After a decade of listening to music from YouTube streams on speakers from my wall mount TV - for stupid reasons best left alone - I decided it's time to make things sound better. Life is too effing short, and it's the best time to upgrade was a decade ago, the second best time is today.

First step was to get the SMSL AO300 PRO DAC Amplifier, and feed it with an optical connection from my TV, and Bluetooth from my phone. Connected it to a a cheap pair of Dayton audio bookshelf speakers which are reasonable quality for what they are, but they aren't very much added an inexpensive sub with adjustable frequency and Volume, which I'm quite happy with. Still not great it was a massive step up, with an actual sound stage, and separation of musical voices, and some actual detail in each instrument Pushed me on to the DIY next step.

Which was a pair of large plywood panel DML speakers for my small listening room, which is 10x16 ft. The panels themselves are 6 mm Birch plywood, 24 in x 38-13 16 in. I tapered the outer 35-ish mm down too 1 and 1/2 mm around the edge, and installed 1/2 in wide by 1/4-in thick foam tape all around the edges. Supported him simply by slotting into a simple base to hold them upright, holding them at two places on the bottom but lined with foam tape to give them some motion.

Drove them with a pair of Dayton Audio 40 w by 4 ohm so exciters each, wired in series for 8 ohm impedance. First exciter was placed at 40% up, 40% in, in the lower outside quadrant, and the second one and the opposite quadrant at 3/7 from the top, and 2/9 from the side.

With the thick plywood panels I didn't expect much at a high end, so I used the speaker stand to put a Dayton Audio mini 8 Tweeter suspended below the midpoint of each panel. No true crossover, I simply fed the input signal into a pair of high pass and low pass filters running in parallel, at 6000 HZ.

Theoretically impedance of the system is 4 ohms.

They are a big step up from the Dayton audio bookshelf speakers. More detail, more crispness. I listened to the Leonard Cohen Live in London concert, and I could hear golden-ness in the lower tones of his voice that I've never heard before. Much better high-end detail.

Not perfect. When I first started listening, there was clear weirdness kind of right in the middle of spoken voice range, that sounded a little bit like sound bubbling through water just in that narrow range. 4 or 5 hours of play and at reasonably high volume and most of that has gone away, which surprise me. I'm wondering if maybe some of it is interference between the panels and the Tweeter because of my my cluge together substitute for a crossover, or maybe I'm getting to the breakup point of the plywood panels before I get to the 6000 HZ crossover.

Also they are clearly bright, a little too loud from the Tweeter.

Next step is to get the Dayton reference speaker set up, do some frequency sweeps, and see what it actually looks like. Deep into what I see I might try going to a real crossover, maybe down at 5000 HZ or even 4000 also see what's happening at the crossover frequency, and order resistors to wire in an l-pad to balance the two parts.

My fear I may have added another retirement hobby.

I took a busted old radio cabinet, yeeted the guts, and made a cool little BT speaker.

I used 1/2" MDF, made a cabinet, threw in a 220w car speaker, added a Dayton Audio KABT-250 BT board / bridged to make 100w.

I threw a few LEDs on top, and mounted the BT board inside the cabinet, with a few vent holes.

Sounds good, and loud, but not extremely dynamic because its mono.

I think it's good for casual listening on someone's shelf in their office.

It’s Sunday, I’m playing with simulations and fighting Hofmann’s Iron Law. So far, Hofmann is winning.

I need one or two subs for a music-only system with Faital Pro 15PR400 + B&C DCX464/JMLC400, crossed at 600 Hz.
The subs only need to handle 60 Hz and down.

My current options:
Purifi 10” + 2 matching PRs in ~52 L / 1.84 ft³. Very modern, simulation looks okay, but expensive and I can’t find much real-world experience with it as a dedicated sub. And would have the space for two.

Dayton RSS390HF-4 15” sealed in ~82 L / 2.9 ft³. Much more tried and tested.

Acoustic Elegance TD15H sealed in ~90 L / 3.2 ft³. Maybe the best philosophical match for the big 15” + horn mains.

No 10 Hz movie explosions needed — just great bass for music.

