First step into the waters

[yuvaraki]

Hi All,

Today more out of deperation to get my dta1 out of the box than anything else, i opened-up my 6 yrs old creative sbs 400 speakers, extracted the drivers as i dont have pair of passives with me right now. I was suprised to see only one driver. Each driver was was very small may be 2" each. Anyways, i connected the drivers to the speaker wire and connected to the amp and fired it up and was happy to see the amp in action. Though not a proper guage to the amps claimed capabilities, i was pretty happy with the output. This gives me more confidence to start building a DIY speaker set. Just wanted to share my experience so that ppl like me who are intimidated by the idea of DIY will rip apart their old speakers and try something like this.

 

[sbg]

"...intimidated by the idea of DIY..."

I do not see the reason for this but there is always a First Step.
so Congrats and pleas go ahead do the next wishful thinking in your mind.

Here is an example on what I did long time back.

Logitech R-5
just played its music for about an hour or so on the first day, the next day I had to start my music on this. This was for dad - his night time listening.

... he is more on simple , easy to handle devices , gets intimidated with new gadgets ( including Remotes with 30+ buttons on it )

 

[yuvaraki]

what exactly did you with a those speakers?

 

[yuvaraki]

Oops i did it again!

I recently got a non-functional BXR 1221 from a friend hoping to learn something new by looking at the internals and yes indeed i learnt few things.

I got to look at the 3.5mm internals and how it holds onto to the connector. I also saw from this setup that a 1 to 2" full ranger has been relied up-on by Altec lansing to deliver much of the frequency range and still make decent sounding system for 1200 bucks. I was hoping that Sub was powered but found that tiny amp chip inside one of the speaker is powering the 3 drivers.

Coming to the output when connected to the DTA1, i was really happy i put some effort to pick these up from friends place and ripped them apart.

I have been listening for past 2-3 hours and really enjoy the sound. These definitely sound better except the bass is almost nil. Certain sounds are deifnitely more clear and instruments are spaced out and sound stage is definitely wider. Its as if the speaker is restricting the amp from putting forward amps real sound stage capabilities. Needless to say, Amp drives these lil drivers to insane volumes for near-field listening!

Would i say, all this messing around with cheap components not-so-useful??? DEFINITELY NOT!!!!!!!! I am definitely getting better every passing day in understanding diff terms user in Audio world.

 

[kaushik]

whoa .. ur work inspired me to add a new project in DIY list ..
i have a dead-mechanism philips 2in1,amp psu,speakers all intact...
just i will add the USB source from arjen helder ebay and do a mdf makeover !

mini system for kitchen will be cool

 

[yuvaraki]

whoa .. ur work inspired me to add a new project in DIY list ..
i have a dead-mechanism philips 2in1,amp psu,speakers all intact...
just i will add the USB source from arjen helder ebay and do a mdf makeover !

mini system for kitchen will be cool

Man, Im Glad 2 hear that!! But seriously i didnt expect person of your experience to even consider something like this. As i mentioned this was purely for guys who din even want to consider DIY. But now, i really really want to get a well-acclaimed DIY BS kit and get started and make like 2 sets of speakers for the value of one retail set.

 

[sumeshj]

Man, Im Glad 2 hear that!! But seriously i didnt expect person of your experience to even consider something like this. As i mentioned this was purely for guys who din even want to consider DIY. But now, i really really want to get a well-acclaimed DIY BS kit and get started and make like 2 sets of speakers for the value of one retail set.

Welcome to the wonderfully enriching world of DIY! But one thing I would like to say after reading that last time of yours -- when you go further down the DIY road you will most probably end up spending more rather than less, because a whole new world opens up in front of you, and you will want to experiment more and get things closer to perfection. And often times you will realize that it would have been much cheaper to simply buy something ready made from the market. But the whole process of doing DIY, and the satisfaction and pleasure you get from it is unparalleled! No amount of money can buy that for you.

Its like that MasterCard ad -- Quad 22L2 Floorstanders: 60K, Marantz CD6004: 33K, the smile on your face hearing the first piece of music coming out of your first DIY amp (even if it is based on the crappy IC810): Priceless!!

 

[yuvaraki]

when you go further down the DIY road you will most probably end up spending more rather than less

Thanks for the heads-up bro! i already can sense that!! so im planning to spend on JBL control 1 or the likes as of now and start experimenting with the cheap OB models for now. Any cheap driver brands that i can get here in hyd?? specifically any location/contact that i can get these drivers from?

 

[kaushik]

@yuva.. i do like experiments .

there are similar speaker sets possible with older small stereo (mini systems)speakers .


this is tweak and enjoy pool of diy

i will not recommend pc speakers like creatives as for the price cutting they manage with cheap drivers .Better candidates are initial PHILIPS/BPL stereos where the drivers are fine and waiting for a new house ..

unless newbie is willing to pay, he can do a good start with this intead of wasting money in speakers like JBL control one .



Once he gets his ears matured he can go for a serious system.

ok coming to my MP3 player .. here some guy has done it...

 

[yuvaraki]

i will not recommend pc speakers like creatives as for the price cutting they manage with cheap drivers .Better candidates are initial PHILIPS/BPL stereos where the drivers are fine and waiting for a new house .. here some guy has done it...

ok, sure i will do some serious reading abt specs and designing cab accordingly along-side looking for people looking to dispose off their old speakers. thankyou!!

 

[quad]

@yuva,

You sent me a PM about the tools for DIY. It may be better to discuss it
in this thread, so more people can chip in, and it will benefit others.
(you should also search this forum for other older threads where this was discussed)

At minimum, you will need the following -

1) Good screwdriver set - esp useful is the ~Rs 100/- mini set available at
electronics shops
2) Wire cutter/stripper. In a pinch, you can make do with a nail cutter.
3) Soldering iron, lead, flux etc
4) Good hacksaw and wood saw
5) Multimeter - for a start, the chinese ones costing Rs 150 or so will do fine.

In Hyderabad, you can check out the shops in Gujarati Galli (lane next to
SBH in Koti.). You can find most electronics components also in the same lane.

For speaker building, you can either get your own power tools,
or just use some local carpenter to do the box. For simple bookshelf
type of boxes, pretty much any carpenter should be able to do it.

 

[kaushik]

tool package as i always post :

for lesser buck :

soldron iron+ 1 Aluminum tip
many fake dmms of UNIT-T are there , go for low cost DMM : Mastech basic model with backlit and stand(very good for money 300INR), AMTECH paste flux,WBT solder (import small spool) most desi solders are ream crap.
JAckie,china screwdriver set (has many fakes! beware)

 

[yuvaraki]

4) Good hacksaw and wood saw............For speaker building, you can either get your own power tools, or just use some local carpenter to do the box. For simple bookshelf type of boxes, pretty much any carpenter should be able to do it.

whem i am getting the wood work done by a carpenter, why would i need a hack saw and wood saw? i never saw any assembly of diy kits with ready-made cab baffles using the saws you mentioned.

@Kaushik - man, that solder seems to be 40+$. I dont knw how much does a gud spool cost but 40+$ sound a lil expensive, isnt there absolutely no Indian brand that i can use for now, considering my first few builds will be using cheapest drivers possible??

Also is there any website which sells original brands of electronic tools mentioned above? i knw Gujrati Galli but i also want to avoid dealing with such shops where you never know if you are getting genuine stuff!

 

[kaushik]

solder:ebay and element14