DIY Reference Quality Speaker Build. How I built these amazing speakers and proper sound comparison!
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- čas přidán 10. 07. 2022
- In this video I walk you through how I built these reference quality transmission line speakers. I also compare them to my Klipsch RP250F's and a pair of Infinity Primus 362's. Some details about these speakers.
Cabinets Dimensions - 16" D x 29" T x 7" W
Woofers - www.daytonaudio.com/product/9...
Tweeters - www.daytonaudio.com/product/1...
Crossover - www.daytonaudio.com/product/5... - Jak na to + styl
Very nice build - I am a huge fan of transmission line speakers. I have designed several mass loaded transmission line speakers, including the crossover, and built them. And I agree that they sound fantastic - much better bass & midrange quality than any speaker I have ever heard, and with much better bass extension from a given driver. My favorite so far, use a 6" paper cone SB Acoustics woofer, and are essentially flat in my room to 32Hz.
I used a 3D acoustic modeling program called Hornresp to design the cabinet; and drafted it in DataCAD. I used a miniDSP 2x4 HD to digitally design the crossover, listening to the speakers. I then used XSim to design an analog version of the crossover.
Awesome Stuff! Thanks for the kind words. Looking forward to designing my own electronics and dialing in my cabinet designs in the future.
@@chrisferris3303 A possibly good way to get your feet wet in Hornresp (which is free) is to model this speaker, since you have the dimensions. The driver Thiele/Small data is available; maybe in a TXT file that can just be loaded into Hornresp?
How critical are the dimensions of the cabinet to optimizing the sound quality?
@@talktoeric The inside dimensions are pretty important. The most critical is the area of the terminus section. In the final stages of the design, I was moving things in 1/16" (~1.5mm) increments.
I designed some using crayon paper, a magnet from a flux capacitor, and an I-drive system from a bmw.
Amazing video! Did not really expect anything going into this but was just blown away by the production quality of the video and way you explained your process. Keep up the good work!
Thanks so much Andy!
Definitely one of the best detailed video's , with a beautiful set of home speaker's , thank's .
Great job, Chris! I've made about a dozen or so speakers myself. Looks like you checked all the boxes. Great work with the speakers and the video. Well done! Like button smashed!
Thanks Brian. So much fun!
The production quality is top tier.
You are really amazing
Thank You Reginald!
Nice work! I've never been any good with painting MDF so I'm going to try the sealant idea next time. As for the Dayton Reference drivers, I think these are better than a lot of far more expensive drivers. I use lots of Dayton Reference!
Great job Chris, speakers look fantastic.
@jfphotography69 thanks for watching :)
This is beautiful, and your work is really clean, taking care of the details.
Thanks Joshua G
Awesome, well produced video. You made it look so effortless, but have feeling its a lot harder than it looks.
What an awesome compliment. Thanks so much!!! It’s whole new world for me. Super exciting!
Excellent build log with great design tips. Thank you. Subbed!
Nice work Chris.
I built a pair of TL speakers from a kit by a well known diy speaker kit supplier and designer here in the uk. They are still sounding good after twenty years.
Room acoustics play a big part with your sound system, but you can tailor your kt to suit. There was a few tweaks I could do on my kit, that the designer had thought to include, was crossover adjustments, and driver damping.
Might be one for a future build, if you hook up with the guy that designs crossovers.
Mid band adjustments by removing some turns of wire from the inductors.
Mount the xovers externally, then you can play till your hearts content.
Thank you for the detailed video. I'm fascinated in the wiring of 4ohm speakers to 8ohm impedance. I never knew that could be done. i'm still learning. So can i wire all 4ohm speakers in this manner and will it be safe for my amp which allows from 6 ohms ? Thank you sir.
This is one of the very few DIY CZcams video's that I have actually ENJOYED watching! What more needs to be said except...Great Job!
Great video, nice work!
Beautiful job done! Transmission line as well!!! 👍👍👍👍
Amazing build tutorial! Love the final product . . . 💯💯💯
Nice work, I've built my own and it's a really rewarding experience, assuming you know what you're doing!
You are right that was a really inspiring build and it’s sounds amazing thanks for sharingk
Many have tried..and yet you make it like so simple and very very awsome!..thank you for sharing this ! 👏👏👏
Amazing video and project!!! next time I would love to see your process in designing the port.
Chris your video is awesome & really inspiring to DIY build. Videography, Content & your step by step explanation are really motivating to build Speaker. Great fan of your work. keep doing more videos. i have watched you video already close 10+ times.
Wow thanks Rajesh. Almost done my next video. I’m building a subwoofer to match the speakers. Stay tuned and thanks for the support :).
