The Stuart—what I've been lovingly calling this project ever since I realized its quasi-resemblance to the cyclopean Minion of the same name—is finally done, hooked up, and singing. This is a project I've wanted to tackle for a long time, but until now, I lacked the experience, skills, tools, and knowledge to really execute it properly.

I have to admit upfront: I’m not a true audiophile in the purist sense. I love good sound, love good music, but I’ll happily play anything, anywhere, on whatever’s available. That said, I got into this hobby because, to me, it felt like magic—the idea that you can connect a bunch of electrical components, build a cabinet, design a system, and somehow, out of capacitors, resistors, inductors, magnets, and microchips, music happens. Even now, it blows my mind.

I also got into this hobby because, frankly, most speakers are ugly. When I started about a decade ago, the vast majority of speaker-building knowledge was buried in old Geocities blogs and niche forums. The terminology was overwhelming at first, and with no engineering background, I had a lot to learn. Google was my friend, but one term kept popping up that I just couldn't figure out—WAF. All I could gather was that the bigger the speaker, the lower the WAF, and the smaller and prettier it was, the higher the WAF. Eventually, I learned that WAF stands for Wife Acceptance Factor, playing into the (very true) trope that most wives would prefer to see no speakers at all.

Around that time, I also discovered the beauty of tube amps. I loved the old-school glow and built a kit or two before realizing that, on the whole, tube amps put out almost no power compared to modern solid-state amps. That realization came after I had already dropped too much money on a Bottlehead 2A3 amp, only to find out it put out a measly 3.5 watts per channel. I built it, hooked it up to some Speedsters, and while it sounded good, it lacked dynamics and loudness.

It was also around this time that I stumbled upon Oswalds Mill Audio—an ultra-luxury brand aimed at the hyper-rich, but one that beautifully married high-performance audio with industrial design. Their work made me realize that speakers could be objects of beauty. Later, I learned that horns are incredibly efficient, which meant that if I ever wanted to make the most of my 2A3 amp, horns were the way to go.

Of course, horns are a rabbit hole of esoteric, complicated, and controversial discourse. There are SO MANY variations—conical, exponential, tractrix, Le Cléac’h, OS, waveguides—you name it. Every advocate swears their favorite is superior, and it took me a long time to parse out what each type was doing and its respective advantages and trade-offs. After posting an early design here, someone pointed me to the Advanced Transition Horn (ATH) website, which seemed to hit a sweet spot between horn-loading and constant directivity, particularly at higher frequencies. Since I’m not the type to listen with my head locked in a vice, this approach made a lot of sense. I read all of Marcel’s whitepapers (the guy behind ATH), built a parametric model of his equations in Grasshopper, and then constructed the entire thing virtually in Rhino before making any sawdust. I prototyped several versions using my Bambu 3D printer and ultimately CNC’d all the horn petals on my little hobby CNC.

The Build

The speaker itself is a two-way design, using a Faital Pro 15PR400 for the bass cabinet and an SB Audience 65CDN-T 1.4" compression driver on the horn. The bass cabinet is vented (4 cu. ft.), crossed over to the horn at about 600 Hz—well within a wavelength.

One particularly interesting thing about Marcel’s work is that his horn models start inside the compression driver, avoiding the usual abrupt transition between the conical section inside the CD and the smoother horn flare. In my testing, the horn remained flat down to 500 Hz. I also incorporated a design by Joseph Crowe that extends the SB Audience driver’s rear chamber, which supposedly lowers the resonant frequency by an octave. I have no way to verify this, but given Crowe’s expertise, I trust his judgment.

The cabinet is made from Baltic birch plywood with a walnut veneer. The baffle is bleached ash. The horn is a mix of 3D-printed and CNC-milled components, with the primary structure in bleached ash.

The system is actively crossed using a MiniDSP HD with DIRAC. My long-neglected 2A3 amp powers the horn section, while a pair of small-but-mighty Fosi Audio V3 monoblocks handle the bass. I’m using the pre-outs from my AVR as a preamp to keep the setup simple for my family. Digital input comes from a WiiM Pro feeding a Bifrost Multibit DAC, while analog duties are handled by that big concrete turntable you see on the right—one I built a few years ago. I also built the credenza housing the tube amp and turntable to keep all the cables and gear out of sight.

The Sound

This is my first experience with horns, and all I can say is: COMMANDING. I wanted dynamics, and man, does it deliver. To my ears, it sounds phenomenal—by far the best speaker I’ve ever built (and I’ve built quite a few at this point).

