Why i got into it in the first place.

I'm thinking about why I got into speaker building in the first place.

Right after high school, I couldn't afford the kind of speakers I wanted, so I built my own. I knew someone who knew someone who had some back issues of Speaker Builder magazine (pre-Internet days) and I absorbed all I could, then sent away to Solen via snail mail, with a money order, and got a box of Vifa drivers and Solen/Chateauroux crossover bits.
Put it all together in a pair of bookshelf cabinets and enjoyed for many, many years. I still have those crossovers, and will build something for them this year.
Designing crossovers is the only place in which I can do algebra, as was pointed out to me by an engineering/physics friend in college.
Man, I love this hobby.

What type of speakers are you going to build next?

cubdog

I went through a big speaker building phase when the magazine was still around, and the big T/S parameter article in one of the issues was key to making things understandable to those of us with only moderate math skills. That, and one of the Weems books from Radio Shack with a BASIC program in the back. I still have all the parts to build the Swan system by D'Appolito that they published. Someday, if I ever make it to retirement, I'll get back to it.

That Swan system was a sweet one. Swan Island isn't far from me as the crow flies.
I just completed a rebuild/upgrade of a pair of three way floor cabinets. And I built a transmission line for an old ADS car plate. The old two way crossovers will go into a pair of kitchen or office bookshelf units.
I'm amazed by the range of good quality drivers for little money... Oh, the possibilities....

i went through many years of home-built experiments beginning in the early 70's. i was broke all the time (too much money spent re-building British sports cars!) so i would try to approximate any particular speaker that impressed me.

we didn't have Speaker Builder mag and precious few articles back then. i also had the radio shack books the Weems being a good one.

almost all i built over the years were crap sounding compared to upper midfi and high end speakers i've owned.

i presently listen to a very nice system i built from madisound and ACI components. it is biamped.

i got rid of all my misc parts years ago. having no shop, no parts and poor health i can only envy those in the DIY area nowadays. there is so much more today and computer programs that are fantastic compared to the books and piles of flyers and notes we had in the old days..

Yes, I spent many many hours poring over the ACI and Madisound catalogs. I'm currently running a pair of AC 10 woofers I've had for 20 odd years.

Farmhand said:

Yes, I spent many many hours poring over the ACI and Madisound catalogs. I'm currently running a pair of AC 10 woofers I've had for 20 odd years.

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Oh man, the good old days when you could buy dynaudio drivers at reasonable prices. I built a pair with the Dynaudio D28 tweets, D52 mids & W75 woofers...later sold them ridiculously cheap...kicking myself now. Didnt' realize what I had at the time. I used to love those ACI speaker catalogs....especially that speaker that looked a like a vandersteen...emerald or sapphire maybe?? It used dynaudio drivers with a removable top, with egg crate foam on it...looked SO COOL...would love to have a pair of those today! If I say them I think I would have to buy them LOL.

yeah i miss the ACI catalogs and flyers. what i really miss is...the prices!

As a twenty year old in 1970, I was enamored with a pair of University speakers a friend of mine had bought; they were big, with 15" woofers, and sounded beautiful, even/especially at high volume. With little money but lots of envy, I built my 1st pair of cabinets, 3 feet tall by about 2 feet and pretty deep. 12" full range (whizzer cone, probably CTS) speakers from Radio Shack went in them, with an uncalibrated port. They actually sounded great at the time.

By 1972, I was more critical, and somehow came across Frank Van Alstine in Burnsville, MN, who was really getting attention with his custom amps, preamps, turntables, and speakers. He was building speakers with 8" Emtek woofers, and they were great. I bought a Sherwood 7100A, a custom turntable, and speakers from him. I returned to him a year later for fabulous ADS speakers. This period was the beginning of my addiction/affliction, which has never been cured. I still visit the Van Alstine website, too.

herbd2 said:

Oh man, the good old days when you could buy dynaudio drivers at reasonable prices. I built a pair with the Dynaudio D28 tweets, D52 mids & W75 woofers...later sold them ridiculously cheap...kicking myself now. Didnt' realize what I had at the time. I used to love those ACI speaker catalogs....especially that speaker that looked a like a vandersteen...emerald or sapphire maybe?? It used dynaudio drivers with a removable top, with egg crate foam on it...looked SO COOL...would love to have a pair of those today! If I say them I think I would have to buy them LOL.

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A friend of mine has the Sapphire II/Sub 1 setup and it still sounds amazing. Full, clear and balanced is how I'd describe it offhand.
And yeah, those must have been great speakers you built with the Dynes. It still seems nuts that drivers that good could stop being made.