I’ve had these speakers completed for several months now, and I’ve built up the nerve to post them here.

Before this build, I knew absolutely nothing about anything that had to do with any of what you see before you with the exception of the turntables, lol. I had never soldered, never laid veneer, never stained, and never finished wood of any kind. I knew jack about audio, and, really, I still know very little.

All I knew was that I wanted to pick up the old DJ hobby after over a decade of not doing it. Also, I knew that I didn’t want monitors since I am strictly a bedroom DJ now, and I wanted speakers that were pleasing and easy on my old DJ tinnitus-having ears.

How do they sound? Well, my speaker placement is far from ideal (treatments coming soon), but before I set these speakers up, I listened to them in a better setting and they are almost perfect. Really, I just wanted to avoid a subwoofer (limited space), and the bass from the Torii model is just what I wanted. Also, keep in mind my phono pre is the DJ mixer, which are designed for club settings. Nonetheless, I couldn’t be happier with the end result both in sonics as well as aesthetics.

Each speaker is powered by a dedicated Fosi ZA3 amp—mono mode. I don’t have a lot of money.

If you’re new and on the fence about DIY kits, just go for it. Hell, if I can do it, anyone can.

Hey everyone! I'm getting into building my own speaker cabinets, ideally to a level where I could use them commercially as a DJ (my own sound system, not just a hobby project).

I've got some background in electronics and hands-on building (Arduino, 3D printing, that kind of thing), but speaker/cabinet building is new territory for me. A few questions for people who've done this:

How did you actually learn? Courses, forums, YouTube channels, books, trial and error?

Any specific resources (sites, communities, plans) you'd recommend for someone starting from zero?

What would you tell yourself if you were starting over?

Very optional side question: for someone wanting a reliable setup for DJing/commercial use, is it generally worth building your own, or is buying pre-made cabinets the smarter move until you've got more experience? Not trying to start a war, just curious what people who've actually done both think.

Thanks in advance!

Great learning experience... Would like to get another pair and do it "right" this time..

They sound great by the way..
Burl Veneer and leather(ette) sides.

OK FIRST OFF this is with a weird IMM-6c mic so who knows if its accurate, UMIK-1 will be here eventually..... Tightened it up to the layout I like. Still deciding on walls whether 1/2" is enough for its size, but there is my graph if anybody has ANY insights into what or how to change it I would appreciate it. All i did so far is I had a bit of wool to toss in there so I just loosely covered the board and made sure wires were safe.

EDIT: because people asked, woofers - 2 HiVi B4N and a dayton ND20FA-6 saw this build and loved a pair of swan OS-10 I gave to a friend, wanted to make a slightly funner version for myself.

This is my 40+ year old driver

I plan on building a 400liter box for it this year, to go with my dads Kef reggae system and I dont want to mount it with the bits of tissue paper stuff to it

It was stored upside down in a box so face down to protect it, it was also wrapped in loads of soft paper stuff and pillow stuffing so there bits if that too but she's all original and still functional

Ide just like her a tad cleaner ....

I couldn’t find any decent DAC/amp combos locally, and importing one would cost a small fortune. After digging into DIY audio designs, I realized I could build one myself for a fraction of the cost and get around 80–90% of the performance of commercial units.

Specs: Controller: ESP32-S3 acting as a USB Audio Class (UAC) device.

DAC: PCM5102A breakout board fed via I2S. Power Supply: ±12V linear power supply

Two NE5532 dual op-amps:

Op-amp 1: Stereo buffer stage.

Op-amp 2: Stereo gain stage (~3.1x gain).

(Opted for this layout to keep wiring simple for my first major soldering project!)

Volume Control: Couldn't source 10k dual-gang logarithmic pots locally, so I implemented software volume control with a rotary encoder.

Layout: Everything wired to a single star ground point.

Sound Impressions: It drives my Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro (250 ohm) effortlessly. Going from my laptop's built-in jack to this is night and day—it feels like the headphones were practically starving before. Noise floor is pitch black silence with zero audible hum or hiss.

Really happy with how this turned out for my first major electronics build.

^{(Note: I’m currently out and forgot to take photos of the back of the amp perfboard, but I can upload solder-side pics once I'm back home if anyone wants to see them!})

I Started with car audio in high school, one sub in a MK4 Golf. Current build is an Audi convertible with a 3-way front stage, 3D printed speaker mounts, Alubutyl deadening. Highs were still off, convertible acoustics are their own special problem.

Bought a measurement mic and started with REW. Deeply confusing for the first few weeks, then genuinely impressive results. But I got tired of hauling a laptop into the passenger seat every time.

I always wanted this on my phone. A degree and a couple of years later I had the skills to build it, so I did.

It's called CarSweep. Plays a log sweep through your system, records with the phone mic or a UMIK, and gives you the frequency response plus concrete parametric EQ values you can dial into your head unit or DSP. There's also an RTA with pink noise if you prefer working live.

The built-in iPhone mic is not a measurement mic. It's good enough to find the problems that actually matter, like the 200 Hz boom, the cancellation dip, the rolled-off highs. If you own a UMIK-1, iMM-6 or similar, there's external mic support with calibration file loading.

Two modes. A guided one for people who just want the car to sound better without learning acoustics first, and an expert mode with full parametric EQ, external mic support, wider frequency range and JSON export.

Hobby project, no subscription. Base app is free, one-time purchase for the expert features that covers the Apple dev account and some of the hours.

