New to Speaker Building (1 Viewer)

Hello, I am new here but I did search around for the question I have. I didn't see anything that gave me an answer.

Ok, so I'm thinking of building a center channel. Not to save money but to get my feet wet building a speaker. From what I know, as we age we can no longer hear the high frequencies.

So, would you need a true tweeter? This sounds like a stupid question, I've grown up with great sound and spent a good deal of time working as an installer of car audio when I was younger.

Anyway, I'm 30 & since I doubt my hearing is going to get better I was wondering if I would need a true tweeter for a speaker. I'm toying with the following setup:

Crossover: (500/5k)
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=290-654&scqty=1

Low frequency driver 5" (2 of them @ 100-500hz)
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=295-370&scqty=2

Mid frequency driver 4" (2 of them @ 500-5khz)
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=295-378&scqty=2

High frequency driver 3" (1 @ 5khz+)
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=295-336

The 5" is billed as a woofer, the 4" is billed as full range & the 3" is billed as full range.

I want punchy accurate bass/midbass & crisp high's, but don't think I would require a true tweeter if I can no longer hear much above 12-16khz. Would the above (or another) full range 2-3.5" speaker work as a quality high frequency driver?

I like that all the drivers are from the same company/family & should sound good together.

Anyone have any insight on this?

First off, I'm about 53 (depending on what year this is ) and I still need a tweeter.

Your center channel should match the fronts as closely as possible for a smother transition of sound from the left to the right. That's going to be tough to do with a diy center channel.

No offence, but you can't just put some drivers in a box and expect it to sound good. It takes a lot of experience and trial/error to get good at it. I'd start with a simple two driver and a tweeter (MTM) design as your first attempt. A Partsexpress pre-assembled crossover should work O.K. but it won't be ideal.

I have used the 5" drivers you're thinking about but they are really too small to give that punchy bass you're looking for. They are really a 4" driver. Home speakers are sized/labeled differently then car drivers, and from each other. Ther's really no consistancy. In fact, that 5" driver is exactly the same size as a 4" car speaker. I'd at least move up to the 6" model and use the 4" Daytons and an actual tweeter in place of the 3" driver. You might also consider adding anl L-Pad to control the output of the 4" and tweeter. One of the jobs when designing the crossover is to match the output of all drivers to a consistant level. All of those drivers have different SPL levels. http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=260-255

And the Dayton DC series are also very good http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=295-302

The 3" and 4" are listed as going to 20,000hz but I can't imagine they would provide as smoth of a high end as a seperate tweeter. But I have never used them so I can't really say they couldn't either.

What I would do is to find a good MTM speaker kit designed by someone with experience building speakers, or copy a design already being used. You can find speaker projects at partsexpress and many other websites. Google DIY speaker projects.

This is a tower speaker project but the speaker components and crossover are available seperately. Ask PartsExpress if they can put together the components for just a center channel to match the towers.

Here is a link their speaker projects

http://www.parts-express.com/project-gallery/speaker-projects/


They also sell assembled and knock-down cabinets.

http://www.parts-express.com/cat/speaker-cabinets/20

But I would do a lot more research before taking on such an ambitious project. But speaker building can be a lot of fun. Just be prepared to be a little disappointed with the results. It's not as easy as it looks.

Thanks for the insight/advice. While I was drifting to sleep I had another idea, sort of goes along with what you mentioned.

Would it be smarter (perhaps easier to achieve balance as well) if I took the 3" Uni-q drivers from my KEF eggs and used those as the center piece for my center build. I could do the homework on pairing that driver with a couple 4-6" "woofers" to expand and increase the quality of the lower end. I'm not looking for earth shattering, as I use a sub, but having my HTS crossed over at 120hz is a joke with 5 3" driver's running the lower end of the 120-20khz.

The bonus for this is that I would easily have matched highs from using the L/C/R Uni-q's as the foundation to my eventual L/C/R builds. Plus, these would still match the rears.

Is the above alteration easier to achieve than the original plan or actually harder to do?

Basically the center would run a 2-way cross over that went to a pair of, say, 5" & the KEF Uni-q would handle the higher end.

Perhaps I could find a kit that would allow me to utilize the 3" uni-q's, this could reduce/eliminate the calculations on my end.

Like I said, I am going to do this, but I want to make sure what I create won't go straight to the trash once I'm done. I thank you in advance for any advice on the matter as I want to plan and create something I'll enjoy.

Sorry for the late response. HTF is going through a web hosting change and I was having trouble logging in.

Integrating the 3" KEF driver would offer the best match to the other KEF speakers. Your biggest optical is integrating the KEF crossover (If it has one since it's a single driver speaker) and selecting the proper cabinet for the larger drivers you select. Most others would suggest you just buy a larger KEF center that comes close to the Eggs. But I understand your desire to DIY. BTW, I trashed my first 3-4 attemps at speaker building. I'm getting better but still have a lot to learn.