@@chrisferris3303 Awaiting your next video post on Subwoofer..
@@rajeshselvaraj3654 should be done in the next 2 weeks. Just putting some finishing touches on the Video.
These turned out insanely good, and gave me some nice pointers when it comes to finish!
I'm building a pair of WMTMW speakers, where each woofer is in their own transmission line. I originally built them with a passive crossover, but I'm currently re-building them with an active crossover, while at the same time making a new front baffle where I'm flush-mounting the drivers. I'm finishing mine off with black fronts and backs (same way you've done it, thanks for the tips), but I'm planning to use vinyl for the top and sides. It was way cheaper than veneer, but doesn't look quite as nice.
Again, yours turned out insanely good; both in terms of looks and sound!
Thanks so much for the love!!! I wanna do a similar build in the future! Good luck.
As a beginner learner, I appreciate your teaching. 🙏🏻
Great build! Impressive for your first time with veneers. A response curve compared to the other speakers would have been great. Got a new sub
Wow, what is this quality?
Great job Chris, here's a new sub
Thank You Diego
Great quality video if the rest of the world could follow your format everyone could stand to watch and listen to an entire video on how to do for the first time projects. Nice work. I learned 3 things at least. Was not a waste of my time.
Very nice and clean work ! Congrats
Awesome build and great video. Please continue making content. Just discovered your channel today. Subscribed!
Thanks for watching Lutz Hegemann. Some new content coming soon.
This was awesome! Keep making video 👌🏾👍🏾🤗
Outstanding demo. Thanks!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ EXCELLENT BUILD..! Always wanted to experiment with "T Line" enclousers.
Dude... How you don't have more subs is beyond me. I'm loving the shit out of this!!! So tastefully done too!
Thanks Bark Industry. Stoked you like it. New video coming soon.
@@chrisferris3303 Can't wait!!
Just found your channel. Love it!! Im a fan now!
I have one bit of advice as a fellow DIY'er, novice wood worker and music junkie.....Nothing! you nailed it. Great video production, great build, and anything you are going to do differently in the future is learnt from this video. Experience is the only true source of knowledge. Keep it up. I hope to make a video as good as yours some day. Cheers.
Devin. Thanks so much!
@@chrisferris3303 Àwesome job! i was first confused because i thought this was about making actual speakers but ITS NOT , this is indeed about making youtube videos. the DIY speakers is just an idea that is used for the production of this video.. no wonder all the relevant information was missing from the video!
Been using Parts Express and Dayton Audio for over twenty years. I have a pair of rebuilt Sansui Speakers that now use Dayton Audio products, as well as all of my vehicles sound systems being designed around Dayton Audio Reference Series speakers. Incredible performance at an Incredible price point!!!!
Good stuff!
Great video with tons of good information! Just one small correction in case someone is doing it for the first time: contact cement….you wait until the cement is dry enough that is NO LONGER sticky to the touch. Thank you! 🙏🏻
Nice build! Love a clean TL speaker! ✅🍿
You do great work! Thanks for sharing.
Great speaker build ! A cent of suggestion, as I saw the picture that tweeter speakers placment are a bit under the cutting holes as I assumed it being cut a bit over deep. Actually in order to compensate the height, you can get a 3-5mm thick EVA foam sheet to cut a ring ,that its size idential to the tweeter mouting hole. And then put it underneath the tweeters and mount it onto the cabinet as a buffer cushion pad. And then slowly adjust the tweeter mounting screws until the tweeter suface being the in same level as the speaker baffle surface to make it look better like a pro built. Also the EVA pad can help to absorb some twitter resonance as well. You can also do the same way for the woffers with thinner EVA foam sheet to compensate the mounting height as well .
For the crossover, its better to change the same value air core inductors instead of iron core inductor will make the mid bass sound greater ! Good luck!
Thanks so much for the suggestions!
I thought this channel might have couple of million subs.Great content !
Thanks for watching @rizaadam
Very well done brother!
it looks great and clean too
Great video, next step build the Subwoofer, and keep up the good work.
Thanks Moises. I was thinking the same thing. ;)
Wow really nice! Great job!
Congratulations for your great build!
Top passion and excellent videomaking here.
Just a few suggestions to improve your wonderful creatures:
1) Glue is super well made on your side and a good base, but not enough to ensure proper stiffness. One screw each 10 cm approx is needed to keep all panels together, included lateral ones for internal panels. Top importance for the front baffle, even if difficult implementation now because of the rounded edges.
2) Tweeter looks a bit recessed, but it must be exactly in line with gaskets of the other drivers.