Someone asked what my first test track was, and I had two: Nina Simone’s "Feeling Good" and Johnny Guitar Watson’s "A Real Mother for Ya". I generally hate describing how music sounds—it always feels a little pointless—but I’ll just say this: I’m happier with the result than I expected.

Final Thoughts

The entire build took about two months. I mostly worked in the early morning (3–5 AM) since I’ve got a family and kids, but I was consistent, and everything came together with surprisingly few hiccups. This was one of the most challenging projects I’ve ever done, but I had SO. MUCH. FUN.

I built the Dallas II back loaded horn speakers with Fostex FE206en drivers. It took me several weeks to build them and I was super stoked how they turned out. I quickly noticed that my ears were getting fatigued when listening to them. I did some reading and some people seem more sensitive horn designs. When I noticed that I stopped listening. I was hoping that I would get used to them over time. I never listen to very loud levels as I do most of my listening at night with my kid sleeping in the next room (max ~85dB, mostly much less than that). Long story short after 2 weeks I noticed that I started hearing a high pitch beep all the time. It hasn't gone away since I started noticing it 2 weeks ago. I'm pretty sure I got Tinnitus for the rest of my life now. I bought a measuring microphone to see if I have some room correction issue where I get some frequencies boosted. Even though my curve is not super flat there don't seem to be any extreme outliers. Atm I cannot even listen to the speakers at super low levels. Even at 50db my ears start to hurt. I'm not sure what to do next but I think I will bring them to the dump. I don't even think selling them is a good idea as the next person might ruin their hearing too. I'm not sure what I'm missing. I cannot really pinpoint what the issue might be. If anyone has some pointers I would be grateful.

I posted up a few months ago about a gift from a friend here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BudgetAudiophile/s/azR5AW5Cof

These originals are 32 driver arrays which are unfortunately too tall for my living room. They sounded great, just missing low end, something my main rig has plenty of. Parts Express had similar but smaller TV full range drivers on sale for 39¢ so my next bad decision was basically made for me. It's not my fault...

If the original bombs were Fat Man, these are Little Boy. I used 16 drivers wired in four speaker series clusters tied in parallel for an 8 ohm final load. The baffles were cut by my friend with a CNC router that gave me Fat Man. The frame is local curly maple finished with shellac and beeswax polish. The grill cloth is Fender blue stripe reproduction to match my first audiophilic bad idea, a mono cabinet with a Peavey Scorpion 15 and a pair of Pioneer coax 6x9s.

The turntable is a JVC QL-F4 with an AT95E into a Sherwood S-7100A that I cleaned up and recapped. The whole rig sounds pretty incredible now. The comb filtering and weird phasing blends with the oversized, under driven woofer and Pioneer coax 6x9s into some sonic abomination that's much more than the sum of its meager parts.

The total project cost was around $70. I spent more on screws than drivers. 11/10, would absolutely recommend!

My dad has been fixing vintage stereos for decades, and he finally put all his knowledge and experience into a self-published book. English isn’t his first language so it was a huge effort that took over a year, I’m just proud he did it and hope it’s useful to this community.

Book summary
Learn Vintage Stereo Repair is a comprehensive and practical guide for audio enthusiasts, technicians, and collectors who seek to restore and maintain classic hi-fi equipment. Drawing on over 50 years of hands-on experience, Luis G. Galvez shares his extensive knowledge of troubleshooting, servicing, and enhancing vintage audio systems—helping readers master the art of repairing Reel-to-Reel Tape players, Turntables, Amplifiers, Cassette Decks, and Receivers across a wide range of makes and models.

Vintage audio equipment holds a special place in the hearts of audiophiles, collectors, and music lovers. These machines were built with craftsmanship and quality that modern mass-produced devices often lack, delivering a warm, authentic sound that is difficult to replicate. However, as time passes, these devices inevitably experience wear and deterioration. Components fail, belts wear out, capacitors degrade, and mechanical parts become misaligned. Knowing how to diagnose, repair, and optimize vintage stereo systems is an invaluable skill for those passionate about preserving these audio treasures.

This book explains essential repair techniques clearly and provides step-by-step guidance. Whether you are tackling electrical issues, mechanical repairs, or fine-tuning audio output, the detailed instructions and insider knowledge will empower both beginners and experienced technicians. 
Beyond standard repair techniques, Learn Vintage Stereo Repair explores advanced topics such as:
- Circuit analysis to understand the inner workings of vintage stereo components.
- Sourcing and replacing obsolete parts to maintain authenticity.
- Calibration and fine-tuning to achieve optimal audio quality.
- Common pitfalls and troubleshooting strategies for long-term reliability.

