't pay me to listen to, but the really pretty good ones actually start as low as $28-$30. Seas 27TDFC, or H1212, for example. OOOPS, two of those will put you over your budget. See what I mean? If you build junk, you won't want to listen to it, you'll be mad at the time and effort you spent, and you'll just want to throw it away, in all likelihood.

Save up a bit more money, and go for the gusto. There's a huge difference in what you can do for $100, versus $200 to $250.

Good luck, and what ever you do, have fun.

~Jon

I see your point exactly, I guess I just need to get my hands dirty first then you watch. I've been known to go overboard into hobbies I'm only 3 months deep in. I'll reffer back to this post for my 2nd project

[cotdt]

Building really good speakers can be much more rewarding at the end and be a greater motivation to finish the project, at least that's how it works for me. So I would heed Jon's advice, he really knows his stuff from many aspects. Zaph has some low-cost designs, I've never built the cheaper designs but I know what I like in my speakers and those don't offer it due to the limitations of the drivers used. To me, the minimum for really good sound is the ModulaMT, and it can hold its own when compared against the best.

On the other hand, bookshelf speakers tend to be around the same size, so you can build something cheap for now with a nice box, and upgrade the drivers/crossover and only have to change the front baffle for the box. But I would aim high at the start, you WON'T be disassapointed with any of the designs posted on this forum.

[cjd]

Hey, speaking of which...

Build the Triune.

Down the road, with the addition of a different baffle (due to driver size differences) you can swap over to my MTM (which is priced about the same as the Modula MT).

You'll wonder why you ever built the Triune though.

C