As some of you will know I left Ireland 6 months ago for a bit of world travelling. We hadn't expected to enjoy Australia as much as we have so it's now apparent that we won't be leaving any time soon. Now that we're spending some time stationary, I've really been missing having music to listen to as this was pretty important part of my life. I still had all of my hifi gear at home which is fairly decent stuff so I had 2 options - ship it over or buy new. A quick look at some shipping costs confirmed that speakers would cost a fortune to get here as would my heavy amps. Couple that with the damage that they could sustain in transit, I decided to start again but with a slightly different view.
I dabbled with DIY hifi before, being an early adopter of Tripath amps and playing with Non-Oversampling Dac's. However there was one aspect which I had never tackled and was really keen to - speakers!
The aim: To build a 2 channel amplifier and set of speakers which would perform as well as possible for under $500.
The amplifier
In the past I had had a few DIY amps (TA2020 bi-amped and TA2024) and a few commercial amps (Arcam 8r, Leak 20, Meridian pre/power combo). I really liked the tripath stuff but I always found it a little bit gutless only being 20wpc. It did however compare admirably with the Meridians which are a couple of grands worth.
After a bit of research, I found that the TK2050 chipset was now being used and was available in a few different forms:
Sure Electronics
Hifimediy
Dayton Audio
41hz Monoblock
The TK2050 differs from the more popular tripath chips as it ideally needs 28v to operate which gives it a bit more juice and generates 75WPC into 4ohms @ 0.01% distortion. The Dayton is a great option for plug and play but only runs a 24v power supply so for this reason and also due to doubts on build quality I discounted the Dayton Audio. I discounted the Sure Electronics amp having read that the sound was superior to the Dayton but the build quality was sub standard. That left the 41hz amp and the hifimediy. To be honest, the 41hz amp probably would have worked out as the best option but it was twice as expensive and you have to build it yourself. So laziness and tightness won and the hifimediy amp was ordered with some RCA connectors. A suitable SMPS power supply was also ordered from ebay.
The Speakers
This was the part of the system that I deliberated over a lot. I wanted something simple to build as I have no tools here and I wanted the materials to be cheap to build the speaker. I was interested in building a loaded horn design using a full range driver as I'd read a lot of positive reviews and it's a much simpler design requiring no crossover. The mark up on commercial speakers is huge and most commercial speakers can be built for about 10% of their retail cost.
After lots of reading, I was looking mainly at Fostex drivers as they are efficient and designed for loaded horn designs. However, after some suggestions, I drew up a shortlist which included the following:
Fostex FE206En
Fostex FE166En
Fostex FE126En
CSS EL70
To be honest, I hadn't really considered the CSS EL70s until they were recommended by someone with experience of all the above drivers. After a bit of research and the fact that they worked out the cheapest, I was sold!
I went around lots of designs but finally decided on the inverted BiB derived horn as it is incredibly easy to construct, is designed to sit in corners and looks pretty good. It appeared a good time to master google sketchup too. After inputting the speakers parameters into the BIB calculator, I was given the dimensions I needed to work with.
This is the design of the speaker:
The bottom of the speaker is open and is raised off the ground by approximately an inch and I will eventually cut karllson slots into the side which will improve the sound further.
I ordered the EL70s from Canada and then bought 2 sheets of plywood and got them cut to size.
The Source
The only bits I will be shipping from home will be my TDA1545a DAC and my projector. They'll come over sometime in July in someones luggage to save cost!
All of my music is electronic at the moment, so I wanted an all in 1 job to play my music, my movies, watch&record tv. The most obvious selection was the Playstation 3, so I purchased one of those the other day which isn't exactly in the spirit of cheapness, but it's a bonus that I can play Gran Turismo ;D
I don't have any other necessary expenses to complete the project, but I will be trying to pick up some cheap solid core Cat 5 for speaker cabling and try and find something I can use as a case but that could end up being another cost. The amp & power supply arrived today so I'll be building them and the speaker cabinets up tomorrow as I'm expecting the drivers soon too. I'm really looking forward to getting it all set up!
