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I built my own speakers for under $200 and I honestly think they are some of the best I've ever heard for a personal setup. They were inspired by https://www.yo

I built my own speakers for under $200 and I honestly think they are some of the best I've ever heard for a personal setup. They were inspired by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKIye4RZ-5k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKIye4RZ-5k (Tech Ingredients) . I built the speakers from foam board, the subwoofer from car audio parts and the amp is a standard class D amp. The best part is whenever someone comments on how good my speakers sound I can say I built them myself.

jonhohle 4y ago
Were there any guides or tutorials you followed? 20 years ago or so, I knew someone who built their own speaker cabinets and I couldn’t believe DIY speakers could match companies that spent hundreds millions on audio engineering. I’ve heard enough anecdotes that I would be interested in learning more.
- bolt7469 4y ago
  You might like this playlist from DIY Perks: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOJU8YJjFwGOeh6BgCWVhZf5HSkfVPVP3 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOJU8YJjFwGOeh6BgCWVh...
- fasteddie31003 4y ago
  I sized my subwoofer box using https://subbox.pro/en/ https://subbox.pro/en/ . I built the foam board speakers the same way built here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKIye4RZ-5k&ab_channel=TechIngredients https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKIye4RZ-5k&ab_channel=TechI... . The amplifier is a class D amp from amazon somewhat like this one https://a.co/d/8XgEEsG https://a.co/d/8XgEEsG
- jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago
  https://www.diyaudio.com/community/ https://www.diyaudio.com/community/ is the main online forum. There's a fair bit of discussion over at parts-express.com's forums as well. There's a variety of books out there. Sound Reproduction by Dr Toole is a very comprehensive reference to the big picture, but doesn't really get into speaker and crossover design specifically. There's other books you can find for that, but I'm unaware of the most recent good ones as I read most of this stuff decades ago. In that era the Vance Dickenson book was a big one. The main reasons DIY can rival hifi are: 1. Good components are available to DIY builders. Yeah there's some proprietary stuff that's cool you can't get. But there's a ton of very top quality stuff you can get. 2. Retail hifi has insanely restrictive costs. They'll save every penny possible. So simply by buying better capacitors, etc, or using a slightly more complex crossover, or building a bigger box than is fashionable you can gain an edge. 3. The digital room correction systems offered on most home AV receivers today do a lot to fix simple flaws in DIY designs, giving more slack.
  - JohnBooty 4y ago
    For those who want the ultimate TL;DR on Dr. Toole's book, it's something like this: Listeners prefer objectively accurate (ie, the input matches the output) audio reproduction, with some added emphasis on the bass frequencies. Because most of the sound we hear indoors is actually reflected, it is crucial that frequency response of the speakers remains constant as we move off axis. This might seem blindingly obvious, especially the first part, but it's groundbreaking work as far as demystifying audio is concerned. For so many decades, the snake oil salesmen dominated the hifi industry with bogus claims. They wanted us to think that building speakers was like crafting the perfect wine. But it's not. It's engineering. =)
    - jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago
      Yeah, I should have elaborated more. What I love about Toole's book is it's basically the whole big picture of audio, completely sourced and grounded in real deal empirical research, but research that also worked to correlate objective measurements to subjective preferences. All those internet arguments over the years about what matters and what doesn't, tubes vs transistors, class A vs class AB amps, you name it... Toole's book is the cliff notes of what's actually real. It's such a huge advantage vs when I first started reading this stuff in the 90s and it was a lot harder to find information that wasn't just someone's "golden ear" opinion imagined out of thin air.
    - archi42 4y ago
      The alternative (or an engineering trade off!) can be doing the opposite: Only care for on-axis sound, and while at it put most of the energy on the axis to reduce energy of reflections. Drawback: Works best with one or at most two listeners, plus speakers and listener are constrained in their relative positions. Bad for the living room, not an issue in a study. The bundling is a matter of membrane diameter and frequency. Bigger diameter result in stronger beam forming, however lower frequencies have less beam forming. You can see the effect very well in the directivity pattern of this 8" wide band speaker: https://www.visaton.de/sites/default/files/dd_product/B%20200.pdf https://www.visaton.de/sites/default/files/dd_product/B%2020... I've a FAST/WAW with a 4" wideband (250Hz XO). As personal monitor speakers these work great with an amazing stage and "resolution" (the illusion of being able to pinpoint the exact spatial location of a single instrument). //woah: Thanks you two (you&GP) for triggering me on this (not /s)! While grabbing a coffee I spent a few minutes thinking about beam forming in audio applications; and came up with the line array. Not so novel, I know, but I'm happy to have gotten there on my own.
- matthew-wegner 4y ago
