to build computer speakers

department76

i have been putting much thought into this lately. now that i have seen the success of my own craftmanship, i have been putting a lot of thought into doing a full set of computer speakers. since i use my home theater for everything right now, i have no way of enjoying eax and surround sound in games so i just use headphones.

my plan is to construct a 7.0 speaker set. I will not need a sub because my own design of woofer should put out significantly more bass than a typical computer satellite speaker, i also have hometheater for when i want things to rumble. The only drawback is that the satellites themselves will be large due to MDF construction. ie ~ 4" x 6" x 4" for the fronts and maybe smaller for the rears, or something of the sort. The biggest design challenge is finding a suitable amplifier. My current solution would something along the lines of 4 15w stereo amps, built into a box to hide under the desk, or wherever (thus a sub would be an easy addition). i am thinking maybe 3" or 4" drivers for the front speakers and component tweets, most likely ported for best bass response (w/ my own crossovers). For the rears i am pondering on using 3 1/2" coaxial 2-ways, similar to those found in car audio. this would allow for small cube-type speakers, sealed boxes, or component setup with slightly larger boxes.

the fidelity should be pretty decent as the woofer quality will be fairly high, the only thing is that i havent heard anything powered by oem amps such as the one listed. the project itself would take some time, but for me DIY is an extremely enjoyable hobby and not so far off from computer modding.

thoughts? suggestions? comments? please?

note- right now i am working on a price plan to see if it would even be economically worth it at all, as well as preparing spl curves for speaker response per my design.

edit: the L/R/C have an f3 (bass extension) of 69hz, using this woofer in a 5" x 5" x 9" ported box. thats pretty large for something to sit on the desk, but also a 'first draft'.

i have a new design for the fronts, using these 3" drivers and emasuring 4"x4"x6", the size is much much better but they would be a solid 4db behind the larger 4" desgin, as well as a higher f3 of ~80hz
the nicest thing about these smaller 3" woofers, also, is that they have a good enough range to be 1-way full range by themselves. this would be great for the rears, and then for the fronts i would add a tweeter for reinforced highs, making slightly larger 2way fronts small cube rears.

department76

something interesting that i am finding is that since i will need a 12v powersource, a computer powersupply may be the easiest solution as i am having trouble finding anything else that puts out over an amp.

after analyzing the price, its added up to be a lot more than i expected. it would save a good amount to make 7 speakers identical 1-way cubes, as stated above.

department76

ok, its settled. this project simply is not price justified. grand total of over 300$, for just another 100$ over that price, you could go out and get the 7.1 creative gigaworks. the only way this DIY approach would be feasible would be designing osmethign small like a 2.0 or 2.1 setup. at 26$ for two channels, its the amplifiers that stack up the most in price.

if money were indespensiible, then i would do this project in a heartbeat. note the total rms would be 120w, whereas other 7.1 setups are around 70w rms. although i think i am going to just buy something like the creative p7800 or something.


oh well.

skeeder

...not worth it.

$300 You looking at a nice set of B&W speakers. Like the 601's or Athena AS-B2's