In addition to technical insights, this book offers valuable industry wisdom on maintaining a repair business, identifying high-value restoration projects, and navigating the niche world of vintage audio repair. Whether restoring classic stereo equipment for personal enjoyment or seeking to build a reputation as a trusted repair specialist, this book is a vital resource.

With a passion for vintage audio and a meticulous approach to craftsmanship, Luis G. Galvez provides the ultimate roadmap for enthusiasts who want to preserve the past and rediscover the magic of analog sound.

Specs:

S200HS-W bluetooth amplifier board (2x100w + 200w)

Up2Stream HD DAC

7S18P LI-ION Battery (self made) 33ah 26vdc ~830ish Wh

Recoil RCX694 6X9's 120W RMS each

RECOIL IRW8D4 Echo Series 8 Inch 400 Watts Power Dual 4 Ohm Voice Coil 200W RMS at 2Ohms

300w pure sine wave inverter

Pelican Rifle Case

Hey all,

I've just stumbled upon his sub and thought I'd share my speakers I've built a few months back.

The actual speaker design is a Visaton Experience V20, I've just changed the cabinet for aesthetic reasons. The mid/high cabinet is suspended with fishing line and fastened like guitar strings. I can't exactly remember why I wanted these to swing freely, but I think it's kinda cool you can move the smaller cabinet independently from the bigger one.

Sound wise, I love these. Unsurprisingly, they go quite deep and especially shine in the low frequencies. Still, thanks to the d'appolito principle style mid/high section, the sound stage is incredibly wide. Natural instruments sound as if they're in the room with you and they have no problem revealing even the smallest details. My only gripe with them is the high frequency segment. They tend to "scream" with certain songs. I maybe need to change the tweeters to better ones some time in the future but I don't know how I'd need to change the crossover.

Tell me what you think!

A buddy of mine gave me dimensions and here’s what I made for him. They are made from solid walnut. I used my box jig to make the joints. The bottom was left open until the speaker was built but it’s full of bb’s to weight it down. Then it was sealed once finished. Hope you like them.

Just wanted to thank y’all. Posted here a few months ago asking about a driver pairing and was urged to use a pre designed driver- crossover system for my first time which I did. I’ll link the guide in the comments if I can.

Since the cross over and drivers were already preset for me, I wanted to really customize the look while using the approximate internal dimensions of the cabinet. I used 3/4” mahogany for the sides and back panels and laser cut mdf front panels. The sound is phenomenal, I will be getting a hold of a setup to test the frequency response so I will be doing that soon.

I have just finished my first speaker build; a pair of speakers for my desk, using pairs of IKEA Blanda fruit bowls for the enclosures, and some markaudio chn-50 drivers. I was only delayed by a few days when my first set of drivers arrived having been completely flattened by the courier. They really did a number on them, but Stefan from KJF audio looked after me and sent another set with no quibble.

Construction of the spheres was pretty simple, I flattened the rims on the bowls with some 80 grit paper, partly to remove the existing finish for gluing, and partly to make the surface completely flat for mating them together. Then I used a hole saw to cut the openings for the drivers and binding post cups. The hole-saw I bought was… not the nicest bit of kit I have ever used, but it made a nice enough hole in the end, with minimal cleanup/deburring afterwards.

The part of the build I most feared was flattening the area around the hole, for mounting. This, however, ended up being quick and easy. I have access to a bench-mounted rotary sander, and I just offered up each bowl, flattening it a bit, then checking against the driver or binding post cup for size. This was helped, in the end, by my squashed drivers, as I was able to have one of them handy, without worrying about getting it covered in bamboo-dust!

Some pilot holes for the mounting screws, and then I glued the hemispheres together. Clamping was going to be tricky, so I used some improvised weights I found lying about, and it seemed like it worked fine. I’m certainly not planning to be throwing them around too often, so I hope to not test the glue-joint strength too much.

Next was soldering, stuffing the cabinets with some wadding, and then screwing it all together. This was pretty simple, apart from the small hiccup of realising I had drilled the pilot holes for the terminals a little larger than necessary, and having to nip out to b&q for some slightly chunkier screws. This stage of the build was also less well-photographed, as I was desperate to get them finished and have a listen!

I am not going to wax lyrical about how they sound in any great detail, but they are really blowing me away currently. They were always intended to be my desk speakers, for near-field listening, and I was not worried at all about a lack of bass, as I knew I was running them with a sub. They look great, they sound great, yeah, I am a very happy chap.

