Cheap good speakers

[speakerman1]

The 1st speakers I got were for the cabinets. I think I paid 5.00 at a pawn shop. Then I started looking for places that sold drivers. I had to figure out the Cu.ft. for the woofer. Then I wanted a tweeter. So I shopped and picked a Morel teeter. I think the woofers were 10" Vifas. Well I knew nothing of making a X-over. Well I found an ad from a company who would design my xover for me. That was GR Reaserch. Well they helped alot. Taught me a lot. So I ordered some from them. I wait and I get it. It isn't built so I freaked. I hadn't soldered in 20 years or read a schematic in 10. I gave them heck. But with help from them. I built them. I used 3/4 MDF for the circuit board and clear RTV to hold every thing in place and I went to town. All I used was hook up wire. I had a Hafler system. Even with the internal wiring being hook-up wire they still sounded good. I had abour 250.00 in them and they would rock. These were my test speakers. LOL I would change the wiring inside. I bi-amped them. I had the DH-500 Hafler Amp. I would get drunk and just crank it. You could here the music 2 blocks away like it was your car stereo. The windows would rattle from my 250.00 speakers.

I was very proud and just a few of my friends were impressed. These were my 1st speakers I built and the sounded like a 1500.00 to 2000.00 speaker. So for 250.00 you can build some too,

Larry

 

[Web Police]

Good story Larry.

I built some Franken Speakers when I was 18. I bought Radio Shack 12 inch woofers, 5 inch mids and dome tweeters as well as xovers a a freight salvage place for quite a bit less than what RS sold them for. I think I had about $80 or so into parts. I was able to get two sheets of damaged MDF for a few bucks and used my dads table saw to cut the mdf and build speaker cabinets. I made some floor standing 3-ways and put them together with sheet rock screws and painted them semi gloss black, I stapled insulation to the insides of the cabinets and to save on binding posts I ran bought some $1 terminal strips and drilled a hole in the back attached the wires and then used automotive silicone to seal all the surfaces. I had a RS book on building speakers so they had a little design thought behind them but not much. They sounded pretty good and I took them to college with me and them when I got back home working I bought some better speakers and gave them to a friend. He proceded to take the drivers out and put them in some empty Infinity cabinets he had. Come to think of it his speakers sounded pretty good with the RS drivers also.

 

[orange]

My first speaker builds were with parts of mismatched Altec Model Threes. They had the crossovers, no grilles, one good correct Altec tweeter and two Realistic 10s of which only one was any good. I had a 10" box with a sloped front and a bare wire push terminal cup. I took the Realistic and a GM (Onkyo) car tweeter with something built in line to make a crossover (a capacitor I guess, I'm tired, it came that way) and it was so nice I listened to mono for two weeks with just it. I bought some 10" Corona parts from Andy(man?) on AK and he had just had a garage fire so he was closing out parts from damaged speakers. I had a tweeter die (still have the other I think) so I looked in some Kaye-Halbert 2-ways and while the woofers were mismatched RS 8" to my complete surprise the tweeters were JENSENS! Not the right size but I adapted them. About two years later I found the Altec Model Three grilles and covered them.

Last year I blew the tweeters but I think I will use Jensen soft domes that fit the space right. No, not Sono-Domes, more like 80s.

The fuzzy box is still in the bedroom and has been used as a center quite a bit but is a capable mono monitor as well.

 

[rtp_burnsville]

It sure sounds like all of us grew up in the same era, scary!!!

Robert

[attachment=0:ef88thdb]Img_0514_rs.jpg[/attachment:ef88thdb]

 

[orange]

Good story Larry.

I built some Franken Speakers when I was 18. I bought Radio Shack 12 inch woofers, 5 inch mids and dome tweeters as well as xovers a a freight salvage place for quite a bit less than what RS sold them for. I think I had about $80 or so into parts. I was able to get two sheets of damaged MDF for a few bucks and used my dads table saw to cut the mdf and build speaker cabinets. I made some floor standing 3-ways and put them together with sheet rock screws and painted them semi gloss black, I stapled insulation to the insides of the cabinets and to save on binding posts I ran bought some $1 terminal strips and drilled a hole in the back attached the wires and then used automotive silicone to seal all the surfaces. I had a RS book on building speakers so they had a little design thought behind them but not much. They sounded pretty good and I took them to college with me and them when I got back home working I bought some better speakers and gave them to a friend. He proceded to take the drivers out and put them in some empty Infinity cabinets he had. Come to think of it his speakers sounded pretty good with the RS drivers also.

If I had the right size passive radiiators I could walk out on the shed, gran a pair of Realist cabs and have speakers going in half a night.

 

[Elite-ist]

It sure sounds like all of us grew up in the same era, scary!!!

Robert

[attachment=0:31ck1q2k]Img_0514_rs.jpg[/attachment:31ck1q2k]

The Radio Shack "Speaker Enclosures" book is the same one I had, too. It may be buried in a bunch of other car magazines I collected through the years. I built a pair of small bookshelfs according to the plan and installed 4 ohm triaxial automotive speakers I had spares of.

Nando.

 

[rtp_burnsville]

I also attempted to build a few enclosures as a young kid. We were dirt poor so no money and not much for tools other than a crap saw. Collected speakers from the neighbors old radio and tvs for the first few attempts. Then found some plastic cone govt surplus and thought I had the world. The first attempt at crossovers didn't work either, but then again they may have but likely just couldn't tell. I remember one set worked pretty well so gave them to my Mom for Mom's day, she used them for several years.

