What determines the quality of speaker? (1 Viewer)

[Josh Dial]

In an attempt to fill the boredom between semesters, I have decided to experiment with speaker building. Just for kicks, I am canibalizing all the old speakers in the house (which is a lot), taking out the crossover, cones, etc.
I was wondering what, in general, makes one speaker sound better than another? Is it the cones, the build of the xover, the engineering of the casing?
Also, do I, through my own injenuity, have a chance to make a speaker that might sound decent, if all I do is tear apart other speakers to get the parts?
Lots of questions here, so ANY help would be appreciated. Remember, this is for fun/learning. I don't care if I accidently wreck a speaker or two
cheers!
Josh

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Josh,

There are many factors that merge together to make any loud

speaker successfull in it's design and function. You have

already stated the obvious.

To build "just" the speaker it's self you have to look at:

Cone Design

Cone Materials

Surround Materials

Motor Structure (Magnet)

Basket Design

Basket Material

Voice Coil Diameter

Voice Coil Wire Diameter

Frequency Response

Excursion

Distorsion

Power Handling

Then you move on to the cabinents and you have a whole plethora

of options here as well:

Materials

Bracing

Air Space per Driver

Finish

Dimensions

Resonant Qualities

Tuning

Then you move on to the Crossovers and another list of choices:

What Order (1st 2nd 3rd)

Quality of Capacitors

Quality of PCB

Gauge of Internal Wiring

Choke Type

Choke Material

Speaker building for the most part is "Rocket Science" there

are some great programs available to the small user to develop

crossovers and cabinents that "work" and the best source of

information that I can think of would be to post this in the

Do it Yourself Forum. Those guys eat sleep and breath DIY

Projects!

 

[Arthur S]

I would say that the chances of you randomly putting together various drivers and achieving good results are not real great. However, people have been known to build, without much knowledge, speakers that sound good to them. I still remember the guy who made himself some big honkers and thought they sounded great... till he brought home a good pair of mass produced speakers that blew away his home brews.

 

[Robert_J]

Great quality drivers with a crappy cross-over will give you crappy speakers. Average quality drivers with quality cross-over parts and design will give you great sounding speakers. Try Wayne's site for great designs and a lot of speaker building info.
-Robert