3) Stands must be much more rigid, if properly coupled with the floor, then soundstage will take huge profit.
If you also fine tune them on your room resonance by adjusting length of the tube port, then I'm sure you will be even more satisfied about the comparison.
Hope it helps!
Cheers
Thanks so much for the feed back! And thanks for watching @enricobassani6175 . It’s nice to get real pointers, thank you.
Great build I think you have just answered my question about using the acoustic lining as I am looks forward to my first built I notice you complete covered the interior with the foam is that the write way And is that the best one to use ?
Hey @hamazatatta952 thanks for watching. So PMC which is one of my favourite speaker manufacturers does it this way. Now I don’t know what the density of there foam is but still I took a gamble and it paid off. I think it’s a great way to control the high mid standing waves.
Hello, thank you for your interesting review and experience! Could you please share the drawings with dimensions? Thank you!
As a woodworker i will give you my advice about glue. PVA glue is not a filler. put just a thin film of glue and dont clamp very tight so it wont squeeze out. Less is more with wood glue.
Mdf is so diff than wood tho... same advice applies fir that?
@@chinmeysway clamp tight, use a liberal amount of glue, and wipe off the excess with a warm damp towel
High quality compnents. High quality build by great craftsman. Now, how do they measure? What's the frequency response? What's the vertical and horizontal dispersion?
Great professional look!
Thank you so much
Great video and build Chris. I'm working up the courage to build a set of speakers too. I'd love to know where you're purchasing your supplies like audio components and veneer. It looks like you're in Ontario (from your license plate) just like me. Thanks!
Hey thanks @clintmarcham. Go to parts-express.com. Everything you need! Veneer I got from Home Depot. As for building, it’s incredibly rewarding. If you’re at all nervous about the design checkout some of the build kits from companies like CSS. Good luck and thanks for watchin.
I built a pair of these inspired by this video - a few changes: I made the cabinets taller by 4" to extend the TL, and kept the drivers in roughly the same location. Also coated the interior completely with 1/2" padding, and added acoustic foam over 1/2 the tunnel. They sound amazing - originally they were scheduled for the garage, but I liked them so much, I replaced my Klipsch F2's with them in my home theater.
JR B - This is so cool! So satisfying hey.
Nice aesthetics. Look very good
I'm playing this on my pc that has a sorround sound setup, the difference is as clear as day! GREAT JOB!
Awesome! This comment makes me really happy! Thanks for watching
@@chrisferris3303 all good, keep up the good work 👍🏻
Nice work Chris
Beautiful speakers!!
Thank you and thanks for watching
those 250F are pretty bright on the treble, but also give it great clarity in comparison.
Very nice build. You mentioned this was your first speaker build but surely you must be a woodworker. Good tools, good techniques.
I have these drivers and love them. I’m especially a fan of the tweeters. Very crispy.
Thank You! Really awesome compliment. I love building stuff always have. Super stoked how this turned out. I’ll be posting a new video soon. Hope you’ll check it out.
Great build and video!
+subscriber
Could you please tell more about transmission line. How did you calculate it?
💯💪🏽🔥thank you, enjoyed this video 💯pct…very nice and beautiful speakers…
amazing work!
15:19 Totally worth my time. I simply enjoyed this alot. I dont know why but this was great for my inner peace.
Thank You so much. I love build videos, this was a lot of fun. I’m working on a sub woofer build to go with these. Stay tuned :).
looks fun
Amazing job 👍🔉
Great build job. They look fantastic. And from what I could hear over my headphones they stood up well. I am a Klipsch fan but they sounded really balanced. Do you have build plans available at all???
Great video! Nice speakers.
Dayton Audio's parts show up in everyone's builds so it seems. (including mine)......... I believe it's Parts Express's House brand. PE is located in Springboro Ohio, a suburb of Dayton OH. Yeah, I'm in the Cleveland area, so I'm 1 day away for them shipping me stuff. I am glad you are happy with your project, and I hope it brings you lots of enjoyable listening.
They are such a great company. I’m super happy. Thanks for the Love!
@@chrisferris3303 no worries. If you feel like building yourself a tube amp, my channel may come in handy.
Great video and great job ! … Just wondering why the speakers are sitting so tall ( tweeter well above ear-level) ?
Your video is really helpfull. Progect is really good. And - the most important- REALISTIC))) thank U for this DIY
Hi Chris, really well done video and expertly done speakers! They are works of art and simply gorgeous, especially the way you designed & built the stands.
Now fill in the Tweeter and top woofer holes and recut for a center Tweeter, D'Apolito design, or did you already consider it from the start and have a reason why not?
