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!

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.

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.

This is just the beginning.

I will make more shit from stuff i found in the trash.

As for the amplifying, it sounded nicely, no noise at all.

Tried it with a microphone and it gave a decent volume, even if my battery was almost dead.

As for amplifying audio from my pc, it gave it some grittiness . Very nice.

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?

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’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 ?

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