Next (minor) step will be to look at the stand arrangement. I currently (and appropriately for a science teaching-lab!) have them mounted on cork rings designed to accommodate round-bottomed flasks, but this is a *little* wobbly and insubstantial. If I can bear to put a hole in them, I might see about just bolting them straight to the speaker stands on the desk, but this is very much a job for down the road a little.

sound test video

Wiring is a nightmare. I’ll post a build breakdown when the left is complete.

Let me preface this post by saying that as sacrilegious as it may sound, audio quality wasn't my priority for this speaker build. Given that I was planning on giving these to my parents who for the most part don't care too much about audio quality I leaned heavily into the aesthetics over actual sound quality. I still did as much as I could when it came to the design e.g modeling the enclosure volume and vent size for the desired tuning and using the theoretical frequency specs of the drivers to design the crossover. In the end the speakers sound pretty damn good and for some songs I even prefer them over my kef ls50 metas. I can definitely tell that the crossover isn't quite right and that with proper measurements and crossover design I could get a lot more out of these. However, this build has taught me heaps and was a good practice run for when I build speakers with audio quality in mind. Apart from that, I'm happy with how these speakers and stand look and I think they make a fantastic decorative piece. They give of a really nice glow in a darker room (hard to capture on photo) and I kinda love how the back of them look like a face. I haven't really seen any other speaker stands that are also a lamp but always thought it makes a lot of sense. Let me know your thoughts!

Drivers are Dayton 6.5", tweeters are Dayton 1.125" silk domes. Coils are Dayton. Caps are cheapo chinesium.

I have screwed and glued plenty of boards together but never designed an enclosure or crossover. So, I used a box volume calculator to figure up the interior dimensions of the boxes and a crossover calculator to determine the coil and cap values. set the crossover at like 1.8-2khz if I remember correctly (it's been a few years). I also had to use a calculator to figure up the port length.

The top, bottom and sides are all solid red oak. The fronts are solid heart pine. The rear panel is 1/2'' oak plywood.

A couple years later and they still sound awesome. The wood is definitely moving though and some of the joints are starting to show some small gaps. I kinda knew this would happen though since the cuts I had to make were like -semi flat/quarter/riff sawn- . I use these with the Dayton apa150 power amp and they get LOUD. Crossovers seem to work well and when you crank the drivers really push some air.

Thought this sub would appreciate it

1. Jeff Bagby Helios

2. An attempt at Curt Campbell's Uluwatu with SB15NRX

3. Altec 604E into a 5fu ft pro audio cabinet

4. Jeff Bagby Revolution

5. Mad 3 way diy for inlaws using JBL M2, 2435HPL be compression driver, Acoustic Elegance TD15M-8Apollo and SBP12-8Apollo (B&W 684 for scale)

6. 2 way version of 5

7. Curt Campbell's Uluwatu proper, these had the fastest thumpest mid bass ever! Sadly lacked refinement

8. Open baffle with Coral Flat 6 & Acoustic Elegance Dipole15

9. SB Kalasan satori bookshelf on top of a TQWP for AudioTechnology 12"

10. Vertical laminated boathull design for Scanspeak 990000 & 15W8530K00

11. John K's Nao Note II

12. Zaph's Waveguide TMM 2.5 way (and Linkwitz Pluto)

13. SEOS15 w/ B&C DE250 and Acoustic Elegance TD15M using the xsim author's design

14. SB Kalasan again on top of a nice cherry cabinet with two Acoustic TD10M-8Apollo

15. Beyma TPL150H with Acoustic Elegance TD6M open baffle matched the 14's woofer modules

16. Troels Gravasen's Jenzen Seas ER for in laws

17. My own pair of Jenzen Seas ER

18. Curt Campbell/Jim Holtz's Statements

Built my first speaker for an industrial design project lemme know what you all think as audio people.

Build these beautiful bookshelf speakers for my desk

Amp board: Wondom JAB5
PSU: MeanWell LOP-300
Chassis: Modushop GX247 with fully vented top cover, custom 3D printed front panel

Wondom JAB5, also sold as Dayton Audio KABD-4100, is a cool little board that I chose because of the onboard DAC, which is cheap (just 48kHz samplerate and pretty basic built-in ADC and DACs, but offers a ton of options. Bluetooth 5.0 with AptX HD is a nice addition, too.
I'm running it in PBTL mode, which allows for down to 3 ohm loads - there is a DAC connected to JAB5's I2S output, and it's higher quality than the built-in ones, so if active XO is ever needed, second amp can be connected. Needless to say - it can also be used for active subwoofer.

