DIY Speakers for Less Than $300!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,541 words · ~7 min read
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if you're anything like me you probably spend a lot of time in peaceful Solitude
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contemplating the mysteries of the universe and when you're not doing that
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relaxing at home with a glass of white wine listening to the soothing melodic
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tones of your favorite artist on a high-end speaker
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setup but when it comes to home audio
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our high-priced off-the-shelf designer models really worth what they cost or is
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it possible for someone without a lot of experience in audio engineering or even
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woodworking to put together a set of speakers that can stand up to them for a
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fraction of the cost let's find out
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shall
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we tunnel bear is the simple VPN app
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that makes it easy to browse privately and enjoy a more open internet to try
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tunnel bear for free check out the link in the video description we set out to
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build a set of trrix MTM TL speakers
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that we bought from Parts express.com this kit is one of the
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simpler ones and often recommended for people just getting into DIY audio and
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it checks off a couple of key boxes for us promising high audio Fidelity at a
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relatively low cost and while it's too early to say much about sound quality
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the cost comparison looks pretty good by
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by building our own cabinets rather than buying prefabbed ones we shaved almost
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$100 off the price even after accounting
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for buying our own construction materials and renting the tools we
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didn't have making our total cost around
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a quarter of what I paid for the kef Q
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500s in my home theater that we're going to compare against so let's get started
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our cabinet is slightly different from the one that would be supplied by Parts
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Express as we ended up adopting some modifications suggested by regalian
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o.com if you're interested in reading about his experience building the same
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speaker set and a more in-depth guide to construction check out the link below we
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built both speakers out of one 4x8 sheet
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of MDF board cut into 2x4 strips for
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ease of transportation we first marked out all the pieces we intended to get
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out of each sheet then cut them with a combination of the table and circular
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saw a good Carpenter will tell you measure twice cut once and while that's
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undeniably great advice here in the studio we tend to follow the cut pray
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love then keep on cutting philosophy that I learned from that doctor that I
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used to visit back when I wasn't covered by the company Health Plan I don't know
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if I'm going to let Tyler write these scripts anymore anyway once we cut all
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of these we needed to put holes for the woofers and and tweeters in the cut of
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wood that will be the front of the speaker I'm sure there's a specific name
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for that piece but I don't want to baffle you or me with too much audio
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terminology so we'll just call it the front we used a router and a jig to get
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the circle cuts and recesses if you want
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tips on how to make your own jig for doing circular Cuts like this check out
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this link with all our pieces ready it's
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time to stick them together we want to leave one side off the cabinet for now
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so that we still have access to do all of our wiring Pro tip it's very
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important to drill pilot holes which we totally nailed and to use cabinet screws
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with counter sunk holes in the first place so you don't have to go back and
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redo them to end up with a more clean look with our cabinet fully constructed
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the next stage is to put together our crossover the crossover is the part of
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your sound system that takes the single input signal coming from your stereo
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computer TV or what have you and that breaks it up into multiple output
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signals containing different frequency bands that are then sent to the
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specialized loudspeakers best equipped to handle them our trrix kit contains
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two woofers and one Tweeter woofers
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handle lower audio frequencies while tweeters are designed to handle the
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higher end of the spectrum you can learn more about this here the tritrix uses a
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second order crossover which means it uses a double filter to separate out the
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frequencies one to the woofers and one to the Tweeter when building a crossover
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with multiple inductors it's important to set them up so the inductors don't
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talk to each other this has nothing to do with our constant fear of a machine
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Uprising by allowing Electronics to communicate but rather to do with
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preventing the two coils from creating Mutual inductance by being orientated in
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the same direction in order to avoid that we're going to lay one horizontally
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and the other one up vertically then once you've soldered all
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the connections between your inductors capacitors and ground you can place the
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crossover in the cabinet Mount your speakers and wire it all together to
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avoid Having excess wire cluttering up your interior drop wires down from your
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speaker and cut them at the appropriate length to meet up with your crossover
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the woofers in this system are wired in series which means their resistance is
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added together increasing the overall resistance that the amplifier sees and
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letting it run cooler and more efficiently after the wiring is all
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taken care of we just stuff this baby full of nylon fiber and seal it back up
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at this point a master Carpenter might go straight into painting or covering
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the cabinets with vinyl but we're going to have to do a little bit of cosmetic
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tweaking and much like my aesthetician
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our primary tools are going to be polyfill and a power sander now that
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these speakers look a little more like the version I saw on Pinterest it's time
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to find out how well they perform our three lucky volunteers were blindfolded
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and subjected to these speakers and my
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q500 and they were then asked if they could tell which was which and to score
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the audio quality on a scale of 1 to 10 first one sounded like sharper like the
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high notes are like all a little bit clearer but the second one it sounded
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better in the low but the it was just kind of drowned out in the mid let's go
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the first one like an eight okay and then the second one like a six okay I
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think first one was better think it's t of louder and more sharp second one was
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kind of more dull and I think I'd rate them probably a seven and a six the
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second set was okay in the highs and the but still a little cloudy to me and it
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was in desperate need of a subwoofer for me I'd give the first one like 7 and 1/2
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and the second one like five and a
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half okay so there you have it in the end our subjects could tell the
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difference but our DIY build came in only slightly beneath the speakers that
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I spent a large chunk of my YouTube money on for my birthday earlier this
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year so if you're looking to put together an audio system I'd recommend
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saving a considerable amount of money by putting it together yourself although I
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would add the caveat that if you really want to make sure you end up with a
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solid final product it's probably worth it to pick up a kit with pre-cut cabinet
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pieces unless you are extremely confident in your woodworking
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skills just like how if you're not 100%
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10% so thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do but if
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you liked it hit the like button get subscribed check out the link to where to buy DIY speaker supplies on Amazon in
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the video description also check out our merch store check out our community
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Forum which is awesome and if you want to go up here you can check out our
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latest video over on channel super
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fun