DIY Reference Quality Speaker Build. How I built these amazing speakers and proper sound comparison!

[@NeilBlanchard]

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.

[@chrisferris3303]

Awesome Stuff! Thanks for the kind words. Looking forward to designing my own electronics and dialing in my cabinet designs in the future.

[@NeilBlanchard]

@@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?

[@talktoeric]

How critical are the dimensions of the cabinet to optimizing the sound quality?

[@NeilBlanchard]

@@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.

[@LeprechaunGinger]

I designed some using crayon paper, a magnet from a flux capacitor, and an I-drive system from a bmw.

[@thomassellin1634]

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! 🙏🏻

[@andithejoker]

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!

[@chrisferris3303]

Thanks so much Andy!

[@Torbox1]

Those look great and I'm sure they sound amazing with that transmission line design. I do have one suggestion though, when wiring two speakers together it is always recommended to put them in parallel, not series. The reason for this is that though out the speakers travel the resistance changes, which changes the power its given, so when two speakers are in series as one changes resistance it changes the power the other one is getting too. When in parallel the speakers are completely independent of each others resistance and power. Putting two 8 ohm speakers in parallel for a 4 ohm resistance would have been better, I'm pretty sure that crossover has a woofer resistance selector too.

[@chrisferris3303]

Hey thanks so much for watching. Working on a new build currently. Gonna try out a 2.5 and compare it to an MTM and see what I like better. Building my own crossover for the next build as well. Comments like this pushed me to research deeper so thank you!

[@andersgunnarsson2489]

The speakers would also probably be out of sync due to the phase shifting in the first speaker coil before it reaches the second. Otherwise, great build!

[@glenniz1]

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!!!!

[@chrisferris3303]

Good stuff!

[@GuitarTherapy144]

Any experience with rs225 or rs 100? Im planning to use them in car. Others seem to like sb acoustics and scan speak too.

[@jrb9272]

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.

[@chrisferris3303]

JR B - This is so cool! So satisfying hey.

[@chummmwww7573]

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!

[@chrisferris3303]

Thanks so much for the suggestions!

[@HeLaNoR]

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.

[@chinmeysway]

Mdf is so diff than wood tho... same advice applies fir that?

[@sethh8892]

​@@chinmeysway clamp tight, use a liberal amount of glue, and wipe off the excess with a warm damp towel

[@bobbg9041]

You'll say less is more, until your box bust apart at the glue lines. Trust me i've built 1000s of mdf boxes for speakers, 2 10s can cause a box to come apart when using MDF And if you tell me plywood i'll ask you are you positive the sheets have no voids? That should make a nice sound buzz buzz.

[@Screwdriver1234]

As a furniture builder i can vouch for op's advice. As this wood glue is not a filler (it shrinks when it dries) it wil not fill in any surfaces that do not contact each other while clamped down. Again, more glue does not help with a better bond with this paticular wood glue as it does not fill. Having lots of contacting area helps though, so make sure the contacting area is as straight and smooth as possible. There are special "filling" glues who do this. PU glue for instance will do this. It is notoriously more messy to work with though. Trust the advice from professionals or be stuborn and pay for the learning curve.

[@Hog-g2z]

Good morning 🌅, Very interesting, I just started watching the build, there is 45° finger locking joint router cutter you can purchase, that will help you to look your joints together a lot easier, retired English dude living in France

[@motionfiction9353]

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.

[@chrisferris3303]

Wow thanks Motion Fiction! This means a lot.

[@motionfiction9353]

@@chrisferris3303 make more videos on hifi sound speakers

[@strangersound]

The Klipsch RP250F sound amazing...especially for $700 a pair. Worth every penny. :)

[@FJB2020]

Lol

[@mikebrannon1017]

Great build and explanation. Would be interested to see a cost breakdown, the choice and pix of the binding post choice and type wire used. Was there anything you would've done differently? Thanks!

[@peterream9437]

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.

[@devinosullivan7849]

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.

[@chrisferris3303]

Devin. Thanks so much!

[@KuopioKallavesi]

@@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!