Yes that was inspiring and I need to get back to a sawdust-eyebrows weekend!
👊😁👍
Hi Chris,
I heard you say spikes decouple the loudspeakers. As a matter of fact, spikes couple the loudspeakers, allowing vibrations reflecting back into the cabinet out of fase. To decouple the loudspeakers, you should shove something under the loudspeaker that absorbs vibrations to really isolate. I use IsoAcoustic Gaia feet with far better results than with cones or spikes.
Learning everyday. Thanks John. Just found a great article clarifying this. Good Stuff.
Great job with the content. Keep it up. Anything you'd do different with the speaker build now that you've lived with them?
Hey Robert thanks for watching. I still love them but I think next step would be to design my own crossovers so I can get into fine tuning them.
That was a great video. I would like to have a try at it.
Could you please provide more details on the port size and its internals dimension wise?
are you going to have plans available
Love the build ! Really inspiring. Thanks for sharing it.
Could you tell us the size (lengths) and the angle between the inner bracing (tr line )?
Wonderful detailed video. Kick ass!!!!
They look great. Next logical step would be a custom crossover as I'm sure the stock is going have some issues and is really leaving performance of the Dayton Reference drivers on the floor.
Good woodwork! Tech wise:
The with the foam it really depends. Most use polyester wool.
The crossover always should ve made specifically to the drivers as every driver is different and needs a different crossover because of it.
Apart from that solid work!
The crossover is where the majority of the magic happens, those simple PE crossovers are definitely the weak link. You could start with high-end drivers like Scan Speak or Accuton and destroy the potential with x-overs like those. Designing the x-over and voicing the speaker takes a lot of work, measuring, and reworking to tease out the best performance from a speaker. It is a bit of a disservice to novice speaker builders to suggest using those x-overs.
Hi i prefer the DIY Reference Quality Speakers !
i would only think about placing a thick foam ring around the tweeter
Imhe in a normal home situation this tends to limit nasty reflections from side walls, ceiling and floor and the soundstage could improve a lot (the sound image is more focused)
Congratulations and kind regards, gino
Great job sir
Very nicely done.
Sign me up!
Great looking speakers!! Great job! How do you get the cabinet size ? Would be nice a video about this. Thank you
You can simulate basic ported and sealed cabinets with a program called winISD. Also, many full-speaker simulation software suites (that take into account baffle diffraction, step loss, room, crossover components, driver response, real impedance and phase data) also have a basic box simulator built in. I like a program called "speakersim." This sort of approach allows you to do a more thorough design than the one shown in this video, which fails to address about 70% of the issues that need to be addressed for a speaker to be called "reference" quality.
If you want to simulate more sophisticated boxes, use hornresp. Hornresp can simulate just about any box you can imagine, from bass horns, to transmission lines, with rear-chambers or with the driver installed somewhere along the line between the halves. It's hard to use but very rewarding once you learn it as it opens up very interesting speaker box options.
Hey I loved your Project, só My question is can i use old speakers like ss-mf-515 and change the old speakers to some new ones ?
Congratulations on your successful build! They look amazing. I don't listen to utube sound tests due to the compression etc, but I'm impressed with the job you did.
Very underrated! This is just next level content. When I started to watch video I didn’t look at the subscriber count. I was just watching the video and in my mind I had “ this is a million subscribers channel”. Truly he deserves it.
Wow thanks Motion Fiction! This means a lot.
@@chrisferris3303 make more videos on hifi sound speakers
Awesome build Chris, got a few ideas for my current design and helped me understand a little bit more. Just a tip, wear a mask next time you cut mdf, its really horrible for your lungs
Looks awesome, really nice work on the paint and veneer, only as I'm sure some have already mentioned is the crossover and how premade is not the way to go as it is the heart of the loudspeaker, so to say. Keep up the good work. Look forward to more!
Attainable Audio! Thanks for the love. Let the learning continue!
I love this video so much it makes me want to build my own speakers. The build is clean and solid, and the finish is very nice. I don't exactly understand the purpose of the transmission line instead of just a port, what's the adventage ?
Wow thank you so much kloug2006. The TML is just a different way of porting a cabinet. Thanks for watching.
Terrific job on the video and a great looking set of speakers. What is the transmission line tuned to and how low does the bass go? Plans?
Thanks Good Goat. 224hz ish for the tuning. My buddies a physics teacher he helped with the math lol. There pretty even down to about the mid 60’s then they drop off. Working on a sub to compliment them. Video coming soon :)
Nice job!
