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From: junk@ur-tut.UUCP (Jan Vandenbrande)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: Help on designing speakers
Message-ID: <33@ur-tut.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Mar-86 13:25:03 EST
Article-I.D.: ur-tut.33
Posted: Fri Mar  7 13:25:03 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Mar-86 20:42:38 EST
References: <3182@sdcc3.UUCP>
Reply-To: junk@ur-tut.UUCP (Jan Vandenbrande)
Distribution: na
Organization: Univ. of Rochester Computing Center
Lines: 32
Keywords: Speaker design
Summary: Ain't that easy.

....
	I believe many of us have thought about designing speakers
because we ran out of money, thought we good do a better job, like
to tool around etc. I was inspired by a talk from one of the engineers
from the KEF Co. A very interesting talk, lasting about 2.5 hours, with
transfer functions, filter design, enclosure design etc. I was 
rather amased how envolved it got. Still not yet discouraged I kind of
looked around how much it would cost in hardware alone to make my own
speakers. It added up to more than what you would buy in a store. 
Of course I would have used nicer wood, better cables, a filter of my
own design (I mean a crossover netwerk, which is nothing more than a filter)
good quality equipment stuff etc, etc. But the danger is that you don't
know what the final result will be until you connect the speaker to the
amplifier.
Add to this the amount of work and design that goes into making all this.
If you don't have access to a whole range of instruments (pressure
mikes [or whatever they are called], netwerk analysers, spectrum analysers,
ossiloscopes, signal generators, anechoic rooms, some machine
where you can do circuit simulation [SPICE for ex.], and a whole lot more)
you are really walking in total darkness, and making wild guesses.
The result can be better than what you buy in a store, but it could be
much worse too.
I am not saying that it is totally impossible. I am sure alot of people
tried this and had satisfactory results. But if you want superior results
it might end up a bit involved (and may be a lot of fun too).
One trick you could use is to "immitate" a speaker you like. This way
you already have a good idea of geometric set up and how to make the
enclosure which is far from trivial if you were to design this from scratch.
Don't forget that these speaker co.'s usually did a certain amount of
research and have alot of know-how you don't have.
Good luck, keep us posted when you have results:
Jan.