Building Monitors

K

Kasey

New member
Does anyone know anything about building your own monitors? I currently have M-Audio BX5a's and their pretty good, but i'm feeling an upgrade in the near future, and i'd very much like to build my own. This would indeed be cheaper, right? if anyone could help me out i'd very much appriciate it.
 
If you already have woodworking skills and tools roll-yer-own monitors might be a fun project.

From what I undrestand of speaker design there is some pretty high-order math involved. Maybe there are some designs floating around on the net. I think doing your own thing from scratch would be fairly daunting and the results may not be worth the effort.
 
hi, I've been making studio monitors and amps and lots of other electronics projetcts for almost 2 years now.
And while it does cost me a lot less to build than to buy brand new, this was not the case for my first project.
It takes a lot of time and work to get this kind of thing right, especially the first time around.
But, its definitly a great project and will make you understand a lot more how your sound is created.
Oh, of course, you can make extremly excellent speakers with the exact configuration you need frequency wise and all.
hope this helps, let us know what you decide on doing!
 
$.02

it's an exellent idea just buy abunch of speakers and throw them in a box...then take what's left of your money and buy monitors....

it aint all that easy...lotsa research to do.. for instance are ya gonna do a basss reflex or acoustic suspension??? dont know? dont do it... how many quarts of space does the woofer you chose need??? dont know ?? dont do it... what's the crossover point?? and the slope??

i'm being a little fasceatious of course but the point is it aint all that easy... do your homework though and it could be fun... good luck...
 
Where do you all get the speakers for the custom monitors? This sounds like a fun project -- any advice on exactly what kind of math is involved?
 
alexfranke said:
Where do you all get the speakers for the custom monitors? This sounds like a fun project -- any advice on exactly what kind of math is involved?
Click to expand...

There are calculators that will do the heavy lifting, but you still need to decide where things go. All kinds of calculators here:

http://www.mhsoft.nl/spk_calc.asp#ported

You need to decide if you want 6.5" or 8" woofers. That will tell you the box size to use. You will probably be making a two-way design. 2nd order crossovers keep things simple. You have to decide on ported vs. sealed. You have to choose the type of tweeter you want to use. You have to decide if you are going to use nice wood and stain it, or MDF and cover or spray paint . . .
 
I've bought drivers and supplies from www.partsexpress.com over the years and have been happy. Everything from small home stereo speakers to modest PA systems.

They have a few "monitor" kits that look like a nice balance between cost and quality, designed by the guy that wrote the Loudspeaker Cookbook series.
 
I honestly don't know. Preferences in monitors is a highly subjective thing. I have a pair of SP-5Bs myself, but I got 'em cheap and didn't want to spring for a monitor power amp.

The quality of the drivers in the kits is likely higher than that in most of the cheaper powered near-fields out there, but that doesn't mean that the response of the speaker as a whole is what you'd want to use to monitor. NS-10s are not known for their pleasing sound in a living room, but are popular as near-field monitors. The Parts Express kits will likely not be as "flat" as a pricey set of monitors, but I would think that for someone who hasn't built speakers before they'd be a reasonable price/performance compromise, and serviceable as monitors.

YMMV and the usual disclaimers apply :)
 
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