Contrary to popular belief, it is perfectly possible to build a loudspeaker cabinet that sounds just as good as expensive 'pro' speakers, from simple household items. I will give a brief description of the ones I built.

The speaker chasis themselves were taken from an old Ford Escort. They obviously aren't the original speakers, but some aftermarket subs added by the boy racer scum who previously owned it before crashing it and leaving it by the side of the road. For high frequencies, I purchased a pair of cheap piezo tweeters from Maplin.

For the main part, the cabinet, I have used cardboard boxes. Two cardboard boxes were obtained which are about the correct size for the speakers, and duct tape was used to strengthen them in certain places, mainly the corners and seams. The speakers are mounted inside with superglue and duct tape. One advantage of cardboard is that it is very easy to work with. It is also free.

Of course, a single carboard box isn't going to be solid enough for this purpose, so I went to the local supermarket (full of fat pikey slags with their six squalling brats all sired from different fathers, eeeuuuwwww) and obtained many such boxes. I cut these up into neat squares, and attached them to my speakers using glue and duct tape. The whole cabinets were then wrapped in duct tape.

Any modern speaker design will have ports for bass, and mine are no exception. I cut holes into the front of the cabinets, and then stuck half an empty cling film roll in, using superglue.

To give the speakers a good finish, I sprayed them with black car spray paint. This gives a surprisingly professional looking finish, and they are definitely worthy of my living room.

These speakers sound great. I have a friend who has a pair of B&W 602's, and my speakers are at least as good as those, and only cost me £16 for the tweeters, duct tape and glue. I got the speaker wire out of a builders skip. It just goes to show how people with little common sense get ripped off, when a pair of home built speakers costing £16 turn out better than a pair costing £300+.

I hope this post was informative, I may well offer some more tips in the near future.

[ReTrO]

Hmmm....

....interesting.

[micb3rd]

Originally posted by Night Monkey
Contrary to popular belief, it is perfectly possible to build a loudspeaker cabinet that sounds just as good as expensive 'pro' speakers, from simple household items. I will give a brief description of the ones I built.

The speaker chasis themselves were taken from an old Ford Escort. They obviously aren't the original speakers, but some aftermarket subs added by the boy racer scum who previously owned it before crashing it and leaving it by the side of the road. For high frequencies, I purchased a pair of cheap piezo tweeters from Maplin.

For the main part, the cabinet, I have used cardboard boxes. Two cardboard boxes were obtained which are about the correct size for the speakers, and duct tape was used to strengthen them in certain places, mainly the corners and seams. The speakers are mounted inside with superglue and duct tape. One advantage of cardboard is that it is very easy to work with. It is also free.

Of course, a single carboard box isn't going to be solid enough for this purpose, so I went to the local supermarket (full of fat pikey slags with their six squalling brats all sired from different fathers, eeeuuuwwww) and obtained many such boxes. I cut these up into neat squares, and attached them to my speakers using glue and duct tape. The whole cabinets were then wrapped in duct tape.

Any modern speaker design will have ports for bass, and mine are no exception. I cut holes into the front of the cabinets, and then stuck half an empty cling film roll in, using superglue.

To give the speakers a good finish, I sprayed them with black car spray paint. This gives a surprisingly professional looking finish, and they are definitely worthy of my living room.

These speakers sound great. I have a friend who has a pair of B&W 602's, and my speakers are at least as good as those, and only cost me £16 for the tweeters, duct tape and glue. I got the speaker wire out of a builders skip. It just goes to show how people with little common sense get ripped off, when a pair of home built speakers costing £16 turn out better than a pair costing £300+.

I hope this post was informative, I may well offer some more tips in the near future.

Ha ha ha ha ha, best chuckle I have had in a while.

Cardboard would truly truly suck for rigidity, porting to an unknown frequency is totally awful idea (most likly leading to any sound under 50 hz unloading the speaker, and no mention of a crossover so they are prebebly giving full range to both tweeter and woofer.

I wanna see pictures of these truly unique speakers.

[X3ELS]

Following this thread and the one on DIY digital interconnects where we have all been told that we can use 'any old bit of metal'

I am today closing my hi-fi shop and will start a new career in importing phillapino slaves to sell as wives.

Anyone who would like one can drop me a PM.

Originally posted by X3ELS

I am today closing my hi-fi shop and will start a new career in importing phillapino slaves to sell as wives.

Anyone who would like one can drop me a PM.

I'll have one of those wives - trade you a Billygoat for it?

[Ian J]

Originally posted by Night Monkey
The speaker chassis themselves were taken from an old Ford Escort.

That's a bit on the large side for my house. Would it work as well if I used the chassis from my son's Tonka lorry.

[Dan Gleebles]

Big Fat Troll

I noticed your handle and thought my wife had joined the forums

[Ian J]

Originally posted by micb3rd
Cardboard would truly truly suck for rigidity

I think that you need to read the Hometheatrehifi review of an SVS subwoofer.

In the case of the 25-31 PCi, as with most of their subs, the product is basically a heavy cardboard tube, with the driver mounted at the bottom, facing downward, and a huge port at the top, with a perforated metal plate over the entire top end. The tube is covered with a cloth sock on the sides

This rather excellent subwoofer is not only made from cardboard but also covered with an old sock thus disproving your theory.

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

Actually Monkey boy might not be so banana's..... I built some speakers out of balsa wood a while back and got surprisingly good results.

Everyone assumes that rigid cabinets are the requirment but the problem is when you make a cabinet that strong the weakest link is just moved elsewhere. Ideally the resonances need to be tuned to get the "perfect cabinet/drive unit interaction.

Monkey obviously achieved this by judicious use of ports while I found that a fully enclosed cabinet was the solution with mine. Off course the first time I played them, I think it was with the 1812 Overture, they exploded....I am currently using the parts to make a cracking glider!

Gordon

[Dan Gleebles]

I have heard a rumour that Night monkey is the chief designer at Bose, can anybody confirm this??

[ReTrO]

Originally posted by Dan Gleebles
I have heard a rumour that Night monkey is the chief designer at Bose, can anybody confirm this??

No. But it sounds like a good rumour!

[StooMonster]

Decided to follow Night Monkey's recipie for DIY speakers...

...but having trouble sourcing some of the components. Speaker chasis from boy racer scum's old Ford Escort crashed by roadside are proving a challenge.

Night Monkey, are there plenty of these where you live or can you provide me with a URL so I can purchase online?

StooMonster

[micb3rd]

Originally posted by Ian J
I think that you need to read the Hometheatrehifi review of an SVS subwoofer.



This rather excellent subwoofer is not only made from cardboard but also covered with an old sock thus disproving your theory.

Yep, I know they use compressed cardboard, I followed the original SVS Launch and rise to guru status back at www.Hometheaterforum.com years ago.

There is a lot of difference between the compressed cardboard tube that SVS use and a duct tape stuck together cardboard box