Speaker Designers Needed.

[chander]

A friend is visiting in Jan. He loves wood working and audio. A woodworking studio is available for hire/use as the owner is leaving on a holiday.

We want to make our own speakers - can anyone help us with the following -

- A speaker design for
- 3 way speaker
- With a concentric driver - 6.5/8 inch doing the mid + treble duties.
- 12 inch woofer
- Aim is to get 40Hz in room. Do not care about going lower at all.

Are there any such designs that exist.
We will be turning these into active speakers using the nCore Fusion Amps - to be driven using A streamer only.

PLEASE NOTE - we have no idea how to make speakers - we meet once every couple years and take up a super complicated project and just have fun doing it.
We do not even know if any such thing exists or should even be attempted.
But the idea does sound incredible.

 

[rwnano]

Transmission line speakers design please check for low bass extension.

SB acoustics drivers

 

[chander]

Transmission line speakers design please check for low bass extension.

SB acoustics drivers

Any particular design you can give a link to? Like I said No idea where to begin - a plan laid out will be helpful

 

[Hiten]

quality coaxial mid and tweeter driver are rare. It usually come with some compromise in linear response and dispersion. A separate mid and tweeter will be budget friendly. Also all depends on budget. DIY is usually has no resale value. I have made losses in selling diy amplifiers and modules. But my goals were to be active in diy and listen to sound for some time. And selling my diy helped me fund my new projects. So you will have to decide if you want quality hifi speaker once and for all or just enjoy building speakers. Also some diy speakers may need powerful amplifier to exploit its full potential.

 

[chander]

quality coaxial mid and tweeter driver are rare. It usually come with some compromise in linear response and dispersion. A separate mid and tweeter will be budget friendly. Also all depends on budget. DIY is usually has no resale value. I have made losses in selling diy amplifiers and modules. But my goals were to be active in diy and listen to sound for some time. And selling my diy helped me fund my new projects. So you will have to decide if you want quality hifi speaker once and for all or just enjoy building speakers. Also some diy speakers may need powerful amplifier to exploit its full potential.

Budget is reasonable & flexible - It is more of a passion project so all will be written off as R&D. But we do not even know where to start looking at yet. How to choose drivers etc.

Not planning to sell these, they will be used to host.

NOTHING.

 

[Hiten]

ok
audiofy and diyaudiocart has some drivers ans kits. Probably you already have seen them. a good 3 way will require at least 10 inch woofer according to experts.

 

[diyaudio]

Vmt.in had some nice coax https://vmt.in/products/cx8f140-x8?variant=49544762949922, unfortunately currently out of stock, you can check with them for restocks. B&C also has some good coaxials.
Another good option is to clone these, (if you have space that is)
https://evo2.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Bitches_Brew_Open_Baffle_Live_Edge_Speakers.pdf

Since you are using DSP amplifiers, you can always build custom crossovers fitting the drivers easily, no more iterative passive crossovers.
This one is easy to build too, less things to go wrong, with DSP one can always change things. You will have to measure and build crossovers in DSP.

 

[HifiNewbie]

A friend is visiting in Jan. He loves wood working and audio. A woodworking studio is available for hire/use as the owner is leaving on a holiday.

We want to make our own speakers - can anyone help us with the following -

- A speaker design for
- 3 way speaker
- With a concentric driver - 6.5/8 inch doing the mid + treble duties.
- 12 inch woofer
- Aim is to get 40Hz in room. Do not care about going lower at all.

Are there any such designs that exist.
We will be turning these into active speakers using the nCore Fusion Amps - to be driven using A streamer only.

PLEASE NOTE - we have no idea how to make speakers - we meet once every couple years and take up a super complicated project and just have fun doing it.
We do not even know if any such thing exists or should even be attempted.
But the idea does sound incredible.

