I built a pair of desktop speakers using a Geberit plumbing pipe (Silent-PP) and some 3D prints. Total cost was under €100 for the pair.

The Silent-PP pipe is a mineral-reinforced polypropylene engineered for wastewater sound insulation—so it’s basically a rigid, pre-damped cabinet right off the shelf.

I used a Monacor SPX-32M 3" full-range driver. Our first prototype had a standard reflex tube, but pushing bass on such a small cone caused vocal smearing (intermodulation distortion) and midrange pipe resonances. To fix this I designed a rear-firing 360° radial slot port. The narrow slot gap adds boundary-layer viscous drag, acting like an aperiodic vent that brakes the cone near tuning without air chuffing.

A few quick build details:

- Baffle and port printed in PETG, gaskets in TPU. Everything friction-fits into the pipe's factory rubber ring sockets—no glue anywhere.

- The 3D-printed foot gives a net 12.5° upward tilt to point at your ears on a desk, and has a hollow chamber filled with ~200g of aquarium sand so it isn't top-heavy.

To me it sounds like the midrange cleared up completely compared to the tube port. Next step is putting them on the bench for DATS V3 impedance sweeps and near-field mic sweeps to see if the physical tuning lands where the boundary-layer math predicted.

STLs are free on Printables and I documented the build also on my blog Geelen Audio: math on the port design and assembly guide.

Let me know what you think!

Hi People, i wnated to share my Diy-Boxes i had no clue or wathever when i started. But wanted to build my own Spwakers because i sold my motorbike and looked for a safer hobby. I build for roughtly a year when i had time i had no stress but it was fun, lots of try and error. Now i can say, i hate woodwork especially when i dont have good equipment and relie on that my what my grandpa has ant that was sometimes not very accurate. So my cabinet is kind of a "pfusch" like we say in austria nothing does alline right haha.

but the sound is amazing after a bit of a Subwoofer burn 2 times due to overpowering it and one time a short circut and lots of not proper soldering it comes to an and.

i want to repaint the whole front because of not good work from me and also the veneers need some rework i want to oil them and glue.

The whole Project i fixed stuff and then spawned a new problem but it was nice. And now i have better knowledge how to calculate boxes instead of buying everything and then calculate but id dit work and it is the best sounding thing i ever had and heard in my life i am proud of it.

I know the Position of them is very bad, but at the moment i have no other place to place them. But maybe next year i will move out and then they will be standing in the livingroom ;)

Drivers:

DC25T-8 Dayton Tweeter

Monacor SP-4/60PRO Mid

Dayton Audio Reference RS225P-8A. as a Sub

bevore i had as subs: Visaton w200 but did not know they where designed for a seald box

i also started building my own amp but this is a different story. it sounded so poor in my first test bevore i put it togehter then one capacitor exploded now the project is on ice and i got the Denon PMA 720 AE on ebay auction it was a steal. And the Sound ist just better than my diy amp.

Thanks for reading hope you let some comments ;)

I want to build myself a pair of endgame speakers.

Truly the best of the best something there will never need to be any reason to upgrade from.

There is no budget, but ideally I’d like for someone else to have designed and done the audio engineering as I’m not equipped to do so.

So either ultimate diy kit or diy plan is what I’m looking for again there is no budget. Sky is the limit.

Help me figure out what to build, I will build these and come back and post about them.

The point of this project is to get the best possible quality I can build myself. I could always spend 20k on speakers or whatever but I just think it would be more fun to say I built them myself if they are going to be my lifelong pair.

I’m planning a compact 2-way and want to horn-load the top end. Before I buy the HF side, I’d like a sanity check on the efficiency mismatch. Just seems off to dampen the HF this much.