[@fahvm4362]

As a beginner learner, I appreciate your teaching. 🙏🏻

[@brianraulerson5037]

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!

[@chrisferris3303]

Thanks Brian. So much fun!

[@PhillioDoede]

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.

[@genecase9464]

This is one of the very few DIY KZbin video's that I have actually ENJOYED watching! What more needs to be said except...Great Job!

[@joe198032]

Aside from that buzzkill guy saying pva isn't a filler .... this is a very good video on how to and ur skills are on point 👉 😊

[@darallan1837]

Many have tried..and yet you make it like so simple and very very awsome!..thank you for sharing this ! 👏👏👏

[@barkindustry8150]

Dude... How you don't have more subs is beyond me. I'm loving the shit out of this!!! So tastefully done too!

[@chrisferris3303]

Thanks Bark Industry. Stoked you like it. New video coming soon.

[@barkindustry8150]

@@chrisferris3303 Can't wait!!

[@khadamlohse1932]

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

[@reginald8656]

The production quality is top tier. You are really amazing

[@chrisferris3303]

Thank You Reginald!

[@philvale5724]

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.

[@chrisferris3303]

Phil thank you so much for the advice! I definitely understand and learn a lot from people like yourself. Thanks for watching :).

[@philvale5724]

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 KZbin 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

[@enricobassani6175]

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

[@chrisferris3303]

Thanks so much for the feed back! And thanks for watching @enricobassani6175 . It’s nice to get real pointers, thank you.

[@celticwoodworking8706]

Just a suggestion that will save you some saw dust. Us a smaller diameter router bit, an 1/2" up cut bit will take out less material, and still get the job done. Thank you for the Dayton Audio info.

[@chrisferris3303]

Good stuff. Thanks for the tip.

[@DeadKoby]

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.

[@chrisferris3303]

They are such a great company. I’m super happy. Thanks for the Love!

[@DeadKoby]

@@chrisferris3303 no worries. If you feel like building yourself a tube amp, my channel may come in handy.

[@bobbg9041]

The reason you get better sound on the highs is silk dome tweeters that are some what good vers the horns or other speakers. Want really good tweeters go with Ribbon tweeters.

[@maesl69]

Wow, you really did a great job, i might as well wanna build them myself, perhaps, could you please give the messurements of all the internals? Thanks in advance!

[@louvierejacques]

I'm late to the party, but this is awesome! Also, you have great taste- that lamp shade at the end is DOPE.

[@tramp2827]

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.

[@victorvictorov699]

We see the work of a good furniture maker. In addition to the sound, there are many questions.

[@judebronner]

Amazing video and project!!! next time I would love to see your process in designing the port.

[@larrywinn2941]

Definitely one of the best detailed video's , with a beautiful set of home speaker's , thank's .

[@mfkhometheater7742]

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!

[@exiteternium]

those 250F are pretty bright on the treble, but also give it great clarity in comparison.

[@Toid]

Great Job! Those look fantastic! And the cinematography was spot on. If you ever want to learn custom crossovers it ever want to collaborate on a project sometime, let me know. I'm always up for a good collaboration build 😁.

[@chrisferris3303]

Dude… big fan! Thanks so much man! Would love to collaborate in the future!

[@jungtarcph]

Cool with TL - would be super cool to revisit with a high-end crossover :)

[@kevintomb]

Thanks.....was glad I was not the only one to notice the crossover!

[@MissionFitnessCTC]

Nice video. Speakers look great! Music was a touch loud in the mix for my taste just as some unsolicited feedback.

[@danielsinkovic6536]

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 )?

[@hienddave]

Sit stores won't have made a cut straight edge to start with. Assuming a 8x4 sheet is square won't be square as you have to cut a side of the sheet square to start as a ref edge.

[@JAFO.]

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! 👊😁👍

[@wiebl5266]

The customs sounds noticeably better! It has more transparency and the top end details are more present and airy. Well done! You must be so happy with it, and a fraction of the cost of a "Branded" high end speaker. I think if you pull it away from the walls you would get a distinct improvement in the soundstage. And oh, next time, a better choice of music, which includes vocals, drums, guitars and pianos.

