Diy Monitors - to build or not to build

GroupDIY Audio Forum

Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

PatinaCreme

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 4, 2004
Messages
64
Location
Florida -US
I am almost finished with my first Diy project.. Gyraf's G7 tube mic and a capsule. I have learned so much about microphones by building my own. I don't know much about monitors and I wondered if anyone out there has built their own studio monitor. Would it be feasible even? Do you need an anechoic chamber?

I have seen where people build home speakers.
Is this a hopeless idea ?


Just thinking..
Patina
 
It's perfectly possible - in the UK there is at least one firm (Wilmslow Audio) offering more than one as a kit. But you probably won't save any money doing this - the decent drivers that you can buy aren't cheap at all. There are several sites dedicated to this sort of thing, and no you don't need an anechoic chamber, or nobody would ever build one. But you do need some woodworking skills, and to do a reasonable job without a kit, at least a router...

You can buy pretty cheap monitors that will perform better than anything you could make for the same money - but when you get a bit further up the scale, the balance evens out somewhat, I think. But to do it properly is quite a committment, even if you buy a kit. The results can be very satisfying, though.
 
parts express has some kitz that look pretty tempting. heres one i have been considering:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-640

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-642
 
[quote author="solder_city"]parts express has some kitz that look pretty tempting. heres one i have been considering:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-640

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-642[/quote]
Not bad prices on those - I wonder how good they are? Anybody ever heard them?

The Wilmslow ones that got a good review are here. Enter site and do a search using the term monitor - this brings up all of the options. At least one has had positive reviews that I know of - the one that is called 'Home Studio Monitor Loudspeaker Kit'.
 
Another cheap solution:

http://yellow.mynethost.com/~bv126368/shop/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=47&osCsid=e3d1a1f363fa837a99e28593a52346dc
 
I moded a sperker set but not build from sctrach. I to a passive KRK speaker, replaced the tweeter with a ribbon tweeter and I have been real happy with the results. I really like the ribbon it added much needed top end since it is relatively flat to about 40K. Defintly does not lie. It was definately worth it. The st6 passive was 99.00 US and the tweeters I got were 89.00 US I have been happy. There is alot to building a speaker especially in how each speaker interacts with the crossover and works as a whole. It's tough but like anything else the results are worth the learning expierence. you can get some good books on the stuff at your local book store.
 
I have a set of speakers that I built from scratch, crossover and all... (dual 5 1/4 inch mids with a 25mm fabric dome tweeter) I have access to MLS equipment at work so I can "cheat". The funny thing is that even though I was able to get excellent transient and frequency response, these speakers are not worth diddly for mixing, especially rock.

The phrase i am using is this... "you need a crappy set of speakers to mix." I went out and looked a couple of years ago and found the Yamaha NS6390 for USD$100 a pair. They are an 8 inch three way. They sound like crap (they only have a cap on the tweeter and a cap on the midrange), they are phase-y, and I don't like to listen to them (You can't set them up as a mirrored pair on their sides either or they fight one another!) but if i can get a mix to sound balanced on them, it will usually translate well to other speakers.

I'm sure that was the whole (original) thought process behind using the NS-10. They were popular at the time, cheap, and allowed you to tune your mixes for translation to other systems.

Hope this helps! YMMV!
Charlie
 
I have been interested in this as well. I consider myself a pretty good woodworker and I have all the needed tools.

Do any of you guys know where to find pland or dimentions of monitor enclosures?

I think the only way to really save money is to do the woodworking yourself.

Joel
 
[quote author="Mbira"]I have been interested in this as well. I consider myself a pretty good woodworker and I have all the needed tools.

Do any of you guys know where to find pland or dimentions of monitor enclosures?

I think the only way to really save money is to do the woodworking yourself.

Joel[/quote]

Hey Joel,

Northcreek has dimensioned plans for thier kits that are availible for download. Of course, if you dont buy the Northcreek drivers, all design bets are off. They also sell a small handbook on speaker-cabinet building for $5.

http://www.northcreekmusic.com/

-Chris
 
[quote author="Mbira"]
I think the only way to really save money is to do the woodworking yourself.
[/quote]
There is a lot of truth in that - but - it partly depends on what you want from a monitor. If you want a really revealing midrange, then you are still going to pay quite a premium for drivers that will deliver this.
 
I need to finish my Focal Aria 5s.

Someone at the old place posted about a pair they made sealed box MTM 8" and I forget what tweeter.

I tend to like sealed box speakers better than vented.
 
I had Madisound design my monitors, told them what I needed, the size of the box I had, and the size of the driver I wanted to use. They designed the crossover & selected the drivers, and even gave me a model frequency response (which is supposed to be dead flat). They also built the crossovers; this was before I did such things myself.

For a cabinet I just scavenged some old Bose I had. If you look on eBay, you can buy home stereo speakers really cheap to rebuild. I did that later with my sub, I bought an old Radio Shack 10" sub for $30 or so, which gave me the cabinet with connectors and a grille. That crossover I designed & built myself, just a simple low-pass filter, designed to mesh with the natural dropoff from the monitors.

Anyway, I spent about $350 for the pair of monitors + sub, that's with Seas 6" drivers and a 10" sub, and they sound very nice. Had I done the crossovers myself, I'd have saved $50, but then I didn't have to buy the cabinets, so I guess $350 sounds about right for the project from scratch.
 
buttachunk

Did you build the cabs? I am thinking of a sealed parts express style MTM mtm with 8's.



this might be a good group project.

Sealed x2 8" and 1" or maybe a tl like the thor

Good crossover

well planned box

Vinyl floor tiles can be very good at damping some materals


Dual 8s should have good bass for close use
 
http://www.madisound.com/thor.html


they sound excellent ! HUGE presence and massive bass ! (they need a good room) i used morel tweeters.

Butta, nice!
Maybe you can tell me how it compares to Genelec or Mackie monitors, if you use to work with them ?!?

cheers!
Fabio
 
[quote author="PatinaCreme"]What is the first step to take when you decide to build a monitor/speaker?

Would one pick the drivers? [/quote]

Typically the first thing you'd do when designing a monitor is to decide what you want it to do.

How deep do you want the bass to go?

How loud do you want it to play?

How big do you want it to be?

How much do you want to spend?

What do you have in the way of a power amplifier to drive it?

Once you've answered those questions, and realized that you can't get satisfactory answers to all of them at once, the juggling act begins.

Peace,
Paul
 
Looking around the Madisound site:

http://www.madisound.com/cygnet2.html

That is very similar to what I built, except I used the 6" driver from the same range. I had the fabric tweeter at one point, but switched to an aluminum, which I preferred.

I chose 6" over 8" because that's the box size I had at the time, and I knew in the back of my mind that I'd want a sub someday and even a surround system. Then I ran a 40Hz test tone through the 6"s one day, and built the sub shortly thereafter :cool: The 10" woofer in the sub is also from the same range.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top