My first DIY speaker project - DJ spkr upgrade

[Kevin P]

A year ago I bought a cheap pair of DJ speakers on eBay to use for dances, etc. They were nice and lightweight, but I quickly realized that the sound quality had much to be desired. So I'm embarking on an upgrade project.

Here's one of the original speakers:



Here's the original 12" woofer on the left, and the replacement Selenium WPU1209-SLF on the right:



Here's the backs of the woofers, original on the left. Which one do you think will sound better?



Original (piezo POS) tweeter on the left. New Selenium DT150-OEM driver in the middle, and new horn lens on the right.



A closer look at the piezo POS on the left and the Selenium on the right.



I was amazed when I unboxed the Parts Express Dayton crossover and compared it to the crossover that was in the speaker already. Which one would you rather have in YOUR speakers? :B



I'll post more as I put them together...

[ThomasW]

Cool, you have the honor of posting our first PA design. Looks like a pretty significant upgrade in progress.... :T

[poneal]

I agree...

Please keep us informed. I've always been intrigued with PA type systems. I have a friend (used to be a coworker but he works somewhere else now) that works as the umm (sound engineer i guess) in a nightclub here in town. He sets up all the speakers, amps, equalizes everything, etc. for the live bands that come in. He's into PA systems, electronic crossovers, etc. Well, im rambling so have fun and I'm sure it will sound better than your original.

[Kevin P]

Well, I put one together and... not bad for a first attempt. However, the mids were lacking. Sort of the opposite of Bose... highs and lows, but nothing in between. I swapped the original woofer back in and got my mids back. I guess the woofs I got are more for 3-way or mid-tweeter setups.

Since the new woofs didn't gain me much in the bass department (I guess I need to redesign the boxes for that, or use subs) I went back to the originals. But the upper mids/highs are a lot better with the new tweeters and crossovers.

So, I'll ship back the woofers I bought. I don't mind, those puppies weigh a ton each and would have made the speakers into back breakers.

I'll post pics later on.

[chasw98]

As long as you are retrofitting the crossover and the HF driver, you might want to look into the availability of a constant directivity horn. It will give you more even coverage in the horizontal plane.