  If you're in the US, this is a great first kit ($160 shipped for a pair): https://www.parts-express.com/Overnight-Sensations-MT-Speaker-Pair-Kit-300-706 https://www.parts-express.com/Overnight-Sensations-MT-Speake... These are a good step up for a living room, although $240/ea: https://www.parts-express.com/Amiga-MT-Tower-Speaker-Kit-With-Knock-Down-Cabinet-300-7124 https://www.parts-express.com/Amiga-MT-Tower-Speaker-Kit-Wit... There are a few other sites that sell kits, either just the electronics or including pre-cut cabinets, i.e. https://meniscusaudio.com/product-category/speaker-kits/ https://meniscusaudio.com/product-category/speaker-kits/ I have a pair of these in my garage to build as a summer project (although getting a bit late for "summer"): https://www.parts-express.com/Solstice-MLTL-Reference-Tower-Speaker-Kit-300-708 https://www.parts-express.com/Solstice-MLTL-Reference-Tower-... Paul Carmody has quite a few designs: https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy Jeff Bagby is another big name in the DIY speaker world, although he died of COVID in March 2020 and I'm not sure there's a centralized site of his designs :(
  - Yhippa 4y ago
    Thanks for these links. Do they make kits for soundbars? I'd like to get something short to put in front of the TV and it feels like I should be able to make something. I guess the problem would be integrating ARC into it. Edit: nevermind there is one with ARC: https://www.parts-express.com/AudioBar-powered-1.5-way-2-channel-sound-bar-speaker-kit-300-7146 https://www.parts-express.com/AudioBar-powered-1.5-way-2-cha...
  - MrBuddyCasino 4y ago
    Some suggestions from the german DIY scene: A step up from the overnight sensations, the Twiggy BR: http://www.hifi-forum.de/index.php?action=browseT&forum_id=267&thread=1218 http://www.hifi-forum.de/index.php?action=browseT&forum_id=2... Built them myself, hard to improve on price-performance ratio. They have no right to sound this great given their size & budget. The Bantams are supposed to be very good as well, suitable for eg desktop use, haven't heard or built them myself yet: https://techtalk.parts-express.com/forum/speaker-project-gallery/1304991-the-bantams-micro-speaker-system https://techtalk.parts-express.com/forum/speaker-project-gal... There is also a more fancy version called Bantam Onyx, for when looks matter: http://www.hifi-forum.de/viewthread-205-1154.html http://www.hifi-forum.de/viewthread-205-1154.html Reference class monitors DXT-MON 182, 36-20000Hz, completely flat frequency response: https://heissmann-acoustics.de/dxt-mon-182/ https://heissmann-acoustics.de/dxt-mon-182/
- JohnBooty 4y ago
  I knew someone who built their own speaker cabinets and I couldn’t believe DIY speakers could match companies that spent hundreds millions on audio engineering Yeah! The good news is that in many ways, audio is a solved problem - the industry is over a century old, so all the fun tech has had lots of time to trickle down to DIY folks. =) That said, designing your own high quality (I'm defining "high quality" as "measures objectively well") speaker "from scratch" is quite a bit of work. https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy-speaker-faqs/diy-faqs-provendesigns https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy-speaker-faqs/... Most folks, even designers, start by building other peoples' designs. If you really want to design your own speakers, then absolutely go for it. It's not rocket science, but it's somewhat involved if you want to do it right. If you just want a pair of high quality speakers for cheap (I am one of those people!) then use an existing design w/ a flat-pack kit from Parts Express or elsewhere.
- tinco 4y ago
  No one spends hundreds of millions on audio engineering. Or at least, not at achieving the best audio experience. The company that spends the most on audio R&D are probably Bose, and their whole goal is to produce speakers that look good and sound acceptable. The reason DIY audio gear matches really expensive factory built gear, is that the secret to good sounding audio is good sounding speakers, and good sounding speakers are heavy and big, and have intricate cones made out of expensive materials. Imagine how expensive it is to manufacture such a thing and have it marketed and shipped, and you'll realise they need large margins on something that's already expensive. Combine that with that the actual construction of speakers is very simple anyone could it do with a basic set of woodworking tools, not to mention that many people enjoy doing it as a hobby. Of course good amplifiers are also part of the story, but their development is a sort of by product of the computer industry, as better transistors has generally meant better amplifiers, with class D amplifiers basically being the state of the art right now.
mc32 4y ago
Class D amps: https://www.hypex.nl/ https://www.hypex.nl/
analog31 4y ago
I've dabbled in this area too, both for home audio and musical instrument use. The thing I like about building my own is that I know exactly what I'm getting. I can either do my own analysis to my heart's content (of course at my own risk) or plug into the DIY community. Some of the design articles I've come across indicate that there are some very serious hobbyists out there, with interest in understanding both theory and measurements. And no marketing hype.
eru 4y ago
I assume you mean for under $200 of materials; and you did not charge yourself for the labour?
- jstanley 4y ago
  Why would you charge yourself labour for doing something you enjoy? If anything you should be paying yourself!
  - eru 4y ago
    Oh, it's more for comparison of the price with commercial offerings.