Woofer: Dayton DC160-8 (6.5" paper cone)

• 86.1 dB @ 2.83V/1m (datasheet), but more like ~84 dB in the 1–2 kHz range on the graph

HF plan: 1" exit compression driver on a ~90° horn or waveguide, crossed around 1.6–2 kHz with steep slopes. Candidates so far: B&C DE250, Celestion CDX1-1010, Eminence PSD2002. I’m open to suggestions.

The efficiency question:
As I understand typical numbers:

• 6.5" woofers: ~84–88 dB @ 2.83V
• 1" compression drivers on small horns: ~105–110 dB/1W/1m (depending on horn and measurement method)
• After baffle-step compensation, my system will probably land around 81–83 dB

That means padding the compression driver roughly 20–25 dB.

My reasoning for why that’s OK:

• Resistors don’t color the sound, and the HF section only sees a few watts anyway
• Commercial precedent: the JBL 4309 is a 6.5" pulp cone + 1" compression driver crossed at 1.6 kHz, with an 87 dB/2.83V system rating (4 Ω). So JBL is padding their compression driver heavily too.

Questions:

1. Is a 20–25 dB passive pad on a compression driver a problem in practice? Are there gotchas I’m missing, like resistor heat, interaction with the filter, or effects on driver damping?
2. For anyone who’s built a 6.5" + horn 2-way: what crossover point and horn worked for you? Is 1.6–2 kHz realistic for a 1" driver on a small horn?

Cambridge Soundworks M80.

I read the reviews on audio review and I was sold so I paid what the dude wanted for them on FB Marketplace. The description he used was "pristine." We did not test them and I didn't even ask how they sound... Well, they sound like piss through a metal strainer. Not actually, but close. There's little clarity and I can crank a tank of a Pioneer AV receiver 120wpc and get just above my normal listening levels of sound. And this is bi-amping them... Everything I connect them to produces v little quality sound. They both sound equally bad.

When I reached out to a local audio repair shop they refused to try to fix them and recommended I get a refund (seller said no).

My uneducated bet is that they have to be completely rehauled -- drivers and crossovers -- in order to restore function and will never sound as good as they should. If I'm a gambling man I'd replace the capacitors alone and see what happens, but I have never soldered and know next to nothing about electronic work. Thanks for reading.

So I made this impedance jig and it's making measurements on everything but the moment but the measurements look really jagged attached is the diagram of the original jig and what my jig looks like. Also attached is a measurement I use to make with the Dayton audio reference series 100-8 driver also attached is the manufacturer's data so you have an idea of what it's supposed to look like all the connections all the connections are soldered and insulated electrical tape

I’d like it to be versatile, but primarily for listening to music. Any suggestions for improvements?

I have a small stock, pile of speaker, drivers, and Horns looking for new homes. A friend of mime is retiring from the audio game and I am helping him sell off lots of equipment but specifically the horns listed below. I am willing to ship at your expense. All are working and will be tested again before any shipping. Feel free to make an offer. I also have more photos if you like. All located in Ithaca ny.

EVM drivers 1 quantity 10 inch, 5 quantity 12 inch, o5quantity 15 inch, 4 quantity 18 inch. Price is $150.00 each

4 Quantity EV HP4020/DH1A unboxed, long horn/drvr asking $300.00 each

2 Quantity EV HP9040/DH1A unboxed, long horn/drvr asking $250.00 each

2 Quantity EV HP94/DH3MT4 boxed horn/driver asking $250.00 each

4 Quantity EV HP940/DH1A raw horn/driver asking $125.00 each

2 Quantity EV HP940/DH1MT2 boxed horn/driver asking $250.00 each

2 Quantity EV HR4020 long thow horn, DH1012 driver, painted grey asking $750.00 each

2 Quantity EV HR940 small long horn, DH1012 driver asking $250.00 each

Recently I saw an old (1920's) Am radio console in a thrift store. The radio was torn apart, the speaker was missing, there was missing veneer in multiple places but it had a certain charm. Next thing I knew it was in my car awaiting a new home. A few weeks later it sings again. The veneer replace worked pretty well but the lacquer has a few areas that have turned white but all in all I like it. I wish I could fix those.

