pieces parts= good listening?

[r.cherry]

i'm not sure this is the right place for this question but here goes anyhow...

i want to build my own speakers.

1) can i just randomly pick parts off of ebay and then ask for help here with a crossover ?

2) i was thinking of a cornscalaesque type thing with jbl-2404s, altec 811b's, and k33e's, some of these are on ebay right now and are on there fairly frequently. would these work together, and more importantly will they sound good?

3) any combo that might work better??? (for about the same kinda dough?)

i'm not in any real hurry, just thought i might start picking up some pieces parts when the price is right.

thank you for any help

i have a good bit of experience with woodworking.

[PrestonTom]

Good luck on your project. I think with a bit of research you can end up with something nice.

First things first. You need to decide what kind of cabinet you are interested in.

So the first big decision is whether you are interested in loaded horn design (i.e, K-Horn, La Scala, Belle) or a bass reflex design (i.e., a Cornwall). Along with a consideration of maximum size of the cabinets, will help determine the mid range that you will choose (this detemines how far down in frequency the mid-range will need to go... IOW what is required of the woofer). Since you have a leisurely pace on this, do the research first, good deals will be avaliable later on.

My suggestion would be to replicate a classic design and try to use "better parts". The issue of what is "better" is not trivial, since many of these things are subjective and dictated by your own design priorities (how important is bass slam, imaging, smooth freq response in the mid-range, .... the list is long).

I will suggest that the issue of a crossover will come much later. However, there is a big caveat on this. If the drivers/design is pushing the freq repsonse, polar response, sensitivity, distortion of the components to their limits, then this could reveal a number of sins. In that case, the crossover must be very carefully selected for those drivers.

This project is certainly do-able. Please keep in mind that there is much planning involved and various priorities must be kept in mind. The difficulty is that the project will end up being a series of compromises.

Good luck,

-Tom

[Guest " "]

question to think about....doing it yourself for the challenge or cost savings?

depending on what you were trying to build...looking for an original local pickup purchase for a complete speaker may be the way to go.

I kinda agree with some of the marketing messages electro-voice passed around with their early kit ads....message was it takes less man-hours to earn money than to save money buy trying to do it your self.

[jacksonbart]

Its just like a bucket of fried chicken, some slaw and mashed potatoes equals good eating.