jonhohle 4y ago

Were there any guides or tutorials you followed? 20 years ago or so, I knew someone who built their own speaker cabinets and I couldn’t believe DIY speakers could match companies that spent hundreds millions on audio engineering. I’ve heard enough anecdotes that I would be interested in learning more.

bolt7469 4y ago
You might like this playlist from DIY Perks: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOJU8YJjFwGOeh6BgCWVhZf5HSkfVPVP3 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOJU8YJjFwGOeh6BgCWVh...
fasteddie31003 4y ago
I sized my subwoofer box using https://subbox.pro/en/ https://subbox.pro/en/ . I built the foam board speakers the same way built here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKIye4RZ-5k&ab_channel=TechIngredients https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKIye4RZ-5k&ab_channel=TechI... . The amplifier is a class D amp from amazon somewhat like this one https://a.co/d/8XgEEsG https://a.co/d/8XgEEsG
jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/ https://www.diyaudio.com/community/ is the main online forum. There's a fair bit of discussion over at parts-express.com's forums as well. There's a variety of books out there. Sound Reproduction by Dr Toole is a very comprehensive reference to the big picture, but doesn't really get into speaker and crossover design specifically. There's other books you can find for that, but I'm unaware of the most recent good ones as I read most of this stuff decades ago. In that era the Vance Dickenson book was a big one. The main reasons DIY can rival hifi are: 1. Good components are available to DIY builders. Yeah there's some proprietary stuff that's cool you can't get. But there's a ton of very top quality stuff you can get. 2. Retail hifi has insanely restrictive costs. They'll save every penny possible. So simply by buying better capacitors, etc, or using a slightly more complex crossover, or building a bigger box than is fashionable you can gain an edge. 3. The digital room correction systems offered on most home AV receivers today do a lot to fix simple flaws in DIY designs, giving more slack.
- JohnBooty 4y ago
  For those who want the ultimate TL;DR on Dr. Toole's book, it's something like this: Listeners prefer objectively accurate (ie, the input matches the output) audio reproduction, with some added emphasis on the bass frequencies. Because most of the sound we hear indoors is actually reflected, it is crucial that frequency response of the speakers remains constant as we move off axis. This might seem blindingly obvious, especially the first part, but it's groundbreaking work as far as demystifying audio is concerned. For so many decades, the snake oil salesmen dominated the hifi industry with bogus claims. They wanted us to think that building speakers was like crafting the perfect wine. But it's not. It's engineering. =)
  - jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago
    Yeah, I should have elaborated more. What I love about Toole's book is it's basically the whole big picture of audio, completely sourced and grounded in real deal empirical research, but research that also worked to correlate objective measurements to subjective preferences. All those internet arguments over the years about what matters and what doesn't, tubes vs transistors, class A vs class AB amps, you name it... Toole's book is the cliff notes of what's actually real. It's such a huge advantage vs when I first started reading this stuff in the 90s and it was a lot harder to find information that wasn't just someone's "golden ear" opinion imagined out of thin air.
  - archi42 4y ago
    The alternative (or an engineering trade off!) can be doing the opposite: Only care for on-axis sound, and while at it put most of the energy on the axis to reduce energy of reflections. Drawback: Works best with one or at most two listeners, plus speakers and listener are constrained in their relative positions. Bad for the living room, not an issue in a study. The bundling is a matter of membrane diameter and frequency. Bigger diameter result in stronger beam forming, however lower frequencies have less beam forming. You can see the effect very well in the directivity pattern of this 8" wide band speaker: https://www.visaton.de/sites/default/files/dd_product/B%20200.pdf https://www.visaton.de/sites/default/files/dd_product/B%2020... I've a FAST/WAW with a 4" wideband (250Hz XO). As personal monitor speakers these work great with an amazing stage and "resolution" (the illusion of being able to pinpoint the exact spatial location of a single instrument). //woah: Thanks you two (you&GP) for triggering me on this (not /s)! While grabbing a coffee I spent a few minutes thinking about beam forming in audio applications; and came up with the line array. Not so novel, I know, but I'm happy to have gotten there on my own.
matthew-wegner 4y ago