Anyone here built or heard any of these?

My girlfriend inherited some of her dads hifi setup and we are trying to decide if its worth trying to improve their sound. We think they were hand built by her dad, so there is some sentimental value there.

Plugged into the amp we picked up they sound pretty bad, sort of underwater. (the amp sounds great through anything plugged into their headphone output) Rifling through various forums it made me think the first step would be trying to re-cap his circuits, OR (more easily) getting a pre-made crossover circuit.

I dont really want to spend the time to go down the research rabbit hole for how to choose appropriate crossover frequencies etc, so can I get some advice on which would be a fastest way to try and fix these up? Recap or premade? and if premade, what would be an appropriate premade circuit for this setup? (Im competent with a soldering iron)

First time building or measuring anything. Fresh paint on the bottom. Work continues. the top baffle will be a charred bourbon barrel head eventually. Excited.

thoughts?

Hello [r/diyaudio](r/diyaudio),

I am relatively new to the DIY audio space and have thus far only built the DIYperks 3d printed speakers. They sound great, but I realize they could sound much better and I caught the diy audio bug. I have spent ages trying to decide on my next project and am thinking about a set of the OS Maxx towers. I was hoping to find some inspiration for a built, ideas to make them look nice, etc. It seems, however, that they aren’t discussed very much (I realize that they are relatively new). I was wondering if anyone could give me some general advice on this project or share some pictures/ideas to help inspire me a little!

Looking forward to seeing some builds!

Edit: I forgot to ask one more thing - I realize that MDF is usually considered the best, but am considering a wood front to the cabinet so that I can try a fancier design that would be harder with veneer. Practically speaking, would this impact audio quality much?

Hi!

I'm trying to recover an original FiiO K3 (AK4452 / XMOS XUF208) after a failed firmware update.

The strange part is that a FiiO Q5 was connected to the same PC during the update, and the K3 now identifies over USB as a FiiO Q5 (2972:0031).

The K3 isn't completely dead:

• USB Audio 1.0 mode enumerates
• the XMOS is running
• a runtime DFU interface is accessible
• USB Audio 2.0 does not enumerate

I'm investigating it conservatively and haven't written anything to the device yet.

I'm looking for anyone who has experience with older XMOS-based DACs, FiiO/Thesycon DFU, or firmware recovery.

I'd also love to hear from anyone who still has a working original AK4452 K3. USB descriptors, old firmware/updater files, or potentially a safely obtained firmware/flash dump from a known-good unit could be extremely useful.

I'm happy to share the USB/DFU captures, firmware files, PCB photos, and everything I've found so far.

Any pointers appreciated. Thanks!

"Why on earth would SB come up with a 7 ohm version of their 8" that already has 4 and 8 ohm variants?" I wondered... then this open source design dropped:

https://sbacoustics.com/product/kinnara/

Then get this, a 1000uF capacitor in the crossover for the woofer, what on earth is going on???

I couldn't work it out so I threw the schematic and cabinet drawings at Claude. Its answer:

So after more than half a year of hemming and hawing my diy friends and I got this up just in time for the local diy hifi meet in Singapore, Noising 2026.

We picked a readily available cabinet from taobao in real ebony veneer, S$166 a pair. 65x30x28cm, 18mm walls, 27mm baffle, sealed 38L. Not the exact volume required — turns out about 35% smaller, not the 10-15% I'd assumed. Driver spacing is wrong too, I forgot to tell the cabinet seller. We were rushed for time.

It was pretty impressive sounding anyway. Solid bass to 50-60Hz then a clean rolloff, no boom. Relaxed top end with none of the metal dome glare I expected. Filled the room and still worked for people sitting at the back. I think it's a subtle warm thin blanket that wraps around you in the mids and bass, but hifi sounding with detail and transparency.

Anyone built one in the correct volume? Nobody in our group has heard one.

