I want to build a speaker from scratch. Everything I find online has
people buying the audio driver, and building the cabinet. I want to
build the audio driver, too, but I don't know what to use for the
basket or the spider. I'm also having some difficulty finding speaker
magnets.

Any suggestions or direction will be very much appreiciated. Thanks!

Good luck with that! I have seen places where you can buy replacement cones,
surrounds, voice coils, dust caps, even spiders, but where would you get a
basket? And why? I'm not absolutely sure, but I think speaker magnets are
magnetized after they are put together with the basket, pole plate and plug.
Maybe I'm completely crazy, but I think I remember reading about that years
ago. How else could you align the parts without them sticking together?
Also, from what I understand, there are companies that specialize in just
one part. In other words one company will make nothing but baskets, another
company makes the cones and another makes the spiders, voice coils, etc.
Then the "manufacturer" just assembles the parts; much like you want to do.
You might have a hard time getting a few parts rather than thousands. What
is it that you think you would do differently than what you find in speakers
that are already made? Why not just buy speakers and modify them in the way
you like?

http://www.akrobiz.com/speakers/

Take care. James. )




"bmearns" wrote in message
oups.com...
I want to build a speaker from scratch. Everything I find online has
people buying the audio driver, and building the cabinet. I want to
build the audio driver, too, but I don't know what to use for the
basket or the spider. I'm also having some difficulty finding speaker
magnets.

Any suggestions or direction will be very much appreiciated. Thanks!

"bmearns" wrote ...
I want to build a speaker from scratch. Everything I find online has
people buying the audio driver, and building the cabinet. I want to
build the audio driver, too, but I don't know what to use for the
basket or the spider. I'm also having some difficulty finding speaker
magnets.

And the cones and the surround, and the terminals and the flex leads
and then don't forget the dust cap and the voice coil and terminal
strip.

There is no consumer market most of the parts needed to construct
your own speaker driver from scratch. Likley not available unless
you want to make 1000 of them (of unless your uncle owns a speaker
factory).

Any suggestions or direction will be very much appreiciated. Thanks!

I would consider trying something that actually has a realistic
chance of success.

On Wed, 28 Sep 2005 03:12:14 GMT, "James Lehman"
wrote:

Good luck with that! I have seen places where you can buy replacement cones,
surrounds, voice coils, dust caps, even spiders, but where would you get a
basket? And why? I'm not absolutely sure, but I think speaker magnets are
magnetized after they are put together with the basket, pole plate and plug.
Maybe I'm completely crazy, but I think I remember reading about that years
ago. How else could you align the parts without them sticking together?

I've not heard about how they are made, but perhaps you could have
a non-magnetic, plastic 'pipe' that fills the magnetic gap, fitting
perfectly over the centerpole piece and perfectly inside the outside
pole. Put glue in appropriate places, assemble parts, and pull out the
'pipe' after the glue dries.

Also, from what I understand, there are companies that specialize in just
one part. In other words one company will make nothing but baskets, another
company makes the cones and another makes the spiders, voice coils, etc.
Then the "manufacturer" just assembles the parts; much like you want to do.
You might have a hard time getting a few parts rather than thousands. What
is it that you think you would do differently than what you find in speakers
that are already made? Why not just buy speakers and modify them in the way
you like?

I can understand the OP's quest, making it from scratch is the
challenge of DIY.

The donut-shaped "Speaker magnets" should be the easiest parts, get
them from old speakers g or from the magnetrons in old microwave
ovens (I'm not sure if the magnetron magnets have the correct
north-south oerientation, only that they stick to refrigerators well).
If you don't like that idea, try some online surplus electronics
dealers, most of them have interesting neodynm (sp) magnets, or you
can get them out of old hard disk drives.
The moving parts for woofers are available as "recone" kits though
it may be fun to make these parts as well. As far as the magnetic
circuit and the basket, it could help to have a friend at a
sheet-metal and/or machine shop. There are people who have machine
shops in their basements and garages over on rec.crafts.metalworking,
perhaps you could interest one of them in such a project.
It seems one could build a ribbon tweeter quite easily, especially
with the recent crop of high-tech magnets. ISTR at least one article
from Audio Amateur or Speaker Builder from way back when on making a
ribbon tweeter from scratch, as well as an electrostatic. Now that I
think about it, it was the "make your own Heil 'air motion
transformer' tweeter" cover article in 1977 that turned me on to that
magazine.

And I can see the goal as being not neccesarily something that
"sounds good" to someone who has technical audio interest, but that
"sounds reasonable" to an average person. That is, it makes listenable
sound, plays at a moderate volume, and has no obvious problems such as
the voice coil rubbing on a pole piece. If it actually "sounds good"
that would be icing on the cake.


http://www.akrobiz.com/speakers/

Take care. James. )




"bmearns" wrote in message
roups.com...
I want to build a speaker from scratch. Everything I find online has
people buying the audio driver, and building the cabinet. I want to
build the audio driver, too, but I don't know what to use for the
basket or the spider. I'm also having some difficulty finding speaker
magnets.