Freaking love this
Nice work
Hi 👋, Chris, Nice job, A few tips on connecting the back and sides together, That is depending on what tools you’ve got available remind me to help line up the joint to keep it square, Biscuit joints about every 5060 mil apart or small Domino, I see you’ve got around the table, There is a router bit that is at 45° angle but it’s got a finger joint in it which makes it very very strong, When using it you have to remember which part of the cabinet or the side or the front or the back it’s been jointed to which component because you run one piece flat on the table up against the fence you run the other piece up against the fence with his end against the table so when you put the two pieces together they lock together and line everything all up, I hope you can understand what I am trying to explain, I am into transmission line speaker cabinets I’ve built mine 40 odd years ago they are quite big however I stand approximately 1 1/2 m in height 30 cm across the front 37 cm deep. I just recently put new drivers into the cabinet the drivers are made by Seas 8 ohms 150w , I used a Fibre quilt Which you tease to open up the fibres and it’s got a Sounds exorbitant pitch like paper I can’t remember what it was called, The crossover unit it’s built into a box, Which plugs into the back of the unit so If you need to change any of the components you can do, And they are Bywired , They set on a metal frame with large spikes so I can adjust the cabinet either to stand upright or lean forward or back, Spikes then sit on four steel blocks with sound absorbent material underneath, Because they fire out of the bottom there is a 10 cm gap underneath, Play are made out of 1 inch thick or 24 mil thick MDF needless to say they are very heavy, They where built from a plan that I’d found in a hi-fi magazine back from the 70s,
I hope this can be some help to you and some other people, I am a great believer of transmission line loudspeaker cabinets especially if you’ve got the room, These have got a very good face response not for the faint hearted, They sound amazing . I might be an old dude as they say approach and 71 years young, my choice of music is very varied , From heavy metal to classical, blues, Viking war music, and the list goes on, Good luck with your next build , I look forward to seeing your next project, How you explained the construction of your cabinet,
I thought that’s quite interesting.. PHIL FROM THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOULIN FRANCE.
Phil thank you so much for the advice! I definitely understand and learn a lot from people like yourself. Thanks for watching :).
Hi Chris, Sorry the content was a bit long and probably spelling wasn’t very good, I miss being at work as I work for myself/subcontract work for approximately 44 odd years, I am self-taught as I progress in my career so my work got more high end to the point where I don’t work for universities and organ building company, The last 18 to 20 years I have been more involved in the barn conversions and renovating all properties doing very high-end joinery, I now live in old Mill in France that I have partly renovated/converted from 2013 which I’m now hoping to finish in the next year or so which should keep me busy, Over the past few months I’ve left comments similar to what I have left you and people have sent messages back saying that I should start up a CZcams channel explaining how I make things and what my experiences have been over the last 40 years.
And I now live by myself so I can go and do what I want when I want, Thank you for the chat, I look forward to your next project, Stay safe especially when machining working with MDF, PHIL FROM THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOULIN 🎼🎶🎸FRANCE
Yow! The purpose of the port and its design is critical, is to allow the back pressure to exit the box in-phase with the front pressure, thereby allow you to harness the total movement of the woofers. Unlike an acoustic suspension where only the the front pressure is utilized and the back pressure absorbed by damping material.
you did good, better than the Infinity obviously but Klipsch is the Klipsch! the Best. I'm so lucky to have ref 62 , nice build! bravo!!!
Cool build! What are your impressions of the transmission line? Could you elaborate on the "focused bass" you mentioned? The Dayton Reference Tweeter is a 4 ohm tweeter, what did you do to end up with an 8 ohm nominal system? Very nice video, I liked the way you managed to pack that into a short video and the step by step narration explaining and showing what you're doing and why.
Hey, thanks for watching. So the transmission line works by absorbing and reflecting sound waves up to a certain wave length. The result is an enhancement in bass with sound waves that come out of the tunnel. Depending on the length and dimensions you get different results. As for the tweeter and impedance the over all speaker impedance is more based on the woofers as they require significantly more power. So if the woofers nominal impedance lands at 8ohms in this case it safe to run the speakers with an 8 ohm amp.
Great speaker build. You should be proud. The only minor thing I would have done is use a better acoustic foam, with a higher density .
Would you be able to do a tutorial, on, how to build active speakers? Example like the JBL 305p MK3?
We see the work of a good furniture maker. In addition to the sound, there are many questions.
Thanks Chris, Do you think can I change the RS180S-8 in replacement of RS150-4? And what else about the crossover? This because at this time it’s no longer available the components on Amazon that it’s the most cost effective way to bring to Colombia.