If I was planning today, I would use the SB34 NRX-6 driver in a 70 Ltr sealed box for the bass. This is a lovely driver, with massive dyanmics, good effeciency and works well in a sealed arrangement. Unless your room is big, better not go ported or Transmission line. A 12 inch transmission line will go way too deep, and will be hard to tame without Passive room treatments and active Eq. Troelsgravesen has quite a few transmission line designs on his site, with Scanspeak drivers if your goodselves still want to go down this route. His builds are well detailed and proven designs. That would be a good starting point in my book.

What active crossover are you planning on using. Will it be digital or analogue. Unless you have a TT, going fully digital has its own rewards, especially if you can get hold of a multi channel Usb dac like Okto Dac 8 Pro or MiniDsp Flex or FlexHT etc. There are pro usb interfaces from Motu etc...that can do the same job for lesser, for almost similar quality. But the Okto Dac 8 pro is the current reasonably priced performance king, both subjectively as well as objectively. If you have a TT, you can use analogue active crossover like Sublime audio K231 or K235 etc. I will stop for now, or it will get too long.

For amplification, Purifi class D are the current benchmarks. Thier slightly older 1ET400 modules are sufficient, as the newer ones are more expensive, and lower distortion achieved with the newer modules, is measurable, but some people say the gains are below audibility.

 

[grindstone]

Coaxials mean different things to different people (car door speakers. ceiling speakers. KEF hi-fi speakers, etc). I only know about pro coaxials, none of which I could figure-out how to source in India after most of the day (!!!) searching for familiar models. Even inquired with the LLM oracles and chased-down blind alleys in IndiaMart, Ubuy, Cart2India, amazon.in). Didn't see any B&C coaxes at vmt and bc distributor list only contained what appears (?) to be a wholesaler only.

If doing pro coaxes on principle, big stuff (12" or 15" coaxials) like the 3-way jobs here are more fun. If, OTOH, compactness (and more economy) is the order of the day, then you could just steal a floor design and repackage it (we can help with such things if of interest). Stick a woofer under it and use it only for say 80-100Hz on up and those things sound better than they measure. You have many options, I'm just not confident about guessing what you might want. Some of the 8" Radian coaxes have ribbons now and can be quite lovely--I just can't figure out how to find them for you locally / duty-free. Perhaps there are equivalents that are available locally.

 

[Vineethkumar01]

Coax + 12 inch woofer: Significant potential to make a great sounding pair of speakers.
If budget and parts availability permit, try this one out:

Facebook

www.facebook.com

Scott Hinson is a well known speaker designer. Drivers can be sourced through audiofy. Not sure about current status though. I got my woofers through them..

These coaxes are among the good ones available in India.
And that SB34NRXL75 is a gem of a 12inch woofer (for home use) and can be called a Satori in disguise..

Please find the full design document attached

 

[diyaudio]

Even inquired with the LLM oracles and chased-down blind alleys in IndiaMart, Ubuy, Cart2India, amazon.in). Didn't see any B&C coaxes at vmt and bc distributor list only contained what appears (?) to be a wholesaler only.

They wont be available at those places. Many local dealers of pro audio products will be able to source these. I keep getting WA advertisements from such a local dealer for B&C and Beyma products

 

[Kannan_madhu]

To succeed in DIY audio, start with a solid foundation. Designing a speaker from scratch requires complex simulations and testing that are difficult to get right on the first try. Instead, follow the work of seasoned designers who provide proven, measured plans. You’ll save yourself the frustration of building a beautiful cabinet that lacks acoustic clarity

Paul Carmody's DIY Speaker Pages

DIY gives music lovers and audiophiles the ultimate power. First of all, DIY speakers use the same parts, building materials (usually), and design techniques of HiFi speakers in the 4 and 5-figure range. This means you can have that "rich" sound at a fraction of the retail cost. Second, by

sites.google.com

DIY-Loudspeakers

DIY Speaker DesignsBest loudspeakers | Speaker Design WorksSpeaker Design Works

The best Bookshelf speakers, Tower Speakers and Home Theater Speakers can be found here.

www.speakerdesignworks.com

SB Acoustics Kits - Sbacoustics

sbacoustics.com

 

[Kannan_madhu]

SB kits and some of the Paul Karmody kits can be sourced from Audiofy and Diyaudiocart

 

[chander]

Thanks to all who replied. I have been doing a bit of my own reading on speaker designs & I am overwhelmed to say the least. I think I am more confused than I was at the start of this project.

