How to Pick The BEST Drivers For Your DIY Speaker Project
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 เม.ย. 2023
- #diyaudio #homeaudio #hifi #audiophile
Today I am going to show you how to pick the best drivers for your diy speaker project. How do you know which woofer, tweeter midrange or which drivers in general to use? That is what I am going to be talking to you about. I will walk you through some of the things to look out for when you are beginning to get into DIY Speaker building.
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I think you've mastered being able to explain things in a simple way without talking to us like we are rodents. Your passion for this hobby really shows and I appreciate all of your efforts sharing your knowledge. Thanks!
Teaching is a skill on it own.. Truly a admirable one aswell.
I literally ordered a new subwoofer one and a half hours ago and I'd have liked to watch this video before.
I built a floorstanding pair with the exact 6.5" and 1" drivers in the example. Nice to see I know at least a little bit about what I'm doing.
Curious new members what did you think of that 6 1/2 inch?
@@Toid I'm quite pleased with it. Very detailed. Pairs well with that tweeter, which has quite a delicate touch. Can listen all day without any hearing exhaustion.
@@tradain that’s great to hear. I need to try that woofer sometime.
I was coming down here to look because I was considering this exact setup for my first diy build. Ill have to check them out if they're still available when I go to buy them lol
@@Toid I've made a bookshelf with the GF180 and the TD25F. Good combo for not much money... Goes down to 32hz.
Excellent dissertation on basic driver selection and thank you!
Excellent video - I appreciate the blend of simple steps combined with technical considerations.
I can't tell you how helpful that really was. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for this Video, i never knew about this topic in speaker selection before
Video idea: Aside from graph, SPL, and power; what is an indicator of sound and performance? Those specs can be very similar for 2 drivers of wildly different prices. (Sometimes the more expensive looks worse, just looking at the 3 things). Are there other T/S parameters that give an indication?
I'm in process of building some satellite surround speakers. I had narrowed down to 2, a Tang Band and Faital Pro. I contacted the good folk at Parts Express for insight, and the Tang Band was recommended. I took his word for it and ordered them.
Now I'm figuring out kerf cutting to make round enclosure, but that's neither here nor there for this question.
that was an awesome video, thank you very much
Really good info. Appreciated!
nice explanation thanks
Great video Nick! This would have been a huge help to me like a year ago.
Nice video! Great simple advice on how to use the parameters. Any chance you could do a video on the different materials for woofers and tweeter comparing their pros and cons, i.e. Textreme vs paper vs glass woven and beryllium vs Textreme vs soft dome etc?
Excellent explanations and really useful to me as I'm considering a build using Dayton ND13 tweeters, which are ½" and thus definitely an unconventional choice. Unconventional choices should always be a yellow flag to a beginner, as it usually means we're overlooking something. In this case I think it's okay, as it's a 4-way system with DSP, crossing to ND65s (2½" midrange that measure more like 2" drivers) at 4.5kHz, and then to dedicated midbass -> subbass drivers. That gives me latitude not economically feasible for most commercial systems, but this video gives me a little more confidence and understanding of the design track I'm going down. Also, welcome reminder of the rule of thumb to cross over an octave above fs. Thank you.
Very well delivered! I’m planning on my first speaker build in 30 years and this video was extremely helpful! I just subbed your channel and I’m gonna start looking through your back catalog.
Awesome, thank you!
Good stuff man🤓
Thank you so much, gold information
super helpful
Nice video. I'm new to your channel but old to diy loudspeakers.
A simple rule of thumb for driver size that generally works well is 13500/ diameter in inches. This will give you an approximate frequency where the driver dispersion will begin to beam and roll off, off axis.
One thing i might have missed is sensitivity. If you're designing a passive system, the woofer needs to be 3-6 db more efficient than your desired average spl to compensate for baffle step, which is the frequency where the wave becomes bigger than the baffle and the enclosure isn't pushing it into the room as efficiently. This happens anywhere between 200- 800 hz depending on the baffle dimensions. Typically the large inductor on the woofer is used to create a falling response as frequency increases to compensate for this at lower frequencies. If you have a narrow enclosure and don't account for this, the bass/midbass will be thin and the speaker will sound extremely forward. My first good quality speaker had this problem, so i learned the hard way.
