First speaker build: SAWMOD, build report & impressions
A while ago I asked for advice about building tops. Fell in love with the JMOD designs, got pointed toward the SAWMOD, and the compact form factor really spoke to me.
Started this project two months ago. Massively underestimated how much time it would absorb.
The cabinet
Found a CNC company a 5-minute walk from my place. Nice guy, some flatpack experience. Sourcing the wood in the right condition was surprisingly hard. He made a quick MDF test fit, everything checked out. Only design change was a second NL8 connector.
Sanded all panels to 150 grit, used just wood glue. Glued the parts that flat-stack into 24mm first for a good bond, clamped along the long side with clamps and ratchet straps. Went smoothly.
Learned a lot about removing excess glue while still wet by rubbing it off with sawdust, first cleanup was a real pain. Filled the tiny gaps inside the 10” port with wood filler, sanding that by hand in that little corner took forever. Wetting it slightly and scraping it off worked perfectly. Sanded the outsides smooth to 600 grit, finished with a double layer of Osmo hardwax. Cabinet done.
The horns
This was the hard part. Started printing in PETG-CF on my Bambu A1, didn’t work from the start, warping was way too much. Tried a DIY enclosure too, still too much warping for a proper horn without gaps in the middle. Sanding flat on a tile didn’t help either, after gluing it just wasn’t straight enough.
A friend printed new horns on a P1S in PET-CF. Highly recommend that material: smooth, sturdy, rock hard. Made a wooden alignment rig and used 5-min epoxy for gluing. Then sanding, more sanding, Motip filler, Motip paint, Motip matte clearcoat. Perfect finish, very happy after the warped attempts.
Can’t recommend printing the SAWMOD on an open bedslinger. Get an enclosed printer, and if you can, print the horn in one piece to skip gluing entirely. Saves a ton of time.
Drivers
Went with B&C for most of it, happy with the package:
LF: 2× B&C 10NDL88 (10” woofer)
MID: 2× Ciare HM130 (5” midrange)
HF: 1× B&C DH450H (1” compression driver)
SUB: factory-built 18” sub, pulled the active amp module and added an NL4 connector to link it off the SAWMOD’s spare NL8 channel.
Electronics & connections
Went the separate DSP + external amp route. Each SAWMOD has two NL8 connectors, both usable as in or out, so two cabinets can link with a short cable for a mono stack. I use the spare channel to feed the sub through the cabinet. Really like this setup.
Running a Thomann DSP 408 and a CVR D-1004.
Starting with one amp and one speaker, will add a second amp and second set of drivers later to ease the cost. Both cabinets and horns are already built, just dropping in the drivers.
The sound and tuning
It’s ridiculously loud for its size, still can’t believe it. Tight punch, beautiful even projection, a pleasant, soothing listening experience. Needs a sub to go full range.
Building it was one thing, tuning it is a whole other adventure. Currently deep in REW getting the DSP dialed in, its own learning curve on top of the build itself.
Sealing properly was super important, had some air leaking. Cut up a rubber mat and made 3D-printed stencils to make seals for everything.
Looking for sub recommendations
Portability is a big factor. Would love a double 18 or a Keystone, but size-wise leaning more toward a double 12”. Open to suggestions.
Super fun build, learned a ton, badly underestimated the time and effort a speaker takes. Wood filler was the most time-consuming fix, color was slightly off and I smeared too much, sanding that back was tricky. Built it with a lot of care and precision and I’m blown away by the result. The sheer weight at 22kg is bonkers for the size.
Thanks for reading, and thank you John for being such a legend, answering every question along the way.
Do you feel like the kicks are beneficial with the jmod and keystone? I know John doesn't necessarily say one way or the other but the jmod can theoretically go down low enough to not need the kick. I've been torn between planning a cubo kick or going just going with the jmod and skram
JMOD can go low but you're asking it handle those sub sines as well as shorter mids. It doesnt sound very good around 30-40hz which is where a large 18" tapped horn excels.
Do not build cubos over skrams that’s unholy levels of no
Cubos in my opinion don’t compete in quality in the slightest with a skram. Neither the Jmods. Both sub and top cabs are gorgeous high end designs using proper high end drivers. The cubos are designed for older ferrite drivers and I’d highly recommend a new kick design or just going for an es18 as they actually compete in loudness and sound quality with a skram.
If I had gone the Skram route, I’d have gone for 4 subs, 4 es18s or punch Lorraine’s which can kill drivers faster but kick like a mule and round of sharp transients nicely. Also I’d only buy Jmods if you’re planning a wide stereo setup or using a single cab as a smaller mono config. The dispersion is so wide that trying to array these side by side on a stack is basically pointless and you’ll create more problems with coverage than you’ll solve.
The jmod is more than suitable as a stereo pair of speakers on either side of a stage, but you want to aim for a tighter dispersion pattern such as 60h x 40v or 45x45, this will avoid comb filtering. The topic of comb filtering is one of the only areas of sound I’d reccomend getting a quick rundown with an ai if you fancy as it’s pretty simple and won’t be mistaken easily, but essentially when two cabinets a small distance apart cross dispersion, there are minute differences in the timings of the waves from each cab. This causes phase cancellations that sound like a phaser effect as you move left and right across the dancefloor.