If you're in the US, this is a great first kit ($160 shipped for a pair): https://www.parts-express.com/Overnight-Sensations-MT-Speaker-Pair-Kit-300-706 https://www.parts-express.com/Overnight-Sensations-MT-Speake... These are a good step up for a living room, although $240/ea: https://www.parts-express.com/Amiga-MT-Tower-Speaker-Kit-With-Knock-Down-Cabinet-300-7124 https://www.parts-express.com/Amiga-MT-Tower-Speaker-Kit-Wit... There are a few other sites that sell kits, either just the electronics or including pre-cut cabinets, i.e. https://meniscusaudio.com/product-category/speaker-kits/ https://meniscusaudio.com/product-category/speaker-kits/ I have a pair of these in my garage to build as a summer project (although getting a bit late for "summer"): https://www.parts-express.com/Solstice-MLTL-Reference-Tower-Speaker-Kit-300-708 https://www.parts-express.com/Solstice-MLTL-Reference-Tower-... Paul Carmody has quite a few designs: https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy Jeff Bagby is another big name in the DIY speaker world, although he died of COVID in March 2020 and I'm not sure there's a centralized site of his designs :(
- Yhippa 4y ago
  Thanks for these links. Do they make kits for soundbars? I'd like to get something short to put in front of the TV and it feels like I should be able to make something. I guess the problem would be integrating ARC into it. Edit: nevermind there is one with ARC: https://www.parts-express.com/AudioBar-powered-1.5-way-2-channel-sound-bar-speaker-kit-300-7146 https://www.parts-express.com/AudioBar-powered-1.5-way-2-cha...
- MrBuddyCasino 4y ago
  Some suggestions from the german DIY scene: A step up from the overnight sensations, the Twiggy BR: http://www.hifi-forum.de/index.php?action=browseT&forum_id=267&thread=1218 http://www.hifi-forum.de/index.php?action=browseT&forum_id=2... Built them myself, hard to improve on price-performance ratio. They have no right to sound this great given their size & budget. The Bantams are supposed to be very good as well, suitable for eg desktop use, haven't heard or built them myself yet: https://techtalk.parts-express.com/forum/speaker-project-gallery/1304991-the-bantams-micro-speaker-system https://techtalk.parts-express.com/forum/speaker-project-gal... There is also a more fancy version called Bantam Onyx, for when looks matter: http://www.hifi-forum.de/viewthread-205-1154.html http://www.hifi-forum.de/viewthread-205-1154.html Reference class monitors DXT-MON 182, 36-20000Hz, completely flat frequency response: https://heissmann-acoustics.de/dxt-mon-182/ https://heissmann-acoustics.de/dxt-mon-182/
JohnBooty 4y ago
I knew someone who built their own speaker cabinets and I couldn’t believe DIY speakers could match companies that spent hundreds millions on audio engineering Yeah! The good news is that in many ways, audio is a solved problem - the industry is over a century old, so all the fun tech has had lots of time to trickle down to DIY folks. =) That said, designing your own high quality (I'm defining "high quality" as "measures objectively well") speaker "from scratch" is quite a bit of work. https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy-speaker-faqs/diy-faqs-provendesigns https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy-speaker-faqs/... Most folks, even designers, start by building other peoples' designs. If you really want to design your own speakers, then absolutely go for it. It's not rocket science, but it's somewhat involved if you want to do it right. If you just want a pair of high quality speakers for cheap (I am one of those people!) then use an existing design w/ a flat-pack kit from Parts Express or elsewhere.
tinco 4y ago
No one spends hundreds of millions on audio engineering. Or at least, not at achieving the best audio experience. The company that spends the most on audio R&D are probably Bose, and their whole goal is to produce speakers that look good and sound acceptable. The reason DIY audio gear matches really expensive factory built gear, is that the secret to good sounding audio is good sounding speakers, and good sounding speakers are heavy and big, and have intricate cones made out of expensive materials. Imagine how expensive it is to manufacture such a thing and have it marketed and shipped, and you'll realise they need large margins on something that's already expensive. Combine that with that the actual construction of speakers is very simple anyone could it do with a basic set of woodworking tools, not to mention that many people enjoy doing it as a hobby. Of course good amplifiers are also part of the story, but their development is a sort of by product of the computer industry, as better transistors has generally meant better amplifiers, with class D amplifiers basically being the state of the art right now.

mc32 4y ago

Class D amps: https://www.hypex.nl/ https://www.hypex.nl/

analog31 4y ago

I've dabbled in this area too, both for home audio and musical instrument use. The thing I like about building my own is that I know exactly what I'm getting. I can either do my own analysis to my heart's content (of course at my own risk) or plug into the DIY community. Some of the design articles I've come across indicate that there are some very serious hobbyists out there, with interest in understanding both theory and measurements. And no marketing hype.

eru 4y ago

I assume you mean for under $200 of materials; and you did not charge yourself for the labour?

jstanley 4y ago
Why would you charge yourself labour for doing something you enjoy? If anything you should be paying yourself!
- eru 4y ago
  Oh, it's more for comparison of the price with commercial offerings.