# opinion on marshall stack lookalike speakers



## gibroni (Sep 25, 2010)

I'd like to build a pair of speakers that look like a Marshall guitar stack. They are going to be used mostly for listening to hard rock music, AC/DC, Kiss, etc. So far I'm thinking of 2 ways to do it, an Econowave inspired 2 way with the horn tweet being housed in what will look like the amp head with an 8 or 10" woofer in each cabinet below. Plan B is a more conventional 3 way MTMWW with a pair of 3 or 4" midranges flanking the tweet like a center channel in the "amp head" top with 8 or 10" woofers in separate cabinets below.


----------



## mechman (Feb 8, 2007)

Keep us informed along the way. :T


----------



## fusseli (May 1, 2007)

Are you going to use pro-sound drivers for high sensitivity? I'm sure real Marshalls don't have anything super fancy that other PA gear doesn't. If you find woofers sensitive enough to match the level on a horn tweet, they sure would blast when cranked... Otherwise a horn tweet padded down to match normal HT use drivers wouldn't be good for much beyond looks? Maybe better dispersion?


----------



## gibroni (Sep 25, 2010)

I'm leaning towards pro drivers for the sensitivity, yes. I am having an issue fiinding drivers to match the horn tweeter since what I am finding is mostly 8 ohm. I want to use the same driver in the bottom cabinets. I can just run the woofers in parallel and run them at 4 ohms versus 8 for the tweet to balance out the sensitivity. I guess the bottom cab could also be used as just a stand or to house a plate amp. PE has a plate amp with 35W to the tweet and 45 to the woof with a crossover built in. It might be an easier build to just use hifi components and build it as a 3 way, but I really want them to RAWK.


----------



## SinCron (Dec 20, 2010)

Never use guitar speakers for actual music. They're coloured for certain frequencies and very few are flat response. The mini-stacks have 8" speakers in them already so using 8" mid-wofers from Parts Express would be your best bet and mounting small "full range" drivers in the middle to handle mids and treble would be the best design I can think of. As for the amp head, put a stero amp in there and put some ribbon tweeters in the top portion.

8 of these  would be good because adding in two 8" subs would just be annoying and too costly and jsut plainly not worth it unless you want to mount a larger one in the rear.


----------



## gibroni (Sep 25, 2010)

I'm not rebuilding a mini stack for stereo, I'm building a pair of stereo speakers that will resemble, and hopefully fool some folks, into thinking they are mini stacks. I'm leaning towards pro speakers and plate amps so they can be used as a portable PA/DJ/acoustic gig setup.


----------



## fusseli (May 1, 2007)

gibroni said:


> I'm leaning towards pro drivers for the sensitivity, yes. I am having an issue fiinding drivers to match the horn tweeter since what I am finding is mostly 8 ohm. I want to use the same driver in the bottom cabinets. I can just run the woofers in parallel and run them at 4 ohms versus 8 for the tweet to balance out the sensitivity. I guess the bottom cab could also be used as just a stand or to house a plate amp. PE has a plate amp with 35W to the tweet and 45 to the woof with a crossover built in. It might be an easier build to just use hifi components and build it as a 3 way, but I really want them to RAWK.


Gotcha. I wouldn't worry about mixing 4 and 8 ohm drivers though, overall impedance will probably be fine, especially if the amp you go with supports 4 ohms (even if it doesn't I'd still say don't worry about it haha).

That'd be nice to have an active Xover built in, and with an active Xover then your driver impedances really don't matter the slightest. And ya you want to keep the mids and tweets as close together as possible, then maybe a dedicated sub or some other kind of 2.5 or 3 way woofer in the bottom portion? I kinda like that idea, have your two stereo 2-ways in the top (MTM, or whatever config), then a single big woofer in the bottom


----------



## gibroni (Sep 25, 2010)

I was checking out the "Statements" and came across quite a few DIY projects with similar configuration, WMTMW. I have friend who could use (desperately) some decent speakers in his mancave. He's a big hard rock fan and after hanging out in the new room he just built I started thinking about what I would do for sound. He currently has half a dozen or so in ceiling speakers randomly placed. It's awful. So I'm considering asking him to let me build these for him. My original idea was to put the MTM in a horizontal configuration in the "amp head" section atop 2 separate woofer cabinets. So the amp won't be an amp. It will be for either for the MTM or a horn.


----------



## Stitch (Feb 26, 2011)

I don't know bout all the technical stuff,but I must say. 'killer idea'. Outstanding


----------



## sparky77 (Feb 22, 2008)

My thought was if you really want to blow people away, I'd go with a wide dispersion horn tweeter in the head unit, a high efficiency woofer in the top unit, and a high excursion subwoofer tuned to around 28hz in the lower cab.


----------



## gibroni (Sep 25, 2010)

I think this might be the way to go. A sub would have to be small since I think the Marshal mini stack is 15" H x 15" W. I don't want to make it much deeper than the other cabinets. Maybe a high excusion 8" since I don't see a box bigger than 1.5 ft^3.


----------



## fusseli (May 1, 2007)

What about a TM then with common W (sub)? Two 2-ways on top with a horn and high-sensitivity midrange, then a power sub on bottom...


----------



## gibroni (Sep 25, 2010)

That's what I was trying to say. Top cab (amp head) horn tweeter, middle cab 6 or 8" midrange, bottom - powered 8 or 10" sub. Parts Express has a plate amp with 35W + 45W + electronic crossover. I'm considering this for the TM and then a 100W plate amp for each sub.


----------