If you're interested in reading up more on DIY hifi, these are 2 great sites to start off on:
TNT Audio
DIY Audio
I dabbled with DIY hifi before, being an early adopter of Tripath amps and playing with Non-Oversampling Dac's. However there was one aspect which I had never tackled and was really keen to - speakers!
The aim: To build a 2 channel amplifier and set of speakers which would perform as well as possible for under $500.
The amplifier
In the past I had had a few DIY amps (TA2020 bi-amped and TA2024) and a few commercial amps (Arcam 8r, Leak 20, Meridian pre/power combo). I really liked the tripath stuff but I always found it a little bit gutless only being 20wpc. It did however compare admirably with the Meridians which are a couple of grands worth.
After a bit of research, I found that the TK2050 chipset was now being used and was available in a few different forms:
Sure Electronics
Hifimediy
Dayton Audio
41hz Monoblock
The TK2050 differs from the more popular tripath chips as it ideally needs 28v to operate which gives it a bit more juice and generates 75WPC into 4ohms @ 0.01% distortion. The Dayton is a great option for plug and play but only runs a 24v power supply so for this reason and also due to doubts on build quality I discounted the Dayton Audio. I discounted the Sure Electronics amp having read that the sound was superior to the Dayton but the build quality was sub standard. That left the 41hz amp and the hifimediy. To be honest, the 41hz amp probably would have worked out as the best option but it was twice as expensive and you have to build it yourself. So laziness and tightness won and the hifimediy amp was ordered with some RCA connectors. A suitable SMPS power supply was also ordered from ebay.
The Speakers
This was the part of the system that I deliberated over a lot. I wanted something simple to build as I have no tools here and I wanted the materials to be cheap to build the speaker. I was interested in building a loaded horn design using a full range driver as I'd read a lot of positive reviews and it's a much simpler design requiring no crossover. The mark up on commercial speakers is huge and most commercial speakers can be built for about 10% of their retail cost.
After lots of reading, I was looking mainly at Fostex drivers as they are efficient and designed for loaded horn designs. However, after some suggestions, I drew up a shortlist which included the following:
Fostex FE206En
Fostex FE166En
Fostex FE126En
CSS EL70
To be honest, I hadn't really considered the CSS EL70s until they were recommended by someone with experience of all the above drivers. After a bit of research and the fact that they worked out the cheapest, I was sold!
I went around lots of designs but finally decided on the inverted BiB derived horn as it is incredibly easy to construct, is designed to sit in corners and looks pretty good. It appeared a good time to master google sketchup too. After inputting the speakers parameters into the BIB calculator, I was given the dimensions I needed to work with.
This is the design of the speaker:
The bottom of the speaker is open and is raised off the ground by approximately an inch and I will eventually cut karllson slots into the side which will improve the sound further.
I ordered the EL70s from Canada and then bought 2 sheets of plywood and got them cut to size.
The Source
The only bits I will be shipping from home will be my TDA1545a DAC and my projector. They'll come over sometime in July in someones luggage to save cost!
All of my music is electronic at the moment, so I wanted an all in 1 job to play my music, my movies, watch&record tv. The most obvious selection was the Playstation 3, so I purchased one of those the other day which isn't exactly in the spirit of cheapness, but it's a bonus that I can play Gran Turismo ;D
I don't have any other necessary expenses to complete the project, but I will be trying to pick up some cheap solid core Cat 5 for speaker cabling and try and find something I can use as a case but that could end up being another cost. The amp & power supply arrived today so I'll be building them and the speaker cabinets up tomorrow as I'm expecting the drivers soon too. I'm really looking forward to getting it all set up!
If you're interested in reading up more on DIY hifi, these are 2 great sites to start off on:
TNT Audio
DIY Audio
All I need to do is to find a soldering Iron for 2 connections on the amp and I'll be listening to music in the morning! 