[@iikatinggangsengii2471]

its like going astell to cayin very noticeable but maybe not worth for you, lessfox soundstage upgrade, enleum bass upgrade

[@iikatinggangsengii2471]

its like going astell to cayin very noticeable but maybe not worth for you, lessfox soundstage upgrade, enleum bass upgrade

[@stylesg7818]

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?

[@kaedeschulz5422]

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!

[@whoknew837]

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.

[@rizaadam]

I thought this channel might have couple of million subs.Great content !

[@chrisferris3303]

Thanks for watching @rizaadam

[@johnvanpolen3437]

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.

[@chrisferris3303]

Learning everyday. Thanks John. Just found a great article clarifying this. Good Stuff.

[@danhorton6182]

Nice work man, those look classy. Not easy to do. Long term suggestion: develop the skills if you wish to design your own crossover designed specifically for those drivers, it will be far superior to that pre built crossover and as a result, your speaker will be far superior. The drivers you picked out are better quality than what is used in the Infinity, so it gives you an idea of how good the speaker can be. Short term suggestion: build up some gasket tape behind the tweeter so that when you tighten the screws down that the front of the tweeter face is flush with the front baffle. Super quick fix. Your tweeters are inset about 1/16”-1/8” or so. For the same reason you rounded the corners on the front, to reduce tweeter diffraction as those high frequencies roll off the front baffle, same for that. As the high frequencies go across the tweeter face plate they’ll hit that ridge where they sit slightly below the front baffle of the speaker and you’ll get pretty bad diffraction, basically eliminating any benefit you got from rounding the front corners of your speakers.

[@chrisferris3303]

Dan love this. Can’t wait to start building my own crossovers. Love all these suggestions. Thanks so much for the input!

[@RennieAsh]

You can also add a felt ring on the front surface between the dome and the lip, which can also work

[@EskWIRED]

@@chrisferris3303 You could have Danny at GR Research design a crossover for you to build.

[@chrisferris3303]

@@EskWIRED how cool would that be!

[@mdocod]

​@@chrisferris3303 Hi Chris. Dayton is one of the only driver manufactures that publishes frd and zma files for their speakers. You can download these files and import them directly into crossover simulation software and get to work without even having to take measurements. (The only measurement you really should take is that of the offset between the tip of the middle of the phase plug and the tip of the tweeter dome cover, as this is the point the measurements are taken from 1M away according to Dayton). Since your baffle is a basic shape, you can easily simulate the baffle diffraction and step loss in the speaker simulation software. I like SpeakerSim personally as I find it intuitive and easy to use. I would suggest redesigning your crossover network in a 2.5-way configuration to improve vertical off axis response and imaging. Use the lower woofer to fill in the baffle step loss and give a nice bass boost. When reading about 2.5 way designs you'll probably notice that most use parallel woofers, but don't fret, it can be done with series woofers as well, you'll just be using a capacitor and resistor shunted across the lower driver to pull down the mid-range. With a custom crossover design you can also pull down the crossover point to around 1500hz, which will improve off-axis response and imaging characteristics for the speakers. These speakers have a lot MORE to give!

[@RuiSilvaPT]

I have never used a router on veneer when glued to my cabinets, it can chip the veneer with the wood grain and cause aesthetic issues like the ones you can see on 11:34.

[@chrisferris3303]

Hey Rui Pedro Silva thank you for watching. Yeah the router worked well but for sure had some issues with chipping. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[@RuiSilvaPT]

@@chrisferris3303 I always used a X-acto knive but there are proper cutting tools for veneer (you can also make your own!). For me the trick was, multiple passages especially when you are cutting along the grain to avoid separation of the sheet (perpendicular cuts are easier to do!), but this ways if it happens you can fix it, and with the router you can say good bye to that lost veneer chip.

[@joshuag5854]

This is beautiful, and your work is really clean, taking care of the details.