I did the same mistake. High end real piano clear speakers, so much work. I used though 2* 8" Dayton Rs225.
Guy who designed crossover did good job, but it was real headache to get woofet and midbass blend well. I used side mounted woofer. So baffle is there ca 45 cm
Adding subwoofer might help?
@@rinx34 It's so disappointing, I know too well. I used 2 6-1\2" Vifa midbasses and a good Morel tweeter. The mids and highs were beautiful, the speaker was very detailed and dynamic, but it had to have active eq to be listenable.
@Toid i have a question, if you double the fs to get your crossover frequency for a tweeter, does the same rule apply for any driver, of any size, playing any frequency range?
It would be nice to see how to chose drivers for 3-way system. Do you have to match sensitivity?
Hello mate. I have a pair of celestion ditton 44 mk 2 empty cabinets 26" high. 13" deep. 12" wide. I'm putting 2 x 7" Dayton audio Rs180p woofers with 2x 10" passive radiators. Do you think they'll sound ok ? Thanks in advance from London
I'm curious about building a transmission line or some such out of tiny smartphone speaker drivers any thoughts or interest in doing a project like that yourself?
Excellent!!! Do you have a video on crossovers? Are store bought from a reputable source okay to use or do we always need to custom design using software? Many thanks...
Have you considered building a rtj 410? I would love to build a few of those.
Can we do a video on how to mini DSP eq a subwoofer?
Hello,
Can you suggest speakers, woofer and the rest for 5.1 home theater system to build by myself? Thanks in advance
Hello I have a Technics SU-V75 STEREO. I'm looking to replace the original speakers and was curious what would be the best fit. Came with SB-2665 cabinet.
I´ve watched so many videos about how to build a crossover and so but almost no one was talking about what you did here :S should´ve seen this like 2 years ago
For tweeter cross-over frequency, I have read that you must do 30db down in power level at FS. So the crossover point will be different depending on the crossover order.
What is FS?
What's a good replacment for Sony sscs5 ? something that has more bass than stock
Hey my friend I've been following you for a long time and I think you have very good knowledge on speakers and I need your help if you can I would appreciate it I need to build 2 speakers to go to Mexico in an audiofile competition the speaker has to be one sub 4 drives and 2 tweaters am very good at building the box but I have a problem with deciding what speaker I should use on this project the sub woofer the 4 drivers and the 2 tweaters and btw if you can help me let me know what's the program do you use to build the cross over ? Thank you you are very appreciated
Is it possible or okay to use a full range driver as midbass/midrange in a 2 way speaker like (tweeter+full range)? thanks.....
Yes. In fact I did it in the Dinas build.
Thank You. World expanded:)
Just discovered your channel and it's most informative. I just picked up a pair of Jamo GF 25 old school speakers that take me back to my teenage years with my Technics gear. I also run a pair Jamo 707i and 507i with a 12" M & K sub. I am a fan of the warm sound of the Danish speakers and I am having a crazy idea to build some speakers out of our local hardwood timbers. Your thoughts on drivers? Happy to fling a few bucks for your thoughts
I wish one of the ways you could "sort by" on parts express was by QTS
How will it be to use that 5/8" tweeter in a 3 way bookshelf system with 6.5 tang Band and some 3" mid driver ?!?
Bottom line, every driver has a sweet spot in the frequency range where it can play the best sound. What you want is that the combination of the woofer and the tweeter to cover as much of the 20-20kHz of human audible frequency with their sweet spot.
If two drivers can't cover the range you want, you can always add more drivers to widen the range.
