Hello my fellow audionauts!
I come before you today in an attempt to gain a bit of insight into exactly what I have gotten myself into by embarking on my first journey into DIY speaker building!
Prepare yourselves for a short essay.
The background: I am 18, live alone and pay all of my own bills (read: limited budget. hm... food vs speakers haha). I refurbished my main speakers a while back (Magnepan SMGa - fixed a bit of delamination and they now have new black lycra socks/covers ? and the oak trimmings), upgraded the XOs and have been enjoying them ever since. They really are magical speakers, but are definitely lacking in the lower side of the spectrum. My listening room/lounge/open-plan kitchen has records on the wall, my old dark wood and marble top desk, a retro looking couch and a sit-on-me-poof-thing. Everything sort of matches, so I'd like to build these subs to match my Maggies - but I'll get to that a bit later.
The brief: Build 2 (stereo) subwoofers that provide tight, musical and accurate base reproduction while transparently integrating with my existing main speakers (Magnepan SMGa). No boomy bass, no distortion.
Integration is a two tier factor:
First - the music. the sound. the feeling. the magic.
Second - the aesthetics.
The budget: My original budget was R6k, but it seems that I am going to blow it on drivers and plate amplifiers alone. This means I will need to build these subwoofers over several months while eating stale bread and drinking water
The bits: I have spent the last 2 weeks chatting to Ian (JimGore) about this and he has suggested the following parameters and parts for each subwoofer:
- A Peerless 835017 XXLS 12" Aluminum Cone Driver (http://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/approx-12-subwoofers/peerless-835017-xxls-12-aluminum-cone-4-ohm/)
- A Keiga KG5150 (200 Watt) Plate amplifier (http://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/keiga-amplifiers/keiga-kg5150-200-watt/) - (edit: I now see this amp is rated for 115V AC..? edit again: http://www.keiga.com.tw/pdf/KG-5150_X3.pdf says voltage is factory adjustable... so specify when ordering from Madisound I assume)
- A 150 litre critically dampened and heavily braced MDF box
Both the Peerless driver and the Keiga plate amplifier are available from Madisound. Luckily Ian is doing an import from them in September (http://www.avforums.co.za/index.php/topic,10873.0.html).
-----------------------------
I don?t have any tools, so I will need to buy the ones I need. Ian has suggested that I get the wood cut at wherever I buy it (I?m thinking Lumber City ? there is one near me). I also don?t have a garage, so all construction will be done either in my kitchen (ah the smell of glue in the morning!) or my girlfriend?s parents? garage.
As a first step, I have downloaded WinISD Pro and Google Sketchup. I tried to enter the driver parameters into WinISD Pro, but it said that the parameters failed a consistency check and refused to work with me?
This weekend I have also embarked on learning Sketchup so that I can accurately model the cabinet and internal bracing before ordering MDF board and getting it cut.
Before I ask any questions about designing and building the cabinet, I?d like to show you what I had in mind for the aesthetics of the subwoofer - http://i55.tinypic.com/j589ah.jpg (excuse the MS Paint job). Basically a cube covered in black lycra with oak trimmings to match my Maggies. I was thinking that I should build a cube out of MDF, install the driver and then attach the oak trimmings.
So some questions:
1) WinISD Pro? Help!
2) Comments on choice of driver/amplifier?
3) Comments on volume of box?
4) What will be the most effective bracing strategy?
5) How should the actual cube be constructed? Specifically, where the joins should be in relation to the driver. (http://i54.tinypic.com/2eyjqt4.png - which side should the driver be on?)
6) 16mm MDF?
7) Which clamps will I need? (tooltime.co.za?)
8) In what order should the cabinet be glued together?
Unfortunately all of the questions that have been floating around in my head have taken a dive (mixed metaphor anyone?), but when they resurface I will be sure to jot them down and pose them to this great community of DIYers.
If you are still reading this, I commend you on your endurance and commitment to this thread. Thank you!