Any suggestions or direction will be very much appreiciated. Thanks!

bmearns wrote:
I want to build a speaker from scratch. Everything I find online has
people buying the audio driver, and building the cabinet. I want to
build the audio driver, too, but I don't know what to use for the
basket or the spider. I'm also having some difficulty finding speaker
magnets.

If you don't know where to get those things then you _really_ don't want
to do it. Seriously. Designing a driver is a non-trivial endeavour,
getting the parts equally so, and making sure everything comes together
properly even more difficult. You'd end up spending literally thousands
with not much to show for it.

I would recommend starting off with a simple pre-designed kit. There's
no shame in starting off easily - many now-leading engineers picked up
their chops building Heathkits and Dynacos. When you have that built,
then get some inexpensive measurement tools and see if you can get the
same curves as the published ones, and understand why or why not.

Then, if you feel so inclined, play _carefully_ with the crossover
(don't want to blow up the tweeters!) to understand how that works.
The above steps will get you on the right road to knowing how this
stuff hangs together. You can then tackle more advanced kits, and
once you understand how they work try designing a system of your own.
Don't be too disappointed if your first system has strange impedance
anomalies or eats the occasional tweeter. Mine did.

You'd be amazed at the variables which enter into a system even before
you begin tweaking drivers. Just a few: cabinet size, cabinet shape
(including front panel width and whether the edges are rounded, and to
which radius), crossover slope, vented or closed box, number of ways,
number of drivers (1 or 2 woofers?, 1 or 2 mids?), and we haven't even
touched the various interactions with the room presented by monopole,
bipole, or dipole. All of these will keep you busy for a while, and
understanding the above is the FIRST part of learning if you decide
you really want to design a driver. We haven't gotten to the hard part,
such as magnetic field analysis, the effect of cone materials on response
(including breakup modes) and distortion, suspension non-linearities,
and voice coil properties such as resistance and inductance.

Designing a driver is a serious task even for experienced (hi Dick!)
folks. I've designed my fair share of systems, including a monitor
beta-tested by BTO on tour, and I wouldn't touch driver design when
there are so many good ones on the market. 99 times out of 100, you
can find pretty well exactly what you need, and if you can't then the
constraint is a useful learning experience.


Francois, been there done that.

bmearns wrote:
I want to build a speaker from scratch. Everything I find online has
people buying the audio driver, and building the cabinet. I want to
build the audio driver, too, but I don't know what to use for the
basket or the spider. I'm also having some difficulty finding speaker
magnets.

Any suggestions or direction will be very much appreiciated. Thanks!

If you can find a speaker repairer, they might be able/willing to help. Here in
melbourne, I'd go to www.totalrecoil.com.au.

On 27 Sep 2005 19:18:44 -0700, "bmearns" wrote:

I want to build a speaker from scratch. Everything I find online has
people buying the audio driver, and building the cabinet. I want to
build the audio driver, too, but I don't know what to use for the
basket or the spider. I'm also having some difficulty finding speaker
magnets.

You realise, of course, you're not going to make anything
better/cheaper than the manufactured article?

If you're determined on a D.I.Y project, sure, design some sort of
cone, wind a coil, design and make a suspension frame. The whole
point is you DON'T want a ready-made one, isn't it? I doubt you have
the technology to make a suitable magnet. I know it's cheating, but
scavenge one from an old speaker :-)

On Mon, 03 Oct 2005 17:44:33 +0100, Laurence Payne On 27 Sep 2005
19:18:44 -0700, "bmearns" wrote:

I want to build a speaker from scratch. Everything I find online has
people buying the audio driver, and building the cabinet. I want to
build the audio driver, too, but I don't know what to use for the
basket or the spider. I'm also having some difficulty finding speaker
magnets.

Always pondered over the same thing, as there were configurations that
I wanted to try to counter phase alignment issues and many others that
simply were not addressed in commercial drivers; even had a source of
really grunty but cheap NeFeB magnets lined up in China (not there
now, but you can subscribe to any Chinese electronics trade magazine
to find sources), plus all the technology needed for casting and
machining ductile cast iron and fine alloy, and I had designed a new
way to wind/press/impregnate very efficient voice coils. But I came up
short in cone technology, especially controlling fibre length and
distributing the re-inforcing (kevlar, CF etc) in making paper cones.
I'd like to get back to it one day, although I'm under no illusions as
to the complexity of the task.

If you find out any worthwhile info, please share, and keep us
informed of your progress.

Tony (remove the "_" to reply by email)