I love this video. However, the problem I have with a lot of audio channels/forums is that they always talk about more or less the perfect set up. Like pull the speakers away from the wall or choose speaker X for the best midrange, etc. The reason this is a problem, is that people who are into this, prioritize the quality of what they are listening to. I wish that I could do this. But I have to live in the real world, where I don't have a dedicated room for this. I also have to use my home theater system to do double duty for listening to music. I don't have a wife that is willing to walk around a speaker pulled away from the wall on a stand to get to the bathroom. I have a room with 3-ish walls (sliding glass door) and an open-to-the-kitchen-at-the-back layout. It's not a small room really, but it's not big enough to accommodate a couch, a chair, an entertainment center and a bunch of speakers on stands around the room. I am forced to put them on the wall up high or perhaps in the ceiling . In this event, I really need to know the dispersion of the speaker in the vertical axis as well as the horizontal axis. Hell, I would be happy if someone would just do some videos on how to lay things out with different room configurations. Can you help?
this video helps a lot, but i have a question, what about the impedance and sensitivity of the speakers, and even the power, i have a lot of questions, how the power is distributed between the woofer and the tweeter? thanks for the great content :)
You use a crossover
That’s a great question. A crossover will distribute the power among the drivers and an L-pad will lower the sensitivity of the driver if needed. Those are all concepts that would be in another video. Although this is Steve, with the drivers could’ve been talked about in this video.
@@Toid amazing, thanks for the information. Ill be waiting for the next videos, and maybe start building my own speaker in the Future 😃
Hi, I want to Upgrade some Dayton bookshelf speakers “B562-Air”. They have a 1-inch Mini ATM tweeter and 6.5-inch woofer. I want to upgrade the crossovers at least but maybe the speakers too ?……Is it worth it or NOT ? They are rated for 40-watts but My AVR is 100watts per channel so I would like them to support 100watts at least or maybe 80watts. What do you think ? Is this possible and worth it or is it better to just build all New Speakers ? I don’t need Base heavy speakers because I have a 12-inch subwoofer. I use these as Surround in my home theater but I notice when I play music in stereo they can’t handle allot of wattage. So they need a better woofer setup in the bookshelf speaker.
Hi, is there a follow up video?
How about some info on horns?
A good rule of thumb as to what frequency to crossover at is one octave from the driver's limit. For example, a tweeter with a frequency response of 2,000Hz-18KHz, should be HIGH PASS filtered at 4,000Hz.
With a 12dB/octave HP filter at 4KHz, a tweeter playing at 100dB will see 88dB at 2KHz, 76dB at 1,000Hz, 64dB at 500hz, 52dB at 250Hz and so on.
A steeper slope on the roll-off helps greatly if you play your music loud.
With a 24dB/octave filter at 4KHz, playing at 100dB, that same tweeter would only see 76dB at 2KHz, 52dB at 1,000Hz, 28dB at 500Hz, etc.
Do I have to tune to parts expresses recommended tuning frequency? Or can I tune below? I have built many speakers and they aren’t terrible but for example, I would use a 3-4 inch full range and the fs would be somewhere around 110, the recommended tuning frequency would be 90, but in the same box size I could tune it to 60-65 and be relatively flat, or atleast that’s what winisd tells me, but is it bad to do this?
You can tune below. What you will find out is that even you tune really low you will have cone excursion problems with less power. Shay’s check it excursion graph of your driver with the desired wattage you’d use.
People go nuts for ribbon tweeters. Many ribbons won't play low enough to cross over to a dynamic wooder or even midrange in the 3 way.
I'd like to know how to choose a full-range speaker for a single driver speaker design.
It can be as simple as finding one you like and building an enclosure that suits.
Some things to think about:
-intended use (rock or large orchestra need more powerful bass, acoustic small ensemble can get away with a smaller driver that will be less of a compromise in other ways).
-cabinet size. Back loaded horns can help efficiency and low end but are large.
-Flatness of frequency response.
-true full range or extended range midbass with a supplemental woofer and or tweeter? There are benefits to both approaches.
From a practical standpoint, based on my experience, a 3" full range with a woofer added for enhanced low end is pretty great: Small enough to really do a nice job with mid and treble but using a woofer to give adequate low end. It's a good compromise and can be implemented fairly easily either actively biamped or with a passive crossover.
There are so many options, and it's one of the easier ways to get your feet wet with diy and have good results.
Look at the Dayton RS100P-4.
Why shouldn't the tweeter be used with a lower crossover point even though it has a flat response?
Go with ATCs
The sensitivity of both woofer and tweeter should be nearly same? Or tweeter sensitivity should be higher??