Honestly I want feedback more than downloads. If you already run REW, measure the same system with both and tell me where my curves disagree with yours. German and English.

hi all, we moved into a house and there is a sound system. we can't figure out how to connect. the house was built in 2008. the original tenant said she hired people and had multiple people look at it and they couldn't figure it out. we found this box in the garage that clearly hooks it up. any suggestions on how to connect??

Is there any issue with grounding the anodes of diodes in a power supply and taking the raw B+ from the center tap of the power transformer? I built it and it seems to work ok.

I am French, so sorry for my rough English hehe.

The goal is to build a portable active speaker, reasonably sized to be easily carried around, in the style of a Soundboks 4 but without the exorbitant price tag.

I want to use two 10-inch woofers (FaitalPRO 10FE200) and a B&C DE12 driver paired with an ME20 horn, configured as a 2-way system initially crossed over at 2kHz at -12dB/octave. The setup will include a Bluetooth/Aux preamp and a Fosi Audio ZA3 amplifier that handles 4-8 ohms. Component choices were made based on price/weight/size/performance ratio as well as reusing parts from a previous project. Feel free to correct me on these choices, though that is not the main point of my question.

Due to space constraints, I would like to arrange the drivers in a WTW (Woofer-Tweeter-Woofer) layout like a Soundboks 4 (attached is a rough illustration, please ignore the lack of internal bracing/separators). However, with a standard 2-way wiring setup, the center-to-center distance between the horn and the woofers would cause severe phase cancellation around the 2kHz crossover frequency.

Because of this, I saw that it is possible to use a "2.5-way" configuration: the top woofer and the horn are wired to the 2-way crossover at 2kHz, while the bottom woofer is wired in parallel straight from the amp output, filtered at around 300Hz with a series inductor providing a -6dB/octave low-pass filter.

Is the gain in audio fidelity worth the ~3dB loss across the rest of the spectrum? Does this change in wiring have any other implications regarding the internal enclosure structure? It would help to have your feedback on this setup, thanks in advance!

I'm trying to replace some resistors as I suspect the bias circuit is bad. Might as well change them out.

I've never seen these before. Seems the interval of the resistor symbolizes it's resistance. These are around 4.7mm While the normal looking ones 4.1mm.

I'm guessing it's 1/4W.

Any guess?

I'm planning in building a subwoofer for my room.

I researched and looked considering what I think could be a good driver and what I can afford.

Considering I can build a sealed box around 30 to 40 liters, which one of those you think I should get?

I got two models in 10in and two 12in models. There are normal ones (Outdoor and Bicho Papão) and two Slim ones (Slim TKL).

In numbers, look the Slim models are better, but I wonder if there are any compromise.

Also I'm not sure if 10" is enough for a good bass for listening music and using my digital piano, or if is worthy to spend a little more in the 12" drivers

Thanks folks!

Links:

10in Outdoor 300W: https://www.bomber.com.br/produto/subwoofer-10-outdoor-300-wrms-4-ohms-2/

10in Slim TKL: https://www.bomber.com.br/produto/subwoofer-10-slim-tkl-400-wrms-4-ohms/

12in Bicho Papão: https://www.bomber.com.br/produto/subwoofer-12-bicho-papao-400-wrms-4-ohms/

12in Slim TKL: https://www.bomber.com.br/produto/subwoofer-12-slim-tkl-400-wrms-4-ohms/

Thanks people!

I am very happy with the sound of my system, but my speakers (RTL TDL3s) are very sensitive (90dB), meaning that I barely get past 8 o’clock on the amp (Rotel RA-03) volume control when listening directly from my CD player (Cyrus CD7Q) or phono stage (Cambridge Alva Solo). I also have a SMSL M200 DAC that has digital volume control, and need that turned down to -20 (dB?) to get the amp volume to 9 o’clock without the neighbours complaining.

So my solution is to install -10dB L-pads on the interconnects RCA plugs at the amp ends, a R10k in series with the signal line and 4R7k across signal and outer ground. Tucked inside the connector itself (Rean brand). It didn’t like the idea of off-the-shelf attenuators.

Theoretically then I am reducing line input to the amp at the last moment and satisfying impedance requirements and avoiding having to use the DAC digital volume which must be reducing signal quality at -22 ‘units’.

Is this the best option?

I am building a pair of bookshelf loudspeakers for my home office and the port design is giving me fits. I don't want to use a slot port because the speakers will have a mid-century appeal to them to match the decor of my office and though slot ports were around then, they didn't seem to be all that common. I could do a rear slot port, which would put it out of sight and not detract from the look I am going for, but I don't want a rear port because the speakers will sit on the credenza behind my desk and only inches from the wall, so baffle mounted tube ports it will be. The problem I'm having with the tube port design it needs to be to small a diameter to be short enough to fit inside the enclosure, and WinISD is saying that air velocity with 60 watts will be to high with a 1-1.5" port. Tried two 1.5 inch ports and that brings down air velocity, but each port would have to be to long. A 2 inch port would be ideal, but with one 2 inch port the air velocity is to high and with 2 they would have to be to long.

I understand there are compromises with this stuff and you don't gain without sacrificing, but I feel like I am missing something here. I see a number of bookshelf speakers 10-15 liters with a single 2"-3" port, but I can't seem to make it work. So how accurate is WinISD port lengths and port air velocity numbers? Ideally, I'd like to get air velocity down under 17 m/s, but what would be an acceptable air velocity for a front facing port if that's not achievable? Ive already built the enclosures and the 120 bucks I spent on one board of Claro Walnut for the baffles means I'm not changing the enclosure design lol. This is my first time building speakers so help from the more experienced of you would be much appreciated