[@chrisferris3303]

Thanks Joshua G

[@guyboisvert66]

Nice build! You would get enhanced results using a better crossover: It's easy to get indesirable effects using ready made crossovers. Using iron-core inductances is a bad idea, it's cheaper but the value change with power. It's important to use quality cables and binding posts (pure OFC copper). Also, it's better to have the drivers flush mount, it avoids resonnances en diffraction. Check for GR Research, the guy really know what he is takling about! And don't forget: It's another topic by itselt but your listening room is a transfer function by itself!

[@chrisferris3303]

Thanks Guy, can’t wait to start taking a deep dive. Also I’m a subscriber of GR research amazing channel.

[@pliedtka]

Another GR fanatic

[@guyboisvert66]

@@pliedtka not at all... I'm simply an engineer trying to help poeple. I'm "fan" of nobody in this world, but there are good things from GR Research, and things i less agree...

[@guyboisvert66]

@@pliedtka now, we can speak technical if you want, unless you are one of those trolls with big mouth and nothing to show for...

[@juststuff5216]

@@pliedtka I’ve only been designing t-line exclusively for over 35 years, and I'm amazed at how the fundamentals of acoustics, which have been around since the beginning of time, and millions if not billions of years before speakers were ever invented ... are largely ignored by those who I think should know better, but obviously don't! Here are a few fun t-line designs kzbin.info/www/bejne/p56YfJKMi7eqjrM kzbin.info/www/bejne/aaLNiH6Ld9uGhKM kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y2qZiHSMhsmWr7M kzbin.info/www/bejne/bKrFY6CphLaqlZY And a t-line diy demo from a guy who I have huge respect for kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y4aWiYpsibtssKs

[@PavelDashkov]

Great build and video! +subscriber Could you please tell more about transmission line. How did you calculate it?

[@Hog-g2z]

Good morning 🌅, Very interesting, very nice job, from France

[@brucermarino]

I'm glad to see you being a good example by wearing ear protection but a mask can help to especially with the sorts of adhesives found in MDF.

[@chrisferris3303]

You’re totally right. I’ve got a pretty legit mask I normally wear. That saw dust will get you!

[@graybeard2113]

Also, the adhesive spray creating little stiff nose hairs.. 👃

[@akradha70]

Great build. Can you please elaborate on measurements

[@JimBob_1975]

Nice work, I've built my own and it's a really rewarding experience, assuming you know what you're doing!

[@mayormikes777]

I'm playing this on my pc that has a sorround sound setup, the difference is as clear as day! GREAT JOB!

[@chrisferris3303]

Awesome! This comment makes me really happy! Thanks for watching

[@mayormikes777]

@@chrisferris3303 all good, keep up the good work 👍🏻

[@ovesimonsen5578]

Some speakers just looks like they play well - this pair is one of them. You make some good mechanical choices during the building process - well done! When you have full control of the design process , why not make the baffle from thicker material - 1" or maybe 1 1/2"? I'm confused about the choice of the height of the speaker in relation to the choice of the stand. As the tweeter have a limited spread of sound, it will be placed in a non optimized place (too high) when sitting in a normal listening position.

[@markgarroutte4561]

Foamed port baffles? And why not birch? Looks good, need to work on the crossover. Mdf is usually used for subs

[@rajeshselvaraj3654]

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.

[@chrisferris3303]

Wow thanks Rajesh. Almost done my next video. I’m building a subwoofer to match the speakers. Stay tuned and thanks for the support :).

[@rajeshselvaraj3654]

@@chrisferris3303 Awaiting your next video post on Subwoofer..

[@chrisferris3303]

@@rajeshselvaraj3654 should be done in the next 2 weeks. Just putting some finishing touches on the Video.

[@jingsalillas8538]

Hi Chris , it’s amazing DIY Speaker 🔊 i want to build my own Diy speaker can you share the measurements of the speaker box thanks

[@chrisferris3303]

Hey Jing. Thank you. Very soon. I have new video coming out with plans for a matching subwoofer.

[@Stan_the_Belgian]

Very nice job and editing. Very dark wood shop though!

[@mndlessdrwer]

Also, if you happen to want to build a pair of 8" bookshelf speakers sometime, you should try some Silver Flute drivers off of Madisound. They're excellent drivers for the price and they dig way lower than you'd expect. I think pairing the XT25TG30-04 with the W20RC38-04 could make for a pretty nice set of bookshelves. Based on their little graphs provided by the site, they seem to be at least somewhat decently matched.