I'm running a custom program in DSP, which is currently only missing an EQ, that will compensate the very specific response of the speakers (sealed box too small for drivers and massive peak on tweeters response).

Customizations:
- Replaced fan for 6010 Sunon. Original fan is too thick for 1U chassis. It's also quite noisy. Even the Sunon is audible at 12V, so it got a random resistor (220R or something like that) in series
- Aliexpress DAC. Needs I2S output of DSP set to send MSB with no delay. DAC also needs to be configured properly by soldering the right pads
- Aftermarket pots. You can get pots in the cable kit right from Wondom, but the entire pot assembly is universal and a bit too big. Deadzones of these pots were also a bit too big for my liking (you reach minimum and maximum resistance long before you reach a physical stop)
- Unsoldered LEDs from PSU and DAC. Both were way too bright.

JAB4 vs. JAB5
If that slight price difference isn't too much for you, don't buy JAB4 (Dayton KABD-430). If you run JAB5 at 24V (which is the maximum for JAB4), it will consume less power in idle, and it comes with auto-standby, which cuts consumption even further - in my case, at 36V, I get 0.6W at the socket (which might also be partially attributed to the PSU). Yes, JAB4 doesn't need a fan, but at 24V or below, JAB5 would likely be fine without it, too.

Tips:
- remove the automute from original DSP program. It's set to a very high level and mutes way too quick. Autostandby works fine without it.
- By default, ADCs used for pots have some hysteresis - this causes them to never reach zero. I removed this altogether and just run volume control over an LPF to reduce noise, then multiply by itself to get a more reasonable curve (I found this tip on the internets and it works great). I also encountered an issue of pot reading negative value at zero position, which freaked out the DSP and amp, so I make sure the value is always greater than zero
- if you build the amp in Class 1 as I did (grounded chassis, which you DO want if its metal), use a 100n capacitor to connect JAB5 ground to chassis. There is a solder pad for the purpose - by default its open, which will result in buzzing when you connect something to the low level output. If you close it, you will get ground loop, resulting in all sorts of noises when connected to another Class 1 device (like a PC). Initially I used locker washers which were a bit too big - there are GND points all over the mount holes, washers made contact with them and shorted GND to chassis.

I started this project in 2007. Parts Express “Encores” by Darren Kuzma. I built four enclosures, but only cut openings and assembled components for one. Until December 2024, the remaining parts and boxes lay dormant in stacks of stuff shuffled around during four changes of residence and new priorities. While cleaning the house, I found the three unfinished crossovers, the NIB drivers and got motivated to complete the job.

The project is so old, it disappeared from the PE archives, but I still had paper copies printed from the old web pages. I had overbuilt the boxes to an extreme. 3/4” mdf with 3/4” thick “veneers” of solid maple. Mitered corners for continuity of grain. What a pain that was.

I built four to start a 5.1 ht set, hoping to design a matching center later. That probably won’t happen. I’ll try to include a video with a bit of sound. They are still breaking in, but sounded quite good right out of the gate. The crossover is overly complicated, and was updated at some point, but this is what I got.

Better late than never!

3way floorstand speakers 80W 8 Ohm bass reflex.

Over the last few weeks I have built two corner shaped subs that is now placed in the back corner of my hometheater. There was no other place to have them at but I think this went fine. Each is about 170 liters sealed.

Dayton SS18-22
One Behringer NX3000D for both of them
19mm MDF
Valnut veener

This is then connected to a Denon X3800H and my 5.2.4 setup. All other speakers are different lines of Wharfedale, with Linton as mains. The veener is supposed to match these.

Since I don’t have Cornwall money, I made my own!

I made a miniature DIY Leslie speaker that works both with organs and guitars. I think it came out pretty nicely. It of course comes with a front and back panels, but for the purpose of the video I made it fully open so you can see the spinning parts.

The speakers are Celestion TF0818 and Eminence Alpha 3-8, but it created an issue with the tweeter playing too quiet. I'd recommend replacing the Celestion with a lower sensitivity speaker (around 88 dB to match the Alpha) or use a L-pad attenuator.

The belts to drive the horn and the drum were made by heating up a strip of TPU filament with a lighter and welding two ends together.

The amplifier, crossover and electronics are all standard modules from Aliexpress. The whole budged with the furniture was around $600, but I live in Switzerland. If you live in the US, it can be probably made cheaper.

The project is open source and you can find the CAD design here: https://a360.co/4ojzRvm

I decided to repost it because I previously mistakingly tagged it as text and not images/audio and it got glitched.