Re: What's difficult in DIY audio?


Ian Bell wrote:
Andre Jute wrote:



But the most difficult thing of all, akin the frustratingly complex
transfer functions of tires in automobiles, is speakers. Whereas
almost anyone with the brains to get into a good college can design
and build a good power amp, given only a few years of hitting the
books and experimenting on the bench, it is really awesomely difficult
to build a better than mediocre speaker, and it is virtually
impossible to predict in detail how a speaker you intend building will
behave. I include bought speakers in this: the best speakers on the
market fall short of that theoretical adequacy daily exceeded in amp
design by margins that would get an amp designer laughed out of the
trade.


How speakers behave is determined more by the room than anything else. Very
few people acoustically treat their rooms and many treated rooms are done
so poorly.

All of this is true, Ian, but before you can determine how your
speaker reacts in any room, however treated, you first have to build a
good speaker, and in order to build a good speaker, unless you're
coincidentally also in the firewood business, you need to know how the
notional speaker will react on y parameter if you change element z. In
that perspective, the science of loudspeakers is a magnitude (or
probably more) less precise than the science of amplifiers.

There is no magic to building speakers, just a large number of
variables.

Superficially true, and then only to people who have never tried to
build a fullrange horn or a large electrostat. Even with multiconed
speakers there is still more magic than science, compared to say
amplifiers.

Check out RDH which has some excellent design guidelines.

Thanks for the tip. I check it immediately. For a giggle see the
reprint of my neddy guide to making the RDH digestible for you'n'me,
originally published in Glass Audio, at:
http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/JUTE%20ON%20AMPS%20RDH.html

Ian

That reminds me. A good place for people who are starting on speakers
from scratch and need an overview to commence reading is the BBC man
Vivian Capel's An Introduction to Loudspeaker and Enclosure Design,
published by Babani and available at every WHS for a pittance.

Andre Jute
Visit Jute on Amps at http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/
"wonderfully well written and reasoned information
for the tube audio constructor"
John Broskie TubeCAD & GlassWare
"an unbelievably comprehensive web site
containing vital gems of wisdom"
Stuart Perry Hi-Fi News & Record Review

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Best Amps to use with Quad 989 Speakers
    ... > both 'speakers, and if the 'fault' was the same on both. ... His amp is the QUAD 306. ... For obvious reasons, Quad design their amps with current limiters so as to ...
    (uk.rec.audio)
  • Re: pentode amplifiers
    ... negative feedback switch in the best amp I ever designed, ... good sensitive speakers you can live with forever, ... higher residual harmonics is to the residual second harmonic. ... My design was first, then the Afterburner by Thorsten Loesch, then ...
    (rec.audio.tubes)
  • Re: Paradigm Reference Active 40 V2 FS
    ... >One of the finest full range speakers ever made in solid rosenut veneer. ... Paradigm Premier J20 stands are ... So imagine that instead of guessing which amp to use with your ... And instead of that engineer having to design ...
    (rec.audio.marketplace)
  • Re: polk 6x9
    ... He started out trying to prove it by claiming "if they were any good you'd see home speakers use them". ... it is no harder to manufacture an oval cone than a round one. ... And design software these days - like Finite ELement Anaylsis - makes it no harder to design, ...
    (rec.audio.car)
  • Re: Speaker Valueation
    ... I learned a lot about it in the development of my sound card ... >> produce two speakers that are identical. ... Engineering means design to an end, ... drivers and enclosure by random and hope they will sound good. ...
    (rec.audio.tech)