[@chrisferris3303]

Sick! Thanks for the reco!

[@BostonMike68]

Oh great thanks that's what I working on. But I have a bigger old school bookshelves with a 10" grs Dayton audio woofer and it's not bad for the money but I plan on keeping these so I want to get the best drivers for the money.

[@mndlessdrwer]

@@BostonMike68 I helped my friend install some of the 6.5" Silver Flute drivers into his car (not exactly ideal since they're paper and wool and car doors aren't fully sealed from the weather) but they sounded great even without an ideal tuned enclosure. Very forgiving speakers to work with. The 8" models just reach even lower. I was thoroughly impressed by how well-made they were. The quality is fantastic for the price and they even look quite nice with that satin grey look. Plus, I will never stop recommending the classic double ring radiator tweeter. They're just such a lovely tweeter design thanks to their high dispersion and sweet sound reproduction. They just do every genre well without the aggressive quality that some metal dome tweeters exhibit. Just remember to cross the tweeter over relatively low in order to compensate for the larger driver's lower agility and tendency to beam at higher frequencies. Ring radiator tweeters have a surprisingly large operating range, so you can cross them over quite low without much risk to them. Let us know how it goes if you can find this comment chain again after you build your bookshelf speakers.

[@BostonMike68]

@@mndlessdrwer thanks I appreciate it. I never used Madison sound before. I'm going to check it out. I'm going with a good size box and 10" woofers. I already have the woofers I bought them to replacement on a old cabinet but I ended up building new ones out of.5 MDF with .75 solid oak on top so they are solid and I want a nice driver for these now and those sound like what I want.

[@BostonMike68]

I'm trying to figure out how to use xsim so I can build my own crossover but I am struggling with the software.

[@ChicagoRob2]

Another way to obtain awesome bass is to use isobaric loading. The cabinet is small, bass extension is amazing, and distortion is low.

[@mndlessdrwer]

If you want to upgrade it in the future, try to find a pair of silk ring radiator tweeters, preferably some based on the legendary VIFA XT25 lineup, as they are absolutely fantastic tweeters. The long-winded explanation of transmission line speaker porting is that you are using a combination of air volume and the rate of transmissivity of sound through air to tune a speaker enclosure for a specific frequency that you want it to amplify. Most commonly, this is used to reinforce at or just below the resonant frequency of the main woofer to create a stronger bass or mid-bass performance, though it is possible to tune your enclosure volume and transmission line length to allow your speaker to dig even lower, though this can cause additional issues with time alignment. Unfortunately, I don't understand the equations and the physics behind them well enough to give an even more in-depth explanation, but it's a truly fascinating subject. You can also use folded enclosures with a certain shape to attenuate rear wave, like what KEF does with the Helmholtz resonator chambers on their Meta speakers. Inversely, you can also horn-load your transmission line by allowing the tube to expand in cross-section at a specific rate in order to amplify certain frequencies, though you typically only see people bother with this in the very niche point-source driver applications in order to get a usable bass response out of larger full-range drivers without needing to cheat like Bose does with their single driver crossover networks.

[@chrisferris3303]

This great info Robert thanks for sharing!

[@davidlong1786]

You don't just swap different drivers in a speaker and think the crossover will match as well as with the original one.

[@mndlessdrwer]

@@davidlong1786 they're roughly the same impedance, sensitivity, and the xt25 can actually cross over even lower if necessary, plus they're ruler flat down to, like, 1000Hz and out to 30kHz. So, yeah, you can just swap the driver out and expect it to perform as well.

[@davidlong1786]

@@mndlessdrwer "Roughly the same impedance" means close but no cigar. Same goes for " cross over lower if necessary". Who's going to rebuild the crossover for that? Not 99% of those that buy this kit. What about the impedance bumps at FS? Are they the same, if not then a big difference for the crossover.

