# need help for drivers selection and design



## kouack (Jan 17, 2007)

Good day, i'm a newbee who needs help, i'd like to built a set of speaker that would have a tight bass to play music and still really decent in my HT environnement so i would not need a sub (i know i'm asking alot  ) so far i do have a pair of cerwin vega D9 with a 15 incher and i love the bass the can rock the house hee hee so i'd like to built something with the same idea. For the size of the box something like 24X24X36 would be nice. Woofer i had a look at Mach 5 audio 18 inches 4 ohms i do not know much about it quality wise or i'm better go with something with a rigid suspension? any suggestions are welcome. I would have a budget of about 700-800 $ max for the drivers if possible. Amp wise would be powered by a QSC RMX1850HD that can give me [email protected] 8 ohms and [email protected] 4 ohms and [email protected] 2 ohms all RMS figure of course.Thank you.


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## JCD (Apr 20, 2006)

Before we go any further, have you looked at the kit's that are already available? As a first timer, that's the route I'd go (and did) for my first DIY attempt. Designing a speaker from scratch is ultimately what I'd like to do, but I know that I'm still way too much of a novice to build a speaker from the ground up. I don't want to dissuade you from working on something like this, but this may be a bit much to bite off on your first go around. 

The three most commonly cited online retailers of DIY speaker kits are:
Madisound
Zalytron
Parts Express

From what I've gleaned from the various A/V sites, Madisound and Zaltron are more likely to give you a better kit than Parts Express.. although PE is supposed to be getting better.

If you're determined to try this on your own, you will probably need to do a little reading. The defacto bible for DIY is Vance Dickason's Loudspeaker Design Cookbook. You can get the 6th edition (they're up to 7) here for only $11.

This biggest trick I've determined is designing an effective crossover. Everything seems to indicate that's part science part black magic.

JCD


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## kano32 (Sep 14, 2006)

Kits are a good idea. There are several forums and sites that have well designed speakers but none where the woofers will replace subwoofers. A good set of speakers integrated with sub(s) is the way to go.

$700-$800 for drivers and crossover components for a set of speakers and sub drivers could work. Are you just interested in just one set of speakers or a entire home theater?


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## kouack (Jan 17, 2007)

Yes just one set since i would hook my cerwin to my Crown amp for the rear and my Bryston to the side channel that i already have. My center channel still being driven by my Harman Kardon AVR240 for now till i get the other amp and my second DCX2496 from Behringer  and then my Harman will be only use as a pre-amp.

For the kit i haven't see much of fair size of 2-3 ways speaker that would be even close to my D9 i love how they sound except for the tweeter that i replaced (i'm old school i believe in bigger is better)

Most of the time i do listen to music so going down to 10 hz is not a must for me. Right now i'm satisfied with the bass and if i can built something really decent and get a bit more bass then my cerwin well i'll be happy.My room is not that big right now but the next one will be a bit larger something like 15X20 ish with 8 feet ceiling.

I had a look also at PE and their DAYTON RSS390HO-4 15" HIGH OUTPUT SUBWOOFER looks nice and 4 ohms would give me 600 watts/channel from my amp but the freq range is only up to 600 and only 90 db so i'm not sure, i'm use to see more like 100-102 db from a speaker (PA world) but again i do not want to build a PA speaker so that's why i need help. Thank you for your patience.


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