Have build many musical instrument enclosures since...... Really should give a try at some stereo speakers one of these days. To many projects, not enough time!!!! sigh....

Robert

 

[speakerman1]

I hear that. I just priced drivers for a pair of towers a couple weeks a go. Close to 1000.00 for just drivers. I hated building cabinets. Well not the cabinets themselves. But doing the veneer wasn't fun at all.

Larry

 

[laatsch55]

My first attempt was taking some Pioneer 6x9' s out of a wrecked car and building a small set of cabinets, kinda like bookshelf speakers before they were known as that. I had saved my allowance for a year to buy a little fischer receiver to put on my dresser and the speaks fit on each side of it perfectly. This was in Southern Cal in the days of KLOS with Elliot Mintz at the helm, it was SOOO wicked staying up late listening to him on what was the "underground FM", but as always, Mom busted me on a regular basis CAUSE I COULKDN" KEEP IT TURNED DOWN!!!! Imagine that!!
2nd attempt was to buther a set of small AR's to mold in behoind the seats of my 79 Ramcharger, that had my Pioneer Supertuner with the 40 watt separate amp. I traced out the outline of the box sidewalls and trimmed the speaker cabinets to form perfectly to the inside profile so the looked built in. I remember the first taper I put in, Heart- "Dreamboat Annie". I had done WAY TOO much speed and started this project in my Mom's driveway on days off. She opened the Garage door at 3:30 AM and gave me one one of looks. So I had to shut down but i swear that sounded as good as my home system.

 

[rtp_burnsville]

Hear the getting busted! I use to get caught listening to my AM portable...... WSM 650 but one could only get it every so often being I was in north central WI. Really liked the opery as it was live music not heard often in the sticks of WI.

Ha, even had a couple hundred feet of wire run around the yard to try and get better reception. Surprised one did not get zapped in electrical storms.

Robert

 

[speakerman1]

Robert that is funny. I remember hooking up my transistor radio to the TV antenna. So I could hear the Wolfman in Ft. Wayne. I won't say what happened when it was found out what I did.

For my graduation present I got a 76 Vega. I had to pay for. LOL. I bought some 6x9s and I didn't know anything about speakers. So for boxes I used a Kleenex box wrapped in cloth. Put the 6x9s in there. Brings back good and bad memories.

Larry

 

[rtp_burnsville]

Hey Larry, I can imagine what happened....... Not that it ever happened to me you know...

I am glad that I grew up in a non-politically correct world. If some thing hurt, duh, you just don't do it again! The kids these days just don't have a clue as to all the fun things they are missing out on. What stories are they going to tell the next generation.....


Robert

 

[laatsch55]

EXACTLY Robert. And ya didn't sue the next door neighbor if you fell out of his tree. And if you sued McDonalds for spilling hot coffee on yourself you would have been laughed out of town.

 

[speakerman1]

Well the whole story is the wind blew down the antenna. So I got a hack saw and sawed a piece off while it was on the ground. At 1st I hung it and it wouldn't work. So I got an old bicycle inner tube and insulated it from the pole. It worked then. He really couldn't tear me up to bad. He was proud I figured out how to do it. I was only 10. LOL

Larry

 

[rtp_burnsville]

So true Lee.... If you needed a lawyer you had more problems than a little hot coffee as someone was about to beat you silly with a big stick!

Actually my folks were pretty understanding if I was attempting to do or learn something..... Not to say one didn't get a little corrective steering at times though.

 

[rtp_burnsville]

Larry too funny, stop that..... I just spit coffee reading that.....

 

[laatsch55]

If it wasn't for my Dauschound laying on my exposed butt and growling at Mom , my butt would have had a lot more beatings. She got smart though, she would let the dog outside and close the door before she started raising her voice.

 

[speakerman1]

We had them too. Johan growled one time at her when she grabbed me. That didn't last long she kicked the dog then proceeded to tear me up because I laughed. LOL

Larry

 

[orange]

Good story Larry.

I built some Franken Speakers when I was 18. I bought Radio Shack 12 inch woofers, 5 inch mids and dome tweeters as well as xovers a a freight salvage place for quite a bit less than what RS sold them for. I think I had about $80 or so into parts. I was able to get two sheets of damaged MDF for a few bucks and used my dads table saw to cut the mdf and build speaker cabinets. I made some floor standing 3-ways and put them together with sheet rock screws and painted them semi gloss black, I stapled insulation to the insides of the cabinets and to save on binding posts I ran bought some $1 terminal strips and drilled a hole in the back attached the wires and then used automotive silicone to seal all the surfaces. I had a RS book on building speakers so they had a little design thought behind them but not much. They sounded pretty good and I took them to college with me and them when I got back home working I bought some better speakers and gave them to a friend. He proceded to take the drivers out and put them in some empty Infinity cabinets he had. Come to think of it his speakers sounded pretty good with the RS drivers also.

If I had the right size passive radiiators I could walk out on the shed, gran a pair of Realist cabs and have speakers going in half a night.

For the moment I have found the one thing Thrusters might be good for...

~8" passive radiator membranes

In go 2-way crossovers, tens and 4.5" tweeters, no toy surprise in there, try that I will.