[@mndlessdrwer]

@@davidlong1786 It really isn't that important. If you're running a fairly simple crossover and neither of your tweeters are being run down to their resonant frequency, then matching their impedance there really doesn't matter. On top of all of that, dude is using pre-built fairly generic crossovers, so the significance matters even less. Would I recommend swapping drivers like that to someone who spent five hours building custom crossovers to really eke the most out of their drivers and reshape their FR to his preference? No, no I wouldn't. But he isn't to that stage yet, so this is the ideal time to reuse the generic crossovers and see if the sound signature of the tweeters is more to his preference compared to the ones from Dayton.

[@eddievega1100]

Very nice 👍 how do they sound ?

[@chrisferris3303]

Thanks for watching @eddievega1100. They’re great! I really enjoy them.

[@JohnSmith-qi6co]

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?

[@paisteformula6021]

Beautiful job done! Transmission line as well!!! 👍👍👍👍

[@Cakebattered]

Great job, especially with the wood finish. One problem is you routed the countersink too deep, recessing the tweeter (Happens to the best of us). That tiny lip around the tweeter will cause MAJOR diffraction. Unscrew your tweeter and add a thin piece of felt/foam/cardboard/whatever to make the tweeter flush with the cabinet. It absolutely will be worth the effort.

[@johnlucaiii9495]

wood finish was horrible. many visible flaws.

[@hatbpto5180]

Excellent job, bro! 👍 Professional looking video too

[@BurthRomanski-h8r]

Nice Job !! All the best from The Netherlands EU..

[@naturalverities]

Try DSP multiamping, you'll never go back to LCR passive crossovers! Control is a beautiful thing!

[@Erowens98]

PVA glue doesn't fill gaps. What it does is absorb into the pours of the material, then as it dries it pulls the two pieces together forming a bond between the two. Assuming your joints are straight and you have even clamping pressure to begin with the seal should be perfect. But if you can't guarantee a perfect fit, then you can inlay the panels into eachother to improve the seal. You can't really have "too much" glue, but a thin layer will form just as good a seal and cause less mess. Another technique to fill gaps with PVA is to mix it with 30-60% sawdust, preferably of the same material as what you're filling. Pro tip: you can seal MDF with PVA. Dilute the PVA with water then spray or wipe it on.

[@chrisferris3303]

Love the expertise. Thanks for the info

[@purplerider2362]

These are the mtms that parts express sells. I actually built a version like yours. With a TL port. They sound amazing. Only thing is parts express sells you all the caps and coils and resisters to build your own crossover. You should see how big these things are. Real beefy crossover parts. If you can build some stuff I recommend getting some diy speakers. Hell even if u can’t build stuff you should be able to build these. It comes with instructions.

[@anthonynelson5391]

Very impressive. I'm considering building my 1st set. How did you determine cabinet size?

[@johnterpack3940]

Really nice build. I want to build a complete 5.1 set for my home theater... but I keep talking myself out of it.

[@chrisferris3303]

Do it! Such a great feeling.

[@johnterpack3940]

@@chrisferris3303 Too many irons in the fire right now. Just bought our house, have serious reno to do before I get to play with fun things.

[@lutzhegemann5103]

Awesome build and great video. Please continue making content. Just discovered your channel today. Subscribed!

[@chrisferris3303]

Thanks for watching Lutz Hegemann. Some new content coming soon.

[@N.Off23]

Hey Chris! thanks for sharing your buid, I'm planning on doing the same build, do you happen to have a cutting sheet like in your sub video? or the mesurements of the center T section? thanks! Great Video

[@guido0582]

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???

[@Ladysman_217]

Listening through headphones to me the Customs sound of the best out of the three. I would really like to build a set of these but I didn't hear or see any Dimensions given on the internal brace that creates the transmission line or what size the port opening was. Or where it is placed in the cabinet.

[@siriosstar4789]

Very Very nice . let's this be a lesson to those that think you can't do excellent with crappy tools . 😂😉 seriously man ,you did a great job !

[@hamzatatta952]

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 ?

[@chrisferris3303]

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.

[@jimspc07]

@4:41 "A Double Diamond works wonders" Those were the days!

[@aaronb554]

Nice build. Do you account for the foam in your enclosure volume?

