Building Custom Speakers?

I want to get a quad 303... ...technics amps... ...drum and bass, trance, jazz, abstract jazz and a bit of classical, and some hiphop...

Okay, so we're not talking single-ended triodes, pipe-smoking and mono. Forget forget open baffles, unless you have space for large drivers and big boards - you need a cabinet of some kind. You're after a modern sound, driven by solid state gear to reasonable volumes.

i had some ideas:

Great stuff! But I honestly think that's a lot to take on. It's a serious bit of design - even the 3-way crossover will take you hours to figure out. After your AS levels, its gonna be fucken summer man...

Listen, I will sound like an old codger here, but I'm also a natural tinkerer and have taken on many DIY projects involving cars, hifi, guitars and obviously bikes. They have been fun and I've usually ended up with something cool at the end. The one lesson I've learned (and I have to keep reminding myself) is that I have limited resources, and you know what the most precious one is? Time. The projects I regret (slightly) are those that were too complex from the start and I kidded myself I could do it all. I sank money and time in, pissed off my mates and in the end tied myself in knots, and eventually gave up. [/bitter mourning of lost youth]

If I were you right now, and dead set on DIY rather than getting some second-hand classics, I would seriously look at a full-range driver in a simple transmission line cabinet. If its well designed you will get good bass as well as natural top end presentation. And no crossovers to arse around with. You can build a good TL cabinet out anything from solid wood to plastic drainpipe...

http://diyaudioprojects.com/Speakers/Fostex-FX120-ML-TQWT/
http://diyaudioprojects.com/Speakers/Tobler-ONE/
http://www.t-linespeakers.org/projects/nick/index.html
http://www.t-linespeakers.org/projects/tlB/index.html

Enjoy

But I want to arse around with crossovers, haha.

Ok, hang on, tube amps are superior to solid state amps, am I right? Would it be possible to build one? or are there any in particular that are considered to be a good starting point?
And I was thinking of trying to replicate/improve one that BBC speaker in the first post and adding a bass driver.

Are Crossovers expensive to get right?

tube amps are superior to solid state amps, am I right?

Massive question with no real answer - yes in some situations/applications, no in others, and very dependent on the amp design.

Of course you can build them and many do, if you take on that and a speaker project you may as well cancel "life". But if you want to get into DIY I would say an amp project is probably a better start than a speaker. Less farting around with wood, easier to understand the critical stuff and more likely to get a good result. But do you have money to spend?? You'll need to buy a kit or good components.

http://www.hificollective.co.uk/index.html
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/solid-state/
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/tubes-valves/

Or search amp + kit in ebay for loads and loads of chinese stuff - some of which is reckoned to be decent these days.

Are Crossovers expensive to get right?

Time consuming mainly, also require fairly high level of understanding of your speaker design, and tend to need a bit of real-life testing to dial them in, but also not cheap when you start looking as decent components.

And I was thinking of trying to replicate/improve one that BBC speaker in the first post and adding a bass driver.

Not a bad aspiration but the LS3/5 has a complicated cabinet design.

Fundamental fact - if you are putting together a system on a budget you are likely to get better results/return by carefully sourcing good second hand gear than building your own. Don't beleive me? Try building me a better sounding speaker than these for the money:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Kef-Q35-/180638053831?pt=UK_AudioVideoElectronics_HomeAudioHiFi_HiFiSpeakers&hash=item2a0eddf5c7

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Mission-782-Main-Stereo-Speakers-/320666747145?pt=UK_AudioVideoElectronics_HomeAudioHiFi_HiFiSpeakers&hash=item4aa93a4109

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TANNOY-611-MkII-DUAL-CONCENTRIC-BI-WIRABLE-SPEAKERS-/230598406609?pt=UK_AudioVideoElectronics_HomeAudioHiFi_HiFiSpeakers&hash=item35b0bc71d1

Same goes for amps etc.

Damn you by the way, you got me all thinkin about hifi tinkering again.... :-)

What about kef coda 9's? Is the mid good on them? Because that's what I'm missing from my current system.

Dunno bro, try to audition anything before you buy. KEF stuff should be pretty reliable.

http://davidblairross.com/post/12554862870/a-pair-of-solid-oak-speakers-based-on-a-fostex

Mine

Onkens? looks very nicely finished, although solid wood isn't best from an acoustic resonance pov (apart from possibly in some horn configurations)

They don't appear to be solid though, it's more that the boxes have been carved from a single piece.

http://www.planet10-hifi.com/fonken.html

They're mFonkens in solid oak. Fine acoustically cause they're so small and well braced, though it's not a great idea to build a six sided box from solid wood as you'll always have cross grain joints and possible problems with expansion and contraction. Having said that they've been in various different climates and no joints have opened up.

ah - thought I recognised the design :)

Dave (planet10) is a genius when it comes to fullrange speaker design.

Still thinking about building a set of FrugalHorns for a second system....