Regards,
Chris
I come before you today in an attempt to gain a bit of insight into exactly what I have gotten myself into by embarking on my first journey into DIY speaker building!
Prepare yourselves for a short essay.
The background: I am 18, live alone and pay all of my own bills (read: limited budget. hm... food vs speakers haha). I refurbished my main speakers a while back (Magnepan SMGa - fixed a bit of delamination and they now have new black lycra socks/covers ? and the oak trimmings), upgraded the XOs and have been enjoying them ever since. They really are magical speakers, but are definitely lacking in the lower side of the spectrum. My listening room/lounge/open-plan kitchen has records on the wall, my old dark wood and marble top desk, a retro looking couch and a sit-on-me-poof-thing. Everything sort of matches, so I'd like to build these subs to match my Maggies - but I'll get to that a bit later.
The brief: Build 2 (stereo) subwoofers that provide tight, musical and accurate base reproduction while transparently integrating with my existing main speakers (Magnepan SMGa). No boomy bass, no distortion.
Integration is a two tier factor:
First - the music. the sound. the feeling. the magic.
Second - the aesthetics.
The budget: My original budget was R6k, but it seems that I am going to blow it on drivers and plate amplifiers alone. This means I will need to build these subwoofers over several months while eating stale bread and drinking water
The bits: I have spent the last 2 weeks chatting to Ian (JimGore) about this and he has suggested the following parameters and parts for each subwoofer:
- A Peerless 835017 XXLS 12" Aluminum Cone Driver (http://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/approx-12-subwoofers/peerless-835017-xxls-12-aluminum-cone-4-ohm/)
- A Keiga KG5150 (200 Watt) Plate amplifier (http://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/keiga-amplifiers/keiga-kg5150-200-watt/) - (edit: I now see this amp is rated for 115V AC..? edit again: http://www.keiga.com.tw/pdf/KG-5150_X3.pdf says voltage is factory adjustable... so specify when ordering from Madisound I assume)
- A 150 litre critically dampened and heavily braced MDF box
Both the Peerless driver and the Keiga plate amplifier are available from Madisound. Luckily Ian is doing an import from them in September (http://www.avforums.co.za/index.php/topic,10873.0.html).
-----------------------------
I don?t have any tools, so I will need to buy the ones I need. Ian has suggested that I get the wood cut at wherever I buy it (I?m thinking Lumber City ? there is one near me). I also don?t have a garage, so all construction will be done either in my kitchen (ah the smell of glue in the morning!) or my girlfriend?s parents? garage.
As a first step, I have downloaded WinISD Pro and Google Sketchup. I tried to enter the driver parameters into WinISD Pro, but it said that the parameters failed a consistency check and refused to work with me?
This weekend I have also embarked on learning Sketchup so that I can accurately model the cabinet and internal bracing before ordering MDF board and getting it cut.
Before I ask any questions about designing and building the cabinet, I?d like to show you what I had in mind for the aesthetics of the subwoofer - http://i55.tinypic.com/j589ah.jpg (excuse the MS Paint job). Basically a cube covered in black lycra with oak trimmings to match my Maggies. I was thinking that I should build a cube out of MDF, install the driver and then attach the oak trimmings.
So some questions:
1) WinISD Pro? Help!
2) Comments on choice of driver/amplifier?
3) Comments on volume of box?
4) What will be the most effective bracing strategy?
5) How should the actual cube be constructed? Specifically, where the joins should be in relation to the driver. (http://i54.tinypic.com/2eyjqt4.png - which side should the driver be on?)
6) 16mm MDF?
7) Which clamps will I need? (tooltime.co.za?)
8) In what order should the cabinet be glued together?
Unfortunately all of the questions that have been floating around in my head have taken a dive (mixed metaphor anyone?), but when they resurface I will be sure to jot them down and pose them to this great community of DIYers.
If you are still reading this, I commend you on your endurance and commitment to this thread. Thank you!
Regards,
Chris