[@chrisferris3303]

Hey thanks for watching. I did not account for the foam but I’ve wondered the same thing. I could be wrong but as the foam isn’t dense enough to affect the lower frequencies I’d imagine it’s all good.

[@aaronb554]

@@chrisferris3303 gotcha, pal. Nice build! Thanks.

[@michaelhastie7324]

Great videov CHRIS. The only improvment to the Dayton Audio components would be Pearless and better quality crossover parts a la GR Research or similar supplier. YOUR DIRECTIONS ARE SPOT ON. 10/10 100%

[@chrisferris3303]

Hey Michael Hastie. Thanks so much! I’ve heard awesome things about those pearless drivers. Stoked for future builds.

[@PINKFL0YD-s2h]

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.

[@IvanToman]

Excellent wood work, very competent and perfect video footage and editing. I would like to give some input though, it might help you in this or future projects. First of all you didn't tell anything how transmission line is calculated. But ok, the other things I noticed.. this premade crossover seems to be optimized for 4 or 8 ohm load on woofer side, but 8 ohm load only on tweeter side, however your tweeter is 4 ohm nominal so there will be some shifting from theoretical xover frequency. But that doesn't have to be a problem if measurements are OK, but did you made them? I mean, there is very slim chance that acoustic xover point and slope will be what you think it is, with custom build front baffle and random drivers and generic xover, huh. Apart from that, your tweeter is flushed too deep into front baffle, that stepping will create diffraction and coloration. You can help with adding small depth of sealeant under tweeter to lift its surface in level with front baffle. The last thing I noticed... did you put that crossover into transmission line tunnel? Huh? If you did you defeated its purporse a big time. Also, you've made it non accessible after gluing front baffle? I hope you won't take those comments wrong way, also I might be wrong about some points as something might be just not shown in the video. Other than that great job!

[@sergeisedunov9878]

Hello, thank you for your interesting review and experience! Could you please share the drawings with dimensions? Thank you!

[@goodgoat3096]

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?

[@chrisferris3303]

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 :)

[@BostonMike68]

Nice speakers.!!! I been building speakers and I been using the Dayton crossover myself up for not building my own but know I saw someone else who knows what he's doing maybe I should just leave them also I ran 2 4 ohms drivers to get 8 ohms like you and I wanted to use the reference tweeter that you use but I saw it's 4 ohms and I don't know I can run a 4 ohms tweeter with 8 ohms woofers obviously I you did it so it must be ok to do unless that's an 8 ohms reference tweeter but I think they had 8 reference tweeters .

[@chrisferris3303]

Hey thanks for watching. You can use the 4 ohm tweeter because the over all impedance is more effected by the woofers as they take a larger percentage of the power being delivered.

[@BostonMike68]

@@chrisferris3303 oh good I really wanted to use that tweeter. I'm going to replace the one in there with one of reference tweeters. And I like the little cover.

[@Fromega001]

Seem very nice. But an idea, just an idea off the price off components is realy nice to have too

[@RoshanKaisry]

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.

[@outbackwack368]

Excellent job all around! My only advice, as a woodworker, is to ALWAYS wear a respirator and/or use dust collection, especially with MDF... your lungs will thank you!

[@user-dapeng661]

Great video and great job ! … Just wondering why the speakers are sitting so tall ( tweeter well above ear-level) ?

[@jaibertaborda2774]

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.

[@chinmeysway]

Looks way cool. Wait contact cement?? Hm

[@oscarmarfori613]

You are right that was a really inspiring build and it’s sounds amazing thanks for sharingk

[@iblesbosuok]

In 1999, I built a transmission line speaker system based on the August 1977 edition of the *Electronics Today International* magazine. Even though I used a makeshift driver, the system's performance was very good.

[@regular_goof]

Very nice and clean work ! Congrats

[@kloug2006]

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 ?

[@chrisferris3303]

Wow thank you so much kloug2006. The TML is just a different way of porting a cabinet. Thanks for watching.

[@pabloosvaldopenizzotto1098]

Great looking speakers!! Great job! How do you get the cabinet size ? Would be nice a video about this. Thank you

[@mdocod]

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.