two way bookshelf

[flippo]

I am looking into building some speakers. I want to start out small (not expensive) due to not wanting to waste money on something I may not be good at. I am looking at using
Dayton RS 150S 6" woofers for 28.55 ea and Dayton DC28FS silk dome tweeters for 12.00 ea. Also plan to get crossovers from partsexpress crossedover at 2.500.
Any thoughts would be good. If the above parts do not mesh well let me know as I am very much a newbie at building speakers.

Thanks

[Dusty Chalk]

I too, plan on making my next set of speakers.

The synopsis of the advice I got was: start with a kit.

That said, I am going to ignore said advice.

[kexodusc]

Building a kit is a great value, and in no way inferior to building your own from the ground up. Truth is, it's a starting point for most of us who enter the DIY speaker hobby. Many people who don't build kits, at least are smart enough to build an existing design (there's plenty of good ones out there). Not a kit per se because the parts aren't all packaged, but at least it has instructions and all the guesswork is done. Really, if you don't own your own measurment gear, building your own design first is going to be extremely difficult, and somewhat unreliable. Not to say it won't sound good though, but I would question if you could optimize the design on your first try.

That said you could just dive right in. That's what I did. I had some help, but my main 2-channel rig was my first ever project, and is still my best speaker. I was lucky to live close to a long time DIY-er with measurment gear. After I watched all the little considerations that go into speaker design, I knew I was in over my head for my next one, so I started studying, copying and modding other designs.
I've been very fortunate to have access to measuring equipment (though I'm losing my contact this year so I'm finally going to have to spring for my own). Sure helps having a support network. Without that, whatever I would have ended up with would have been worse.

I'd recommend building a few established designs first. Study them. Feel free to tweak or mod them a bit to your liking. That's the best way to learn IMO, reading books and websites only takes you so far. Chances are it will be lower cost to you and sound better than your best initial efforts from scratch. You could spend $300 on parts and end up with something that doesn't sound good. That wouldn't be cool. I learned more modding other designs than starting from scratch, initially. I've probably built over 30 pairs of speakers in just over 3 years now, maybe 9 different designs in total. Only 3 of them have been my purely my own from scratch. The rest were "inspired" by respected, established designs or just kits/copies.

Flippo, don't buy the stock crossovers from PE. That's about the worst thing you could do with those drivers. The Dayton silk tweeter is a great value, but I think would be a bit outclassed by that woofer. Not that it's a bad match at all, but I would probably pick a cheaper woofer, or a better tweeter.
If you have a total budget in mind I could make some design recommendations.

[jocko_nc]

What he said. Build a design that is well-established or be prepared to tweak.

[spasticteapot]

If you're new to this (I am as well), John Krutke, A.K.A. "Zaphod", is the best way to go for plans. They're generally very well detailed, the crossover design is excellent - and they're FREE!

There's two choices I can reccomend for a first pair of speakers: The budget aluminum MTMs (good for bigger rooms and HT duty, especially with the integrated subwoofer option) or the Silver Flute/Vifa 2-ways, which are even cheaper and very nice for small rooms. I'm currently trying to amass parts for either one or the other.

Budget aluminum MTMs(est. cost around $200 total):
http://zaphaudio.com/BAMTM.html

Silver Flute 2-ways: (est. cost around $125 total):
http://zaphaudio.com/audio-speaker13.html

[flippo]

What tweeter would you reccomend with the 6" Dayton ref series woofer? looking for it to be a silk or cloth dome that would mesh well with the woofer. Also, what is the problem with the Dayton crossovers? Unfortunately I don't have access to testing equipment. My budget is in the $150 -200 range. I really do appreciate the advice/help.

Phil

[FLZapped]

This is an excellent resource for building speakers:

http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/audio_forum/index.pl

[spasticteapot]

What tweeter would you reccomend with the 6" Dayton ref series woofer? looking for it to be a silk or cloth dome that would mesh well with the woofer. Also, what is the problem with the Dayton crossovers? Unfortunately I don't have access to testing equipment. My budget is in the $150 -200 range. I really do appreciate the advice/help.

Phil

Vifa D27's - especially the D27TBFCG - are supposed to be very good tweeters, and they're only about $30 each.

I'd just go ahead with one of Zaph's designs, though. He knows more about speaker design than pretty much everyone here put together - and I don't say that lightly. He's very, very good.

[macebanyon]

Here (http://www.htguide.com/forum/forumdisplay.php4?f=6) is another good place for various speaker designs. I am currently working on the Modula MT's, I'm hoping they will really sing, if I ever get them finished.:D

Here (http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?t=18946&highlight=dayton+rs150) is a thread discussing the RS150 specifically.
Hope this helps and good luck.:thumbsup:

[royphil345]

What tweeter would you reccomend with the 6" Dayton ref series woofer? looking for it to be a silk or cloth dome that would mesh well with the woofer. Also, what is the problem with the Dayton crossovers? Unfortunately I don't have access to testing equipment. My budget is in the $150 -200 range. I really do appreciate the advice/help.

Phil

The problem with buying a ready made crossover is that it will only provide a good, simple, reasonably smooth crossover between drivers that have the EXACT same efficiency and impedance ratings. Any difference will require a resistor or variable resistor (L-pad volume control) to be added to the circuit of the driver that plays louder in order for the speaker to throw a respectable soundstage. Adding this resistance will also effect the crossover frequency of the crossover's inductor or capacitor in the circuit. Also, most crossover networks in store-bought speakers today go a step further and actually adjust the frequency response of the particular drivers used in the speaker system as well as simply crossing over and balancing the levels between them. Time alignment of different frequencies is also designed into many crossover networks.

The fact is... It would be really hard to build a speaker as good as store-bought these days without some serious knowledge. Following a plan developed by an expert, reverse engineering a popular speaker, or building a kit is definitely the way to go for best results.

I know Parts Express has plans for several speakers they designed, built and tweaked / tested from the parts they sell somewhere on their site... The crossovers looked a little more advanced than something "off the rack" as well, without looking too hard to build. Maybe check some of those plans out...