Had been browsing the web for good speaker designs and was intrigued by the concept of horn speakers. Thought I would go ahead and make one just to see if the claims on the web were true or not (very high efficiency, no cross over distortion, great sound in th mid range, and bass up to 30-50 Hz without woofers) . The designs on frugal-horn.com seemed well thought out and the Spawn family seemed to be good performers especially after the glowing reviews on equivalent speakers. I was planning on recycling drivers (3 inch or 4 inch speakers) that I already had so therefore selected the least wide Spawn speakers.
The picture shows how the speakers turned out. Wife likes em! Will post a video later on.
Printed the plans out. I needed 18 inch wide panels for the sides and 5 1/8th inch wides for the baffles and dividers etc. Closest were 16 inch wide and 5.5 inch wide. So decided to get enough of the 5.5 inch white MDF panels to make one speaker. Also bought some nice plywood and Lowes cut it for me to 18 inches wide. Was simpler to stick to the original 18 inch dimensions otherwise I would have to recalculate the internal baffle dimensions.
The picture shows how the speakers turned out. Wife likes em! Will post a video later on.
Printed the plans out. I needed 18 inch wide panels for the sides and 5 1/8th inch wides for the baffles and dividers etc. Closest were 16 inch wide and 5.5 inch wide. So decided to get enough of the 5.5 inch white MDF panels to make one speaker. Also bought some nice plywood and Lowes cut it for me to 18 inches wide. Was simpler to stick to the original 18 inch dimensions otherwise I would have to recalculate the internal baffle dimensions.
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Signing UpStep 1: Cutting the wooden pieces for the speaker
I cut the 18 inch wide panels to a height of 6 feet from it's original height of 8 feet. I then drew the locations of the internal baffles onto the plywood panel. Then drilled 1 mm dia. holes though the panel so that I could attach nails to hold the baffles.
Got busy with the glue bottle and clamps and screws to assemble the the back, top, bottom and front panels (baffled) onto one 18 inch by 72 inch side panel. Used biscuits to hook the panels together which makes the final assembly quite a bit easier. You can see the biscuit slots in the left most speaker. Even with biscuits is is important that the panels are perpendicular otherwise the final large panel will not fit on top.
While the glue was curing, I cut the 5.5 inch wide panels into 38 pieces based on the handy table included in the plans. This was a bit of a work as only had a handheld circular saw.
Glued the internal labyrinth of baffles in. And painted exposed surfaces with black paint. Let everything dry and cure overnight.
Got busy with the glue bottle and clamps and screws to assemble the the back, top, bottom and front panels (baffled) onto one 18 inch by 72 inch side panel. Used biscuits to hook the panels together which makes the final assembly quite a bit easier. You can see the biscuit slots in the left most speaker. Even with biscuits is is important that the panels are perpendicular otherwise the final large panel will not fit on top.
While the glue was curing, I cut the 5.5 inch wide panels into 38 pieces based on the handy table included in the plans. This was a bit of a work as only had a handheld circular saw.
Glued the internal labyrinth of baffles in. And painted exposed surfaces with black paint. Let everything dry and cure overnight.
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Great Ible i'm gonna build me some of these ...
An exponential folded horn is probably the most efficient design and the most difficult to manufacture.There are a number of reports that state stepping the sides to replicate a folded exponential horn makes no perceivable difference to the bass frequencies.
The horn design you used is a proven design and will provide more bass drive for a lower power than a standard sub-woofer box.
What will improve the sound is the box material. Regardless of the price, commercial manufacturer's will not use plywood because the material is too resonant and too difficult to quality control the bass. The best material is HDF. If you cannot find HDF; use MDF or particle board. Instead of using stepped corner pieces, an easier method is cut the corner pieces so one piece fits at a 45 degree angle and it cuts down on the overall weight of the box.
A sub-woofer box will not improve the bass response, but it may give you a honky bass that a lot of people perceive as lower bass. You could use the same box and use a better quality driver, try Parts Express, that would give you a far superior sound than any sub-woofer design. You can also try inserting anti-resonant material at the mouth of the horn.
The second speaker is all plywood.
So would be a good way to test if MDF has an impact on sound quality by comparing the two.
On the stepped corner, guess it attentuates high frequency more effectively than a smooth panel so you get more bass reflected out.
I hooked up a cheap T amplifier (http://www.amazon.com/Lepai-TRIPATH-TA2020-Stereo-Amplifier/dp/B003P534SW/ref=pd_ys_sf_s_172282_a1_6_p) and the sound quality us stunning and loud (from 10 W RMS)! Do not see a need for a sub-woofer. Honestly, am really loving these speakers.
Am toying with the idea of making another pair with 8 inch drivers that I had bought a while back from guess what - Parts Express! These are not Fostex but some other full ranges with a wheezer cone that I was going to use for in wall speakers.
They are very cool looking though, and if I were to build them I'd have to figure out a way to make the baffles visible.
Everything has some fundamental worth.
I have designed my speaker systems around what I call, "Fundamental Resonance" - which can be envisaged as hanging a wooden or plastic rule off the edge of a desk and "plucking it". A long overhang produces a lower resonant frequency, and a short overhang has a high resonant frequency.
Thus large speaker cones have a natual low frequency resonance and small speakers have a high frequency resonance.
Thus I design my speaker systems to provide a full range, based upon their natural resonance, rather than pushing a little speaker to do full bass, or a bass speaker to do higher octave notes - with a little overlap between them all.
I also do not agree that these are a high efficency design, as most of the "filtering"(?), comes from drag, resistance, reflections and turbulence, as the waves of variable frequencies churn through the maze of square edged and cornered pathways.
A true HORN has a fixed frequency resonant driver and a tube of resonant length, that ends in a full bell mouth ending.
While confined to a very narrow frequency range for optimum energy input to power output, that is where pure effiency lies.
Nor can one make a little speaker, resonate like a large speaker and vis versa.
What I am saying is that everything is a compromise, in time, energy, resources, space, weight, complexity, cost, materials availability, production facilities, tooling, acceptable trade offs, etc., etc., etc.
I do think this is an interesting solution to make ONE speaker, cover a broader range of frequencies than normally possible.
It's principle issue, I feel may come from the minimal supplies post war europe, where timber was easier to get than electronics., and people sought novel ways to improve the limitations of the available and costly speakers on the market.
I am a troller audiophile, I do not work on anything but I watch other work on D.I.Y. stand alone or book shelves speaker.
You should try to make yourself a passive crossover so you can limit range your audio. A cross over does better in the long run with music since you can channel different fequency to improve an audio range.
I love how your speaker stands out. Very old american look with a modern audio take. :)
After all the work you put into these, you should try better drivers.
I'd try a Fostex from Madisound.com
About the tipping over, yes you are right, might add a broader base to prevent that.
Forgive me, I can't add the image because the uploader fails. The only change respect your design is that the walls are not perpendicular, they are tilt, forming a growing throat.
Do you find you get any sort of decent kick from them?
One of my biggest gripes with single driver setups, you can't replicate a band sound with them...
Though a separate sub would take care of the missing chunks.
The design's interesting, I'm sort of looking at it and wondering would two drivers work better, basically the same baffling on each with a divide between.