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Speaker plans good for a beginner?


berry120

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Oh wow, been a good few years since I poked my nose around here and it seems a lot has changed, especially on the design side - very nice!

 

Anyway, I was thinking recently (more for a bit of fun than anything, so all practicalities aside) about the feasibility of building some cabs from scratch. I've found the usual array of plans at speakerplans.com and bcspeakers.com, some look more complicated than others (unsurprisingly!)

 

Are there any particular plans that someone could recommend for a beginner? I used to be ok at woodwork, but it's been a number of years now. I'm basically looking for something that, after a decent first effort, shouldn't sound particularly awful. At least that's the idea... So the dual 18 inch sub plan on the B&C site is, unfortunately, pretty much out the mix!

 

While I'm at it, any recently priced drivers for the same project that people could recommend? Much as I'd love to shell out for some of B&C's finest, that's not going to be hugely practical I feel!

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For what purpose would you want these speakers, studio monitor or rock stack, home hifi or line array?

 

Search the forum for a book by each of Fane ad Eminence giving some suggested designs for some of their specific drivers. The Eminence range of drivers may well have what you need and they are available through Maplin and good electronics suppliers across the UK at least.

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Something reflex based would probably be you best bet, say the B&C sub12/15/18 with something like the x12 off of speakerplans.com

I have built an MTH-30 with relative ease. the Cubo15 is another good but simple horn-loaded sub-woofer.

 

Freespeakerplans.com has a variety of plans as well.

 

Unfortunately it's difficult to offer any more advice without an intended purpose! There is also a supplier of precision devices and Fane drivers on speakerplans.com, who is priced competitively and offers excellent after sales support.

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Ah, sorry, missed the purpose there! Well an ideal result would be two moderately powered full range cabs - the Behringer b1220 is what springs to mind as the type of thing I'm aiming for - much as I'd love to say I'm aiming for something along the lines of MA F12, I'm expecting more in line with sound quality from the former! (and no, that's not a dig at Behringer or the b1220 which I really quite like as a cheap cab.)
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I'm pretty good at woodwork type things, but being honest - produced some pretty horrible cabinets from speakerplans. Nothing to do with the design - it's just that cutting the end panels at anything other than 90 degrees was pretty tricky. If you need an 81 degree angle on the end, then for the faces to mate properly and the glue to really be effective 83 degrees-ish simply isn't good enough - and what happened in mine was the very edges would be the stable part of the joint, and the glue was pretty useless on the small gap on the other side. The result was rattles and buzzes - which got worse when they were moved around and bumped and dropped. Unless you have really good workshop facilities with a decent bench saw with proper large top table, I'd not do it again. Angles need to be exact and repeatable - any attempt to cut precise angles with hand power tools is beyond my ability to do accurately.
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For a cab that retails at £160 each you are not going to save much money down the DIY route, and will end up with something that looks inferior even if the sound is OK. Things like the edge protector mouldings and the rounded corners take a lot of finding and each add too much to the cost to make the project worthwhile. As another post on the forum the crossover is an essential part and getting the right one is often problematic and expensive.
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