DIY floorstanding speakers, some pictures.

m-i-m-m-

Hi folks, thought some of you may be interested in these. A pair of DIY speakers I made for a Christmas / birthday present. The plans are produced by a company called Visaton, they provide you with the drivers, crossovers, and basic plans for the cabinet. I adapted their design slightly to add additional bracing, and use thicker MDF. I have made a few diy speakers over the years, I'm not sure how many people in Ireland are into this as a hobby, but it is quite popular internationally.

You can have a look at the specifics of this design design here: http://www.visaton.de/en/bauvorschlaege/2_wege/clou/index.html. The sound overall is extremely impressive. I wouldn't describe myself as having extensive experience in the world of hi-fi, but they are certainly a very full, balanced, and clear sounding speaker.

Many hours of thought and work went into the final product, but it was certainly worth it! Here are a few pictures of the process:

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They look awesome!

dbagman

Holy S H One T. You sir are an artist

JoeA3

Holy crap, that is brilliant, well done! You should get into it full time!

eddiem74

Very impressive... so what did the cost work out at compared to buying similar off the shelf so to speak?

recipio

Great job. Did you use 30mm mdf ?

Thargor

Those are incredible.

endacl

Obvious question....


How do they sound?

m-i-m-m-

Thank you folks for the kind words, I wasn't sure if this fourm was used much at all!

eddiem74 wrote: »

Very impressive... so what did the cost work out at compared to buying similar off the shelf so to speak?

The general consensus is that you would need to spend 2-3 times the cost of a diy speaker on an off the shelf system, to achieve the same sound quality. The raw materials are your only cost, as opposed to the multitude of various costs a commercial speaker manufacturer has to cover. When you purchase an off the shelf speaker, the actual cost of the raw materials are only a fraction of what you pay. The drivers and electrical components were 250, and the cabinet including paint was around 300, that and a few sundries... I'd estimate 550 -600 euro altogether.

I did go all out on painting the cabinet, if you were to paint it all satin black for example, with rattle cans, I would say you could build these for a total of 450 euro. I don't really have enough experience with mid or higher end audio to compare them directly to speakers in the 400 - 600 euro category, but I expect they would hold there own very very easily. They are definitely the best sounding speaker I have heard myself, so far.

recipio wrote: »

Great job. Did you use 30mm mdf ?

Cheers, 25mm for the front baffle, sides, and bases. 18mm for the top bottom and braces. The plans for these use 16mm mdf all round... which is not available in Ireland. So I thought I'd go a bit thicker while I was at it.

endacl wrote: »

Obvious question....


How do they sound?

To my humble ears, they sound absolutely fantastic. Pretty much any music I have played through them so far has sounded very open, balanced, and unconstrained. Their dynamic properties in particular are very good, for a sealed cabinet the bass has a nice weight and is low enough to not need a subwoofer, the bass is quite dry and fast sounding. Probably not suited to movies, but for music it is spot on. There is a tangible almost 3D feeling in the mid bass too, Tom's for example have a pleasant rounded drive behind them. The highs are open and airy. Overall a non fatiguing and very pleasant speaker.

Thargor

Did you post this on Reddit or any other AV discussion forums? Wouldn't mind taking a crack at this myself.

mossym

look very good, but you added extra bracing? how much? sealed kits are based on an internal volume in the cabinet, going with thicker mdf and more bracing will reduce the internal volume. probably not by much, so there may be little or no effect, but just wondering if you took account for that?

m-i-m-m-

Thargor wrote: »

Did you post this on Reddit or any other AV discussion forums? Wouldn't mind taking a crack at this myself.

I didn't post any further instructions / guide etc. I'd be happy to help you with more info if you are considering having a go at making some.

mossym wrote: »

look very good, but you added extra bracing? how much? sealed kits are based on an internal volume in the cabinet, going with thicker mdf and more bracing will reduce the internal volume. probably not by much, so there may be little or no effect, but just wondering if you took account for that?

Yes I added extra bracing and thicker mdf, however i kept the baffle width, speaker placement etc the same as the designs. I also calculated the extra volume I was adding roughly from the bracing, and compensated for it by adding to the height of the speaker slightly. So the internal volume is very very close to the original design.

SachaJ

I built my own too but they are not a patch on your finish! I just went for Tuff Cab black and lobbed it on. Have to agree though, much better value when you're building yourself.

https://www.avforums.com/threads/diy-sound-group-the-893-volt-8-build-thread.1998603/