[net.audio] One More Try: Speaker Building?

okie@ihuxi.UUCP (cobb) (03/07/85)

*** REMESS THIS PLACE WITH YOUR LINEAGE ***

Okay, I'll try once more.  Any of you audiophreaks out there
know where I can get some good source material (books, etc.)
on designing and building my own speakers?  I'm looking for
sources other than the Speaker Builder magazine listed on the
net a few days ago.

Somebody out there, please respond!  Talk to your friends and
neighbors.  Somebody out there has *got* to know something
about this!

B.K.Cobb
ihnp4!ihuxi!okie
AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL

rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) (03/08/85)

[]
I built two for-real speakers in my lifetime. One at school using
the EE Depts woodshop. (woodshop? yes, woodshop) I copied the EV
Aristocrat corner horn. Later as a poor struggling engineer I built
a Karlson. the combination of the two together was super, if a bit
imposing. I wouldn't do it again for several reasons.
1) I'm poor and no longer struggling as I'm too old and fat to 
struggle.
2) It's not worth it. You can buy better if you spend some time on
your fanny researching.
3) Don't know for sure, but I'd guess the supply of good speakers is
not what it used to be.
4) You can't trust what anyone says about how a speaker sounds. You
need to hear it yourself. For one thing, it varies incredibly with the
room. As a P&S student and young engineer I got to hear my aristrocrat
(w/EV SP-12B) in a wide variety of environments, from Neurophysiology
Lab to ancient Victorian mansion. From house trailer to Crack-in-the-
Picture-window Modern. Every place it was different. Wow, I can still
hear in my minds ear that Lab with all the glassware, marble floors and
slate workbenches - and the Victorian mansion with central stairwell
going up three stories. What bass!  I only wish I'd had my AR-9's in
those places.
You're right. It is fun. I still remember it after 1/3 century. But
few are interested in fun today - of that kind. Hope you find someone
to work with, it helps. My Karlson was built with a Kelly Kollege
student who lived in the apartment below. Little did we guess,when
burning the midnight oil, that we would grow up to have a BTL
vice president brand us in the company paper as loyal but slow. Ah,
such is life.

-- 

"It's the thought, if any, that counts!"  Dick Grantges  hound!rfg

reid@Glacier.ARPA (03/08/85)

I had posted this information a year ago so I didn't respond, but here it is
again. I highly recommend the book @i[High Performance Loudspeakers,
Second Edition], by Martin Colloms. John Wiley and Sons, 1980. A Halsted
Press book. It is a comprehensive theoretical treatise on how loudspeakers
work, with enough practical information to enable you to engineer your
own speakers and enough bibliographic references to enable you to learn as
much more as you are willing to spend the time on. This book is a great
place to start.
-- 
	Brian Reid	decwrl!glacier!reid
	Stanford	reid@SU-Glacier.ARPA