We didn’t really talk about that in this video. But the tweeter should at least be the same as woofer if not higher. It’s much easier to attenuate to attenuate the tweeter.
@@Toid thanks a lot for the clarification!!! 😊😊
@@audfrknaveen2256 you’re welcome. It’s probably something I should’ve went over in this video, so I appreciate question
What happens if you put your woofer in a bigger than recommended space?
Interesting question. I googled it and the answer was not what I anticipated.
"Over-Excursion and Damage: If a speaker box is excessively large, it can cause the speaker driver to over-excursion, meaning it moves beyond its intended limits. This can result in mechanical stress on the driver, potentially leading to distortion, decreased longevity, or even damage."
Great googling! Damage, huh makes sense. I just thought the bass would be weak.
It will play lower frequencies, but it will sound weaker overall, you will loose lots of output by trying to play few lower notes and it will move way more, so driver can be damaged by going above its Xmax.
My problem is, I have the box, I don’t want to make or buy a new one, 8 inch sub, 5 inch mid, and 1 inch tweeter, so I have to stay near those sizes
Have you ever used a ribbon and a silk tweeter in a project? I'm going to experiment here, but beforehand I would like to know if you already tried this... I have ZERO experience on making speakers, I'm just adventuring myself for the first time.
Have you ever toyed with designing and building a set of in-wall speakers?
ASMR
Purifi 6.5 Woofers... and SB Acoustics Satori BE Tweeters =)
Parts Express tells me that coupon code has expired.
Thank you. I'm looking into it.
The code is working again. Thank you for letting me know it wasn’t working
Can you build a Home theater 7 speaker setup for under $1000 ( Bookshelf speakers and Center channel ) I think this is the holy grain for many peoples. Home theater enthusiasts want more for $1000 than cheap Klipsch speakers but you know they don’t want to spend allot of money. A good Home Theater setup that Sounds great for Movies and Music. Many peoples live in small houses and the Average TV room in USA is probably about 12x12 feet. With Wood frame walls. So you don’t need MASSIVE Speakers to SHAKE the Entire house. I think most Peoples are looking for a Balanced Natural sound that is EASY on the EARS for hours of listening Enjoyment. Many Peoples have low powered AVR with 70-to-100 watts per channel. What do you think ?……I think Home theater enthusiast are looking for the Right Balance in Sound Quality, Bookshelf Speaker Size, and Costs.
I found for budget home theatre you can use decent Car speakers in a custom cabinet for good results :)
Remember car speakers are made with off axis in mind, so my home theatre has no sweet spots it is one
It’s a terrible match for other reasons but, you might address the sensitivity problem using the 12” woofer with the 5/8” tweeter WRT the sensitivity difference being in the wrong direction. Unless you’re adding in biamping or an autoformer as a means of dealing with it.
The sensitivity isn't an issue, with the 5/8" and 12" woofer. The woofer is 91db sensitivity, but once we take into account baffle step (between 5-6db loss) you are below the 88db of the tweeter. Having said that, sensitivity will be a whole another video, as that opens a whole lot more to think about. This is really just designed for the first few things you should look at. As the videos progress, a deeper understanding will develop.
You should (in my opinionen) make the assumption that I am a beginner that dont even speak the same language as yourself.. Just saying 🙄🙄, jk. Thanks for upload.. Apreciate. Pz
First
Woo hoo! Killing it!
@@Toid 😆😆😆, The speaker that you were going to build with the new horn is only available for patrons ? Or you didn't get to it yet? It would be nice a video explaining what you get with patron subscription. Thanks for the video BTW.
@@TexasCorgiGun that video is still coming. It’s not finished yet. I don’t usually do build videos specifically for patrons. But they do get access to the build plans when they come out. And we typically do crossover design live on the new builds.
@@TexasCorgiGun Patron videos tend to be more of the technical aspects of the build that don't fit into the regular videos. For example, in the "Rule Breaker" build, everyone could see the fab & assembly of the center channel along with the explanation of why the parts were chosen. In the Patreon video, the process used for picking the crossover values was covered. For Patrons, Nick tried several values and took measurements and asked the live viewers for their opinion. Patrons also could get the Rule Breaker build plans for free.
@@danrussell9357 Thanks for the info