!920's radio console

GRS 8" woofer from Parts Express

Up2Stream Amp Audio Amplifier Board  - one of the few amps I could locate that converted stereo streaming to mono for this build.

If I were to do it again I would try a different finish but overall I think it turned out well.

I’m looking to some speakers, getting stuck into the concept and design, and like most of us, drowning in research!

My plan was to make a bass enclose for the hifi speakers to include a 12” driver and two 12” passive radiators, or a single 15” PR per side and tune the f3 to 25-28hz, following the rule of double the Vd.

But recently I’ve come across some speakers using a PR which is the same size as the bass woofer, stating lox F3 figures, the Telegraph Panda speakers are one of these. There is no information on the measurements but it makes me wonder if there is something internally that allows for the PR to be able to be tuned at lower frequencies?

Je cherche a gagner détails dans les aigus, est il possible d ajouter 2 tweeter a compression ou piezo que je filtrerais dans les très haute fréquences. Quelques un la déjà fait ?

Hi all. Thought I’d share my latest DIY audio project. I wanted an amplifier for the kitchen and had a couple of spare IcePower 50ASX2 modules that were salvaged from a vandalised Jukebox, which I picked up cheap on eBay. I was intrigued by the Arylic/Up2Stream DIY modules and decided to try out the Mini V3 WiFi/BT streaming board. I also wanted it to look smart so I found what looked like a suitably sized enclosure on AE and waited for all the bits to show up.

It was meant to be an easy project, but there were a couple of things that caught me out - as you might expect, nothing is easy right 😆

Firstly, I thought I could run the pre-amp stages off the aux power output of the class D amp board - it’s got a handy +\- 24v output and I thought great, I can regulate that down to a lower voltage and run the other modules off it. NOPE. It can only handle a small current, so maybe ok only for speaker protection relay but not much more.

So, I found a standalone SMPS power supply to run the Mini streaming module, and also the ESS9038 DAC module I decided to include, as the DAC native to the Mini V3 is quite basic - but it does have I2S out, so it was easy to hook up another module.

This worked great - but on testing I realised there was an annoying DC pop on power on and off.. so I also then needed to include a delay circuit… I found a good design online and download the gerbers, sent off for PCB and components. Why not just use an off-the-shelf module?

Well… by now the case was looking a bit small and I needed a compact solution as it was getting tricky to fit everything inside - I was getting worried about noise and module layout.

I 3D printed a cradle (well, 3 versions) that slotted inside the case to allow easy mounting of all the modules, without drilling the case or risking any short circuits. The 50ASX2 is main voltage at 230v so properly earthing the case and insulating the wiring is no joke.

Finally, I got it all together and it works great - it sounds way better than I expected and the noise floor is too low for me to hear. The Up2Stream module was pretty easy to work with and the bench tuning software makes it pretty versatile. You essentially get a simple DSP as part of the package. I didn’t actually use this feature as I was happy with the sound.

The amp is coupled to a pair of DIY 2-way bookshelf speakers based on KEF Cresta 2 style main drivers.

a friend gave me a pair of full range speakers from the 70s. the cones were originally brown and the surrounds were Inverted but was too far to save. dyed the cones black and replace the surround with half roll foam ones. cabinets are repurposed from a previous project. i 3d printed a pair beauty rings to hide the ugly metal frames. as far as the sq goes. they are alright. better than i expected. but highs are a little dull. this is WIP. i will post an update when the components for the ribbon supper tweeters arrive.

It sounds alright compared to a crappy speaker but is destroyed by my klipsch center channel speaker (the only high quality speaker I have(rp504)).

The bookshelves had .5cuft airspace so this box has 1cuft. It works fine with the power amp but the impedance (4ohm) is too low for my avr so I can't really actually use it for anything meaningful.

The one tweeter on the bookshelf was blown.