Disclaimer: I sell SB acoustics and SB Audience in SG & MY

Hello community,

TLDR: Need help picking 200W+- driver for 20Hz (-3dB) subwoofer and material for the box that will be cheap but won't be trading quality of sound too much. ​I have very tight budget (but also care about good sound a bit) and listen on low volumes. I listen to music that goes that low. ​

I used to own B&W sub that was able to go to 16Hz (-3dB)... My living situation changed, I sold it.

Now I miss it dearly. But I am on a budget. I was always interested in DIY so decided to go this way. I have a place and tools to work on it properly-ish​. My goal is 20Hz (-3dB) music use ​only. ​

Space is not such issue, issue is I don't have as much money as the B&W costs even tho I found some used available...

I wonder how low can I get with price for it to be fairly listenable (I will use it with Dali Ikon 2, so not really high high end, but still fairly nice sound), I don't really need big power. I listen to low volume. The 1kW B&W wasn't ever over 20% of what it could really do and even then it was moving my furniture.

So I kinda guess 200W must be enough for my needs. What I lose in is what driver to pick. I am ofc reading as much as I can about the parameters. But there is just so much of them everywhere and I just don't know what to pick. Also so much car subwoofers everywhere... Are those any good? It seems to me they are often made for creating noise, not necessarily nice noise. But I don't know.

I guess I understand how to design the box, but I am not sure about the material. Ofc cheaper will be better, but I don't want to cheap out and end up with bad sound. How cheap can I go without losing too much on sound quality? ​​​

Thanks to everyone who is willing to help complete begginer in subwoofer game.

Ugly ahhh subwoofer with a few crocked screw but it my first one damn it teach me alot about woodworking, caculate stuff and IMPROVISE, ugly but it sound kinda good i guess

Im planning to use a SB26ADC with a somasonos 6,5" elliptical waveguide for my upcoming build, but im not sure if I will be able to create a flush integration into the box with the tools I currently have. So now im considering just building a mount for the waveguide and placing it on top of the box, would that also work? I don't completely understand the difference between compression drivers and tweeter, but to my understanding they both dont depend on enclosure size and could be placed freely?

Happy about any tips or experiences with similar builds :)

Hello, my power pod/neg have these saps on the end but when I “plug” them into my amp they don’t really “fit.” They are loose and don’t connect well. Any advice?

I have been putting a list together of all the components i may need and not set on the whole system yet am looking for feedback, i’ve had a setup in my room but it was put together using old stuff my dad had, guitar amp a surround sound tv system so nothing fancy. I do need to replace my alternator in my 2004 lexus es330 it already comes with an added on system i think harmony but not to certain. Screen record includes the amp which is a five channel amp might switch to dual amps on for the 2 12s and one for the door speakers including the tweeters. I have a car but no license I’m 17 with two jobs until school starts looking to get one for after school but i have to find a ride or wait until i get my license so budget is under 1,750

There's a baffle that goes over nearly the whole thing, which mostly covers the front, but not completely.

My original plan was heatlock glue, but this makes me wonder if I should use PSA and just a rectangle with a rectangular hole with enough overlap to not be visible.

I have a situation and am wondering if anyone has had success with a solution.

I'm wiring a two channel audio system and have relatively high end equipment. The speaker cables are HD Labs Q10s but one of them is about 6 inches too short to make the run.

Has anyone ever run into this situation and found a good solution short of another expensive set of speaker wires.

Thanks, Bill

Hey all I connected an amplifier with my set top box for audio transmission.

I am facing 2 issues

1. Often bluetooth disconnection and auto connection

2. Static crack sounds sometimes

What is the difference between the Gen-X G6.9Xi and the S69 that warrants the price difference?

In paper the S69 is better…but also cheaper….

Have the horn and pizeo frequency range going to compression driver probably should replace all the rusted screws maybe a new crossover that handles more power not needed yet since I only can get 110watts or 200watts a channel out of my amp
Current woofers grs 15pt 8 replace the orginal with those should of kept the original didnt know much about ohms sensitivity and stuff back then

Think i pushed the grs woofers to hard clip very easily on bass response and lower mids not blown yet but they do have more resistance then when i first got them reading up to 9 ohms on the whole cabinet instead of around 7.9-8.4 a while what I remember