How to Make Speaker Building Easy

I finished a speaker building project of four surround speakers this past Spring. These are not just painted plywood boxes with cheap paper speakers. I would compare them any day to audiophile brands. It's all in the crossover design and the quality of components. You can build top-shelf home theater or surround speakers for a fraction of the retail cost, and they can sound as good or better! This article is about the specific design I used, called the AudioReview.com DIY Speaker, designed by Ed Frias. What made this speaker building project easy was that I bought pre-made, pre-finished cabinets and had a parts list for a tested crossover and driver design. All the speaker building entailed was some cutting and putting together the pieces. Here's how I did it.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• For each speaker:
• 1 Dayton .38 ft³ 2-Way Cabinet
• 1 Seas 27TDFC (H1189) Textile dome tweeter
• 1 Seas P18RNX/P (H1350) 7" Poly Cone Woofer
• 1 4.7μF PX Range Polypropylene Capacitor
• 1 Jantzen 0.90mH 18 AWG Air Core Inductor
• 1 Jantzen 0.20mH 20 AWG Air Core Inductor
• 1 Port Tube 2" ID Adjustable
• 1 Acousta-Stuf Polyfill 1 lb. Bag
• 1 Dayton BPGS-25G Binding Post w/1" Thread
• 1 Dayton DNR-4.0 4 Ohm 10W Non-Inductive Resistor
• 1 Dayton DNR-2.0 2 Ohm 10W Non-Inductive Resistor
• 2 Dayton DNR-1.0 1 Ohm 10W Non-Inductive Resistor
• 1 Crossover PC Board 2-Way 12 dB
• A scroll saw or router
• Circle cutting template (optional)
• Soldering iron and solder
• 2 1' lengths 14 ga. speaker wire

1. 

   PRE-DRILL SPEAKER HOLES - Your speaker building begins with cutting the face of the pre-made cabinet. I used a drill press, but you can use any drill to drill where the exact center of each speaker hole should be. This makes it much easier to then use a template or jig to cut the hole.

2. 
   Tweeter Hole

   CUT SPEAKER HOLES -- I used a router and the Jasper circle-cutting jig. It worked great! The holes were precise. You can also use a scroll saw or other hand saw. Just make sure you can cut it relatively round. If you surface-mount the speaker, it will cover up any jagged edges. Since I used a router and jig, I was able to recess my speakers.

3. 
   Port Tube Hole

   CUT PORT TUBE HOLE -- Turn over the cabinet and cut the port tube hole in the back. Make sure it's located correctly according to instructions -- it matters where the hole is located.

4. 

   INSTALL PORT TUBE AND TERMINALS -- Before you screw in the port tube, put a strand of rope caulk (available at hardware stores) around the edge of it that will contact the cabinet. This will help seal it. Terminals should have a nut that you install on the inside of the box after sliding the terminals through the pre-drilled holes.

5. 
   2-way Crossover

   BUILD CROSSOVER -- Using the instructions I have linked to, build the crossover on the crossover board. Use cable ties to hold down the inductors. Solder as shown, or following your instructions if different. Solder the 2 1' sections of speaker wire to the crossover.

6. 

   INSTALL CROSSOVER IN CABINET -- Attach the crossover assembly to the back or bottom of the cabinet. I used hot-melt glue, but you can use anything that will hold it there - velcro, foam tape, etc. Connect the two terminal wires to the two terminals posts. Label and install spade terminals onto the wires that go to each speaker. Also, you will see an in-line resistor on the tweeter wire. This is in the speaker building crossover design.

7. INSTALL ACOUSTIC FILL -- Do not pack it in. You should be able to use about 1/4 lb. of the material per cabinet.

8. 
   Speaker building made easy!

   INSTALL DRIVERS -- The last step in speaker building is installing the drivers. Use foam weatherstrip or rope caulk around each speaker driver. Connect the wires from the crossover and screw the driver into the hole. Pre-drilling the screw holes helps.

Tips & Warnings

• I have a parts list for PartsExpress.com and MadiSound.com for this speaker building project. Let me know if you'd like a copy.
• I also have the crossover schematic if you want it.

Resources

• AR.Com DIY Speaker Page
• Speaker reviews
• The Jasper Jig -- this helped me a lot

[Desula]

on 12/26/2008 Thanks for the helpful article on how to make speaker building easy. This is valuable information. Thank you for listing all of the items I will need for this project.