Transmission Line Speaker Design by SDS Labs
My first DIY speaker
Completed on 2/10/08
I used some 2' x 4' 1/2" MDF boards that I had purchased to build a dog house for Sophie, but I never got around it. The biggest challenge that I faced in making these speakers was cutting. I so wish I had a table saw for this. I just didn't get the most accurate cuts using circular and jig saws. I had to do lots of sanding and patching up with wood filler to hide my mistakes. But it worked out ok in the end. The speakers are veneered in mytrle burl (purchased on eBay for 100 sq/$20) and finished in 3 coats of natural stain, followed by 3 coats of satin polyurethane.
How do they sound? They seem to perform best with vocals and instrumentals. They definitely do lack bass extension (below 80 Hz), but this was to be expected with this design. I have a subwoofer picking up the slack on it, so I don't have any problem with that. One thing that I do want to try next is to use different drivers. The ones in there are 5.5" Dayton PA drivers that I purchased for $22/pr at Partsexpress. They tend to sound more like PA speakers than hi-fi speakers. I am leaning towards any of Fostex 6" 160 series, and I will post the result of that upgrade when it happens.
Completed on 2/10/08
This is my first attempt to build DIY speakers. I have always been curious about how transmission line speakers sound for a long time. It seems to me like there are as many people who are interested in the TL design as there are people who are into tube amps. Being a experimentalist at heart, I had t give this one a try. I used Sheldon Stokes' Tidy TL design. What attracted me to the design is its compactness: most of TL type of designs that I read about are either really complicated folded horns or 6' tall pipes like Voigt Pipes, neither of which had much appeal to me for the lack of WAF (wife acceptance factor) and cost of construction.
I used some 2' x 4' 1/2" MDF boards that I had purchased to build a dog house for Sophie, but I never got around it. The biggest challenge that I faced in making these speakers was cutting. I so wish I had a table saw for this. I just didn't get the most accurate cuts using circular and jig saws. I had to do lots of sanding and patching up with wood filler to hide my mistakes. But it worked out ok in the end. The speakers are veneered in mytrle burl (purchased on eBay for 100 sq/$20) and finished in 3 coats of natural stain, followed by 3 coats of satin polyurethane.
How do they sound? They seem to perform best with vocals and instrumentals. They definitely do lack bass extension (below 80 Hz), but this was to be expected with this design. I have a subwoofer picking up the slack on it, so I don't have any problem with that. One thing that I do want to try next is to use different drivers. The ones in there are 5.5" Dayton PA drivers that I purchased for $22/pr at Partsexpress. They tend to sound more like PA speakers than hi-fi speakers. I am leaning towards any of Fostex 6" 160 series, and I will post the result of that upgrade when it happens.
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