I’ve made several speakers through my little DIY career. This is the first pair of speakers that I’m making entirely from someone else’s actual plans – rather than only shooting for an internal sealed volume.
I chose “Speedsters,” a design by speaker DIYer Paul Carmody. From all the reviews I’ve read, people have loved them; and are surprised with their sound despite small size.
I’ve been starting out projects with a Sketchup drawing, and these Speedsters are no exception. I’ve been getting much better at it, and I think it falls squarely under the Measure Twice Cut Once dogma.
The built up boxes. I used 3/4in MDF, and managed to put some dado counter sinks in the side. Pro-tip here: leave the outside edge just a little proud (hanging over a bit). Then you can come by with a flush-cut router bit and make them perfect.
Above you can see the rest of the gallery pics. Cross-over, the varnish job, and final product. I had some little name plates made from some outfit on Etsy, they turned out great. I used 1/4 cut wine corks to screw the cross-overs down to the enclosure and hold them off a bit. And you can see the padding I put in there too.
Overall I’m super impressed with these little guys. They’re sitting on my desk at the moment as near-field computer speakers. I had a woofer hooked up earlier, but turns out they don’t need it. The tweeter is amazing, and I’m hearing new levels of depth in all my music that I hadn’t heard before. While they were a bit spendy to build, I gotta say, I’m really impressed with the quality they crank out.
I’ve heard these $90 isolation stands make a noticeable difference. So a pair of those, and upgrading the amp/dac to a PS Audio Sprout 100 is next on my list!