Best material?

[nice_tie36]

I'm going to give it a shot at building my own speakers. I've never done it before, but you'll never learn anything new if you don't try it out. I've ordered a book, I forgot the name so I'll put it up here when I figure it out. But what is the a good material to use to build the speakers and subwoofer enclosers out of. I didn't plan on building my own speakers but with my entertanemint center built in to the wall I kind don't have a choice because everything looks really taky. Even the little speakers.

But what is a good or decent material that will hold up and look nice with a good finish? I'm don't really care about cost cause it shouldn't cost that much and I don't care if I have to order it. Thanks in advance.

[nice_tie36]

I looked on google and I found out that paticle board and good plywood work best. But where could I get just speakers that aren't already in an encloser? I looked at parts express but its just crapy brands.

[MikeyBC]

you may get more help on the DIY board but since i'm here.....MDF (medium density fibreboard) is probably your best choice and finish with a veneer of you prefer.

as for parts try www.madisound.com , they sell seas, scanspeak, vifa and peerless and others. A lot of high end speaker manufacturers use these brands.

[Peter Duminy]

You can try www.solen.ca not only for parts, but also for building materials and techniques. 3/4" MDF, or better still Birch Ply makes an excellent enclosure material. The sky is the limit as to how much you want to spend!

[Feanor]

I'm going to give it a shot at building my own speakers. I've never done it before, but you'll never learn anything new if you ...

It is possible to build great speakers but the more you stray from the established designs, (such as you find at Solen or Madisound), the trickier the process becomes. Any good book on the subject will make that clear enough. Much of the complexity has to do with the cross-over networks, but box design and sizing is an issue too.

For designs, click the "Design" tab at Solen: http://www.solen.ca

I'm not sure what you mean by "crappy" speaker brands at Parts Express -- they sell various leading manufacturers, e.g. Scan-Speak, Vifa, Morel. These are among the best in the world.

Solen carries these and other leading brands, e.g. Seas, Eton.

MDF is probably the best material. It has very low resonance for a given thickness; (use 3/4", or 1" for large cabinets). Also, MDF cuts very smoothly with standard power tools.

[KRiTiKaL]

Now why would a nice hardwood not be suggested(oak,walnut,etc)? Isn't that a fine quality in a speaker? Am I thinking too old school?
).

[MikeyBC]

I think MDF has a higher density than hardwood (i might be wrong but it seems more dense to me), hardwood would be better than particleboard. I have read that plywood is not recommended because over time the constant vibrations can break apart the laminated layers of the plywood and cause cabinet resonances and buzzes.

[Peter Duminy]

Here is a list of materials we tested for density when I was with the BBC Research Dept. a number of years ago. Some results do depend on grade quality. I hope this helps:


http://img150.exs.cx/img150/896/densities6ac.jpg

Surprising results!

[KRiTiKaL]

So then by the chart, chipboard is really good. Then oak hmmmm....

Thanks for that btw.

[nice_tie36]

Thanks guys. When I said crappy speakers parts and such. I'm going by what my uncle tells me. He is like really good at building his own sound systems. So I've been asking him some questions also. He's built like all his systems (even the ones in his cars) except for like 1 or 2. But thanks a lot, again. I'll let you guys know my progress as I will most likely have questions that the book doens't ansewer.