[Rzarector]

HI.. im new to the forums here. I have been mostley been building subwoofer boxes for car audio applications but i wanted to try and upgrade the home theater a bit, and obviously theres a little more to it than a box and a few speakers. I was hoping for some input on what exactly i need. I was going to Build some tower speakers for the front, using some dayton 7" reference drivers from parts express(cant post url i guess because of rules) mainly because of price, this being my first attempt at tower speakers. i was also going to use the dayton silk dome tweeters, and perhaps mid domes? im not sure if there needed or not.. I suppose then il need a crossover as well, but i have no idea which ones. so any help to get me started would be awesome

 

[JCD]

First, Welcome to the Shack! Glad to have you here. I moved your thread to the DIY section.. it seemed more appropriate for your question.

Now, to answer your question:

I'm assuming that you've got the woodworking skills to build a good box based on your prior experience building boxes for cars, so I think DIY would be great for you. You can save a lot of $$ and get some great sound if you already have the tools and skills.

However, there is a lot more to designing a speaker from scratch than just picking the drivers and putting them in a box -- not the least of which is designing a crossover. That stuff is pure black magic. As such, I highly recommend you go with an already designed kit. There are several designs that are already out there that you can get for all kinds of budget levels.

In the US, there are generally 3 major internet stores I'd direct you to:

Zalytron -- Offers the best prices of the bunch. Bad website, and the person who runs it can be a little gruff, but if you already know what you want, like I said, it has the best prices.
Madisound -- Pretty extensive selection of drivers and has several designs for all kinds of budgets/desires.
PartsExpress -- Has the highest prices of the bunch, but has a lot of stuff the others don't. Their designs, overall, probably aren't as good as the other two since (and this is pure hearsay) they lock many of their designs in to the boxes they sell. Box volume/shape is one of the many variables that have to be determined in the speaker design process.

I don't know what the shipping would be to Canada from any of these companies, so I'd suggest you also take a look at:

Solen -- click on the "Design" link and it will take you to their kits.

I have no direct experience with Solen since I live in the US, but they look like they have a really good selection of drivers and a lot of kits available.

If you fill in some of the details, we might be able to steer you to a couple of kits that'd be good for what you want and your budget.

JCD

 

[Rzarector]

I checked out those sites. I see where your coming from with the kits, but really i just want to pick some drivers, figure out an ideal box and do some trial and error.. i dont plan on getting perfect results off the batt.. especially with the whole crossover thing:scratch: , have to do alot of reading on capicitors inductors and resistors:sarcastic: but theres only one way to really figure out how to do something (for me anyway) is doing it yourself.. plus i think it would be kind of a fun venture.. i plan to do this soon but not right away.. gotta build the bank account back up after i went on a frenzy with a router/table/bits thanks for all the suggestions

 

[BoomieMCT]

I checked out those sites. I see where your coming from with the kits, but really i just want to pick some drivers, figure out an ideal box and do some trial and error.. i dont plan on getting perfect results off the batt.. especially with the whole crossover thing:scratch:

I appreciate where you are coming from. I'm still trying to perfect my first crossover. I will suggest you check out FRD Constortiums Passive Crossover Designer (PCD). It is free and I've found it quite useful. If you use Unibox you can export files from it to be read into PCD. I've had to make files for tweeters by hand based of manufacturer's graphs and at-home testing.

 

[JCD]

I think it's great that you're in it for the fun/process.

To that end, I do have some links/info for you:

1. The DIY bible is The Loudspeaker Design Cookbook by Vance Dickason. It's current version is 7, but you can get version 6 here for only $11.
2. Vance Dickason's website -- has various tools he will e-mail you.
3. WinISD/WinISD Pro -- probably the most commonly used freeware design program out there
4. Guide to Using WinISD Pro found on another forum
5. SpeakerWorkshop -- a supposedly feature rich program for designing speakers, but is supposed to have a steep learning curve.
6. Unibox is a program to help in the box building phase
7. Zaph Audio is a good resource to see the relative merits of several different drivers
8. LaLena is an online resource for a lot of different issues related to DIY -- has a decent summary on the linked page of the various issues that need to be addressed.
9. Elliot Sounds article on designing a crossover
10. Another Crossover design page

That should get you started. :bigsmile:

I look forward to your future project!

JCD

 

[Rzarector]

awesome thanks guys, definately get that book ive herd it mentioned alot.. il check most of the links tomorrow when i dont work a 17 hour day lol