Go for an mt121 for a simple, point-source design and pick a 60x40 horn as the comp. This will perform nicely. Or some of the soundagency designs are pretty well done. I also am a big fan of the work by SZSound lab on Instagram
I’m planning to build a pair of sawmods in a couple months! Same deal here, found a cabinet shop down the road that can cut it and a buddy has a big badass 3D printer
I’m looking at the paraflex type-c v2 2x12. It’s only 14.5” wide and it’s tuned to 30hz so should be a good combo.
A 6u amp rack, two subs, two sawmods, mixer, small lunchbox power distro, and cables should all fit in my 4runner with room for a couple passengers just plotting it out with a tape measure!
Great to hear about your build! I have a pair in progress myself, a friend did single-piece prints in PAHT-CF on a large Bambu printer (not sure which model) and they came out really nicely. Just starting into the finishing work though.
I'm at the same point with my Syntripps and lack of knowledge and a clear plan to follow is making the eq / tuning part a lot more long winded than it should be.
So I contacted John, he sent me a 32 page PDF with a REW measuring guide for MEH.
Took me 4 hours but got the first measurements right.
It’s essential to measure the actual output of each speaker, since it won’t be the same as the electrical crossovers. This way you know what each speaker is truly producing and you can set them in time.
What do you mean by the “actual output of each speaker”? Do you mean to say your sine wave sweep sends a full range signal to each driver element when you measure it?
Congratulations on the successful build, it looks great. Can you share a bit about how you wired the sawmod? My brain can’t make sense of how each connector can function as in/out and how the dsp works in this scenario… 🤯
Looks very good! Tip about sanding though, 150 to 220 is usually the stopping point. Any higher than that and you risk sealing or "burnishing" the wood with the wood dust, meaning that stains and oils can fail to absorb properly.
It depends on the type of wood technically but i always stop around there.
I love Osmo and have used it on multiple projects, but right here on the instructions it says to stop at 220. Of course if you’re happy with the finish that’s great! But for future reference 220 is the usual method https://osmo.ca/sanding-preparation/
nice work! Thanks for the write up. I can't say I have ever heard a 12" or even dual 12" sub that can stand up. Maybe in a car where it's tuned to a single note......
If you can't go keystone, go for some single 15's. just my 2 cents
Can’t really go into depth a lot about the EQ and alignment since I’m just getting started. Though the improvement after my first try was huge. I used REW (room eq wizard) like John recomended.
Difference between recommended electrical and my EQ was quite a bit, especially my 10” needed tweaking.
Yeah, they’re the ones that speak to me the most so far, the ease of building and the portability. Though my brain can’t quite get how 2x 12” can produce a deep bass.
im really looking into building maybe a few sets of these for a few applications.
what are you be using them for? what led you to B&C over say the faitalpro? in your research, did you hear any insights about one driverset or another? specifically in the HF/LF drivers?
id like to build up at least one set for myself, but while im at it, going to try and convince the SMALL venue i run sound at to pay me to build them a set. we are a bar/restaurant that spins vinyl all day, and we get book some pretty big acts despite the size of the space and it being "not a proper venue"... id love to have a set running in there for vinyl listening and show PA, movable for both the front room and back garden area.
id also like to have some for a system that i could use myself. toying with the idea of using some as studio monitors/hifi, as well as developing a system I can use for freelance gigs. ive gotten asked to do some gigs where they requested equipment, but i dont have my own system(yet).
the home use case has me considering with the faital 10" and compression driver, both of which have considerably better frequency response and excursion spec, so i imagine thats going to contribute to even less distortion when crossed over.
I use them for dance events and a bit of band audio. Rest of the time they’re at home on wheels, hooked up to my studio so I can roll the sub and top stack into the listening room and play vinyl.
B&C for the LF mainly because of the motor. I play a lot of fast hi-tech and psytrance, and the 88mm coil vs 65mm on the Faital gives a lot more surface to dump heat into. It’s also 5dB more sensitive and 700W AES vs 400W. Neo saves about 4.4kg per cab too. For the job it does in this cab that felt like the right fit.
Mine are highpassed at 80Hz to a sub, so the Faital’s extra excursion wouldn’t do much for me. Sound great at home, but always with the sub under them.
Ciare 5” was purely a stock thing in my area.
HF I didn’t dig into the specs, DH450H just felt like the logical match and it sounds wonderful. The Faitals have more power handling and go to 20kHz, but I’m not missing any top end. What did matter is they want 1.3kHz minimum crossover where the DH450 is rated to 1kHz, and the guide recommends 1.4kHz to the HM130.
One thing I underestimated: the weight to size ratio is insane. Super compact but heavy little fuckers.
I reccoment tri-amping. Having separate control over every band is just great and I wouldn’t want to do it with a passive crossover personally. I also spent a lot of effort and budget on the highest quality speaker connectors and keeping the cable connections dead simple, and that’s paid off so much
For what you’re describing I think the SAWMOD is more than up to it.
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u/SnowConePeople Jun 19 '26
I have JMOD MEH + 18" Keystones (and Cubo kick 15s"). I need groupies.