Like everything audio - it seems we have been going in loops, with the crowd online divided on which design is better. Our (me & my friend's) absolute illiteracy in the subject is also making the whole project a bit daunting.

Our original plan was to create something like this - but with a coax for treble & mid rather than two separate drivers. BUT - we are unable to find such a design!

 

[keroo1099]

Thanks to all who replied. I have been doing a bit of my own reading on speaker designs & I am overwhelmed to say the least. I think I am more confused than I was at the start of this project.

Speaker design is science, art and a lot of luck when one is starting out. It took me a good 2 years with countless hours spent between researching on the net, books, experimenting with software, and finally trying out endless versions of crossovers, parallel and series, various combinations of slopes to reach the point where I said it sounds good with only a multimeter to help me with basic readings.

It's honestly not something to take up for the faint hearted but very rewarding when you get it right.

Good luck.

 

[diyaudio]

Our original plan was to create something like this - but with a coax for treble & mid rather than two separate drivers. BUT - we are unable to find such a design!

I already posted such a design in post #7. It uses a 15" co-ax, can be sources from local dealers. Also, whichever design you choose, it must be a constant directivity design, there is no point doing anything lesser than that in 2026 (we crossed 2025 already ) . The means to do it are within reach, the drivers, the DSP, the amps, the measuring mic and wood etc are all there. DSP makes DIY pretty easy. Perry Marshall the designer of the post #7 excellent speaker is very helpful at diyaudio, he can be reached if needed.

Its very easy to get stuck into analysis-paralysis loop. So, choose a design and dive into. Lot of people have subjective opinions about audio in general but as a speaker designer one has to be objective and think like an engineer, the final sound has to be heard by the ear, agreed, but the way to do it is with measurements and good engineering. Finally we need a good system to fool the ears, we have to convince the subjective ear/brain that music is being played whereas no one is playing it really, its just some bits coming from Spotify or Youtube or TV.
Have fun. Speaker design is a lot of fun.

 

[diyaudio]

If one makes a regular TM combo (even with high end drivers) the on-axis and off-axis will never match and nothing can be done.

If one makes a constant directivity design and uses a waveguide for tweeter and woofer/midbass sitting below then the on-axis and off-axis will match horizontally but not vertically. Vertically, there will be lobes. However, horizontal is more important than vertical as our ears are placed horizontally to sense horizontal better. There will be difference in sound when sitting or standing.

If one makes a coax design then it behaves like a true point source, the on-axis and off-axis will match both horizontally as well as vertically. This creates similar sound while sitting or standing and is more enjoyable

 

[keroo1099]

If one makes a regular TM combo (even with high end drivers) the on-axis and off-axis will never match and nothing can be done.

A MTM is as close to a point source that one can get with conventional speakers. That's what I have and honestly their is very little difference if sitting with tweeter at ear level or if one is standing. Horizontal dispersion is also very good.

I completely agree with your statement that speaker building is a lot of fun. I had a blast making mine though I drove my wife crazy.

 

[diyaudio]

MTM has lobing issue around crossover frequency as seen in right bottom graph, thats why I suggested coax and OP already was inclined to use
coax

 

[keroo1099]

MTM has lobing issue around crossover frequency as seen in right bottom graph, thats why I suggested coax and OP already was inclined to use
coax
View attachment 94436

I really don't understand lobing but understand it can be controlled by having a low crossover and sandwiching the tweeter as close to the midranges as possible. It also depends on careful driver matching to get the best result.

Just pointing out that most ultra expensive speakers seem to be designed symetrically with a WMTMW layout, or a MTM sandwich somewhere in the design.

Must be a reason for it.