Loudspeaker Design

[Ed P]

I was building a Boombox/Media Centre to hold a Pi4 + DAC + two internal 3inch speakers, and thought that it may be appropriate to investigate if I can improve the sound quality from what is no more than a cheap & dirty setup.

During my research, I came across this link which gives the info you may need to build your own high quality free-standing speakers, if you follow the link in the article to the ORION (this may be of interest to Lee as a money earner as he is a skilled woodworker) . I think the electronics world has moved on since the Orion spec was written and there now may well be better and cheaper amp/crossover/equaliser options. (I know that certainly holds true for DACS, but my hearing is too poor to comment on the other components)

Did I learn anything to improve my own low cost Boombox – not a lot, but it will probably pay me to felt the base of the box to eliminate unwanted secondary vibrations from what is essentially a closed speaker box setup.

Topic

[keith with the teef]

Definatley look to eliminate vibration from the cabinet.

IME the cabinet chip board doubles in thickness when juming from a £250 to £500 speakers of simliar dimentions.

My current sytem is as digital as I can make it featuring a NAD 3020v2 optical conection. This gives the best sound quality above other supported options.

Dont think I will ever go back to traditional elec guzzling amp.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/david-b-weems/designing-building-and-testing-your-own-speaker-system/9780830613649?gclid=CjwKCAiA2O39BRBjEiwApB2Ikja1CIKKlBXGPAWkkN7qwvHKvLlD9T_6kHqlGoyFYOJFLD42otnu-xoCNwcQAvD_BwE

I have the above book and I used it to design and build several speakers in the mid eighties.

All the equations for building Horn, Reflex and Infinite baffle loaded speakers are in there but it also has some useful ready reconers that will get you pretty close without doing the measurements or the maths 😁

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

There was one thing I was surprised about.

I used the quick guide to workout that if I wanted a speaker to work down to 20 Hz without resonance then it should be 12 or 13 inches in diameter and with quite a large infinite baffle cabinet.

I was expecting large amounts of bass from this speaker, because of its size, but what I got was really really neutral.

 

[keith with the teef]

Over the years I have gotten through a few speakers. It always amazes me that on different speakers different artits may sound better or worse.

Take my last 3 sets: Boston acoustics. Thin Lizzy sounded like they was in the house. Monitor Audio, T. Rex definaley was in the house and current Bowers & Wilkins, ACDC in the house, Bon Scott can actually sing.

[Author]

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