Yamaha Club speaker copies?

[SQconstable]

A friend and I are looking at bidding on building a sound system for a church. There are things we'd like to do in order to save money. One of them is the obvious: building the speakers instead of purchasing them pre-built.

Here's one we were looking at: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Yamaha-S...08-i1152937.gc

We were going to use 4 of these. They're $300 each, but I know I could probably get them around $250 with no sales tax with my account. So I'm trying to decide whether it would be worth building them. Has anyone ever tackled such a project for live sound?

Here's another one: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Yamaha-S...07-i1152939.gc

It's the dual 18" sub. It's already a decent price from a pre-built perspective but hmm.. how much are those drivers separately?

Here's the floor monitor: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Yamaha-S...00-i1152936.gc

We figured 2 of those are needed.

In total, these speakers would cost $2370. Would the cost savings of DIY'ing these outweigh any time spent making them? I have about 2 months to build them. Looks like I wont be saving too much, right?

Also, black color.. for a church? Seems eerie. I was thinking I could make something like these out of MDF and coat with white Herculiner. Ever tried that? I've done black Herculiner on a subwoofer enclosure for a studio setup and it looked/felt fantastic! Anything else you can think of or lead some direction into this?

[djg]

DIY sound

www.billfitzmaurice.com has some DIY PA systems.

[SQconstable]

I checked that out but I was looking more towards a design like people post up here in the boards (free). Or at least some knowledge rather than buying plans. I suppose I could buy one of the Yamaha's and disect it, but I'm trying to see if there's info on the drivers, crossovers, tweeters, etc used in these designs so I can purchase them directly as separates. For example, some guitar cabinets come with Eminence drivers, which you can purchase from MCM/PE and build your own cab.

[mayhem13]

By the time you purchased all the components needed and the cabinet materials, you would be around that amount without your sweat equity. On the other hand, if your goal was to outperform such a system, then i would suggest designing a Line Array type using multiple surplus or buyout drivers rounded out by DIY subs. You can e-mail Jack at Jhindley@comcast.net for info on a boatload of surplus drivers he has capable of the task.Hope this helps.

[SQconstable]

That's the info I was looking for. It seems that it is best for someone like me and my partner to stock these drivers/components ahead of time so we can have them ready for a particular job. It makes sense to purchase for the future. I don't see any info on Jack Hindley in Google... update.. it's Jack Hidley (no "N"). I see his page here: http://home.comcast.net/~jhidley/ Thanks for the info. I think I agree with the fact that it may cost more effort to make all these. I may just purchase them.

[Dennis H]

You can't save much building a speaker that retails for $250 if you count your time as being worth anything. If you paid yourself a living wage, you'd most likely have $200 in labor building it and that only leaves $50 for drivers, crossovers, cabinet materials. OTOH, if you're building a speaker that retails for $2K (or $10K ), you can save a bunch doing it yourself.

[Ray Tremblay]

Those are the best sound reinforcement speakers at that price point. You can't go wrong with the Yamaha's if that's your budget.

When it comes to professional audio, you need to check out this forum: http://acapella.harmony-central.com/...splay.php?f=33

[John_E_Janowitz]

A friend and I are looking at bidding on building a sound system for a church. There are things we'd like to do in order to save money. One of them is the obvious: building the speakers instead of purchasing them pre-built.

Here's one we were looking at: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Yamaha-S...08-i1152937.gc

We were going to use 4 of these. They're $300 each, but I know I could probably get them around $250 with no sales tax with my account. So I'm trying to decide whether it would be worth building them. Has anyone ever tackled such a project for live sound?

Here's another one: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Yamaha-S...07-i1152939.gc

It's the dual 18" sub. It's already a decent price from a pre-built perspective but hmm.. how much are those drivers separately?

Here's the floor monitor: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Yamaha-S...00-i1152936.gc

We figured 2 of those are needed.

In total, these speakers would cost $2370. Would the cost savings of DIY'ing these outweigh any time spent making them? I have about 2 months to build them. Looks like I wont be saving too much, right?

Also, black color.. for a church? Seems eerie. I was thinking I could make something like these out of MDF and coat with white Herculiner. Ever tried that? I've done black Herculiner on a subwoofer enclosure for a studio setup and it looked/felt fantastic! Anything else you can think of or lead some direction into this?

Ok, need to get a lot more info here before you get into some big issues. First is this your church that you go to? If so then that helps as you are directly talking to people and knowing their needs. The BIGGEST issue in churches is not the speakers, but the room. Do you have a layout of the church? How large is it, how many people, where is everything located, what style of worship, etc. Where do you plan to put the speakers and subwoofers to properly cover the room but not have issues with feedback? That all needs to be accounted for. Some details on all of the above is going to help a lot in any suggestions. Either a floorplan, pictures in the room, etc will help a lot in suggesting anything.

Secondly, other than for the smallest churches, those yamaha's aren't going to cut it to get the coverage needed. Without a floorplan or images though it is quite difficult to determine what you need. What are the electronics for the rest of the system? What kind of mixing board do they have, EQ, xover, processing, compressor gates, etc?

There are DIY options that are much less traditional than a 12" with a horn and can achieve much better coverage and clean output. Something like these arrays below can be made quite inexpensively with very good coverage throughout the room.




John