# DIY Centre Channel



## Guest (Nov 6, 2007)

Hi All, 

I've been searching around and was looking for car audio speakers as centre channel.

I have a pair of boston acustics 6.25 drivers. I know Sony amp is rated for 8 ohm and the car speakers are running at 4 ohm each. I was planning to wire the leads in series to get 8 ohm load. 

I am also planning to make a custom mount for an in wall installation. I will do the same for all the other HT speakers

What do you guys think of using the boston acoustics for centre? Aslo for making a new enclosure/face for other speakers for a in wall setup.

Now the extra speaker i will have, I was thinking of using it as a centre rear or make my fronts dual drivers?

Here is the centre channel i have right now.










my current setup is just a basic HT
Athena HT package 
Sony SDRTE598

Thanks in advance ! Great forum too !
Ryan


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## toecheese (May 3, 2006)

I love DIY- I built my subwoofers and DIY'd everything in my theater from the framing, wiring and even HVAC. I've looked into DIY LFE. I did DIY hushbox (dual ventilated), DIY component ventilation, DIY networking, etc.

But, the center channel is so important in HT that I thought I'd leave it to the experts and got a Paradigm center- and haven't regretted it at all. I found one for a good price and am thrilled- there was no way I could have done this level of quality myself.


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## Big Worm (Mar 8, 2007)

I don't to much about DIY speakers, but I do know you cannot just slap some speakers in a box and call it a center speaker. Is this what you are trying to do? 

There is a lot more that goes into speakers. You have crossovers and size of enclusore that play a role.


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## imbeaujp (Oct 20, 2007)

On my oppinion, the best result is when you use the same speaker model for all channels. So if you could build all your speakers with the same components it will be the best way. 

I know that many people go with in wall installation but on my oppinion the will loose the ability to adjust speaker placement to get optimal sound "image".

If you want to build your speakers, you will have to use unibox software to get the best dimensions. Unfortunately, I do not know much about unibox. Maybe someone else could help you on that ?

Good luck !


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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

Rya, another point to consider is that car speakers and home speakers are usually built to sound best in their particular environment. Car speakers will be optimized to perform in a small enclosed area, with lots of ambient noise, etc. Ideally, you could get the T/S parameters for the speakers you're considering, and someone knowledgeable could give you a rough idea if they'd sound good in a home installation or not. If so, then you can move on to the next step of looking for a crossover that is suited well to those specific drivers and their ideal ranges. Then you could move on and design an enclosure that would be optimal for them, again, based on the T/S parameters. And then even if all of that does work out, they may not sound anything at all like your Athenas, and you'll get a funny front stage.

All that said, you could always just give it a try as a value play, since you have the drivers already, and mock something up as a quick test.


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## Tiny (Oct 17, 2007)

building speakers isn't as simple just sticking speakers in a box and calling it good as others have mentioned. Oh you can do that and get away with it, if you have some nice self adjusting receiver with something like YPAO. On the other hand just getting by may or may not be good enough for you.

As for car speakers they have their good points and bad points. I am in the middle of rebuilding my center channel, all scientific like and what am I using at the moment? a two separate 6x9 coaxial pioneer speakers in series. sitting about a foot above my TV. Oddly enough they sound pretty good in my small yet very open living room filled with ambient noise.

Will they sound as good as the 40"x32" with 4 mid ranges, 2 horn tweeters and 4 ports, going through a passive sub with 3 12" ported subs in a nearly 15 cf box? i certainly hope the new DIY project sounds better, but for now I am getting by with car speakers used as much for book ends as they are speakers, and I am okay with it.


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## Guest (Nov 8, 2007)

thank you all for your inputs.

Yes at this moment since i have the speakers in hand i would like to continue on the experiment. If it works that great maybe it would just give me a bit bigger sound stage compared to the 3" drivers on the athena. The Boston speakers are 6.5" with 1" tweeters and comes with its own passive cross overs. The family room is about 13 X 16 and my ht is setup on the short side (13' front to back). As for the Amp i can just control the level and how much of the low freq can be directed to the sub.

Might not be the best looking but i will try to post some pix.

Another question though, do you guys invest on a audio meter to balance the sound level of each speaker? I know some amp comes with a built in Mic for this purpose. I was thinking of getting a simple one from radio shack.

thanks
Ryan


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## imbeaujp (Oct 20, 2007)

You could use the RadioShack SPL to calibrate at reference level from your seating position. Yes this could help. But in the end, use your ears to get the final touch, especialy for sub level.

JP


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## Tiny (Oct 17, 2007)

imbeaujp said:


> You could use the RadioShack SPL to calibrate at reference level from your seating position. Yes this could help. But in the end, use your ears to get the final touch, especialy for sub level.
> 
> JP


i agree the radio shack meter is a good one and worth the investment. You can also pick them up on ebay with some regularity pretty cheap.


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## 1Michael (Nov 2, 2006)

The chances of you designing and building a center chanel, or any chanel for that matter as your first project that sounds anywhere near decent is slim to none...most likely none. Not only do you need to design the box, you have to test the drivers and design a crossover. If you have degrees in physics, electronics and sound acoustics then go for it but your still not going to have a good sounding speaker. I have built 3 sets of main speakers and lots of subwoofers and I would not even consider designing my own stuff because it is EXTREMELY difficult. here are some proven designs by people that know what they are doing. http://www.htguide.com/forum/forumdisplay.php4?f=39


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