So, I made some speakers (Now with more subwoofer)

Very profesional looking, good work!

Nice work there Cob. A few points to note from what I can remember when I was well into Hi-Fi / car / PA rig etc;
What you'll usually find is that the impedance rating of drivers designed for the automotive market is a nominal 4 Ohms. Domestic amplifiers are best suited to 'seeing' 8 - 16 Ohms. You can configure your wiring on the new cabinets to best suit the amp driving them (Series iirc, maybe wrong ). Also that type of driver is probably designed to be more 'free-air' than enclosed in a box. These pointers may well contribute to the 'flatness' you're experiencing. I am by no means an authourity on such matters and others may well expand on what I've said - also apologies if I'm telling you stuff you already know but if not, it'll be well worth doing a bit of research along those lines, after all that effort you'll want them sounding the shizzzz

Thanks for the info - It's mostly stuff I already knew, but chose to ignore really, I had a look in mind and didn't need brilliant performance, although they are about as good as I was expecting (perhaps better) I'm used to a lot more bass!

That said, after a few hours use they seem to have freed up considerably and are a LOT better than when new.

The impedance is OK - My amp is fine with 4 ohms, but from what spec I could get for the speakers (not much, I found some stuff for a similar but not exact model) they would prefer a box around 3 times as big as what they have, which won't help the bass response at all. I'm going to see what effect adding a port has (I've roughly calculated I'll want 40mm dia by 60mm long) but it'll be a lot of trial and error, and I really don't mind making a matching sub to sit under the desk to add some kick


As for the paint, it is as shiny as it would be on a car if I feel like it, I'll give them a going over with some 1200 grit and then either buff them up or put a few coats of laquer on - I'm getting rid of the grilles (they look poo) and making a trim ring that covers the speaker screw holes leaving the cone exposed.


Cheers for the comments

Tell me about it - I spend aaaages sanding them down, and to be honest they aren't quite as good as I'd have liked. There's a slight mark here and there where I could have done with a few more coats of high build, but I used 2x big cans and the shops were closed, so I had to make do. Same with the topcoat - I used all my paint and it don't think it's really on thick enough to flat it without risking breaking through, and the warmest I could get the garage (turned the tumble dryer on) was about 6c, so the finish is not amazing. Not terrible by any means, but not 100% perfect. It's 100x better than any painted MDF I've ever seen, but I wouldn't be happy with it if my bonnet was like it.

Overall I'm quite pleased with them though, and as always I know for next time what to do to speed things along (Buy some MDF sealer for the end grain so save about 10 coats of primer, and use the DA sander to get the edges flush before trying to fill the lip with filler)

They are screwed and glued - No need for silicon really as they fit together perfectly. I usually do seal boxes with caulk (they don't usually fit as tightly as these did!) but in this case they would h have held water even before I glued them, the shop cut all the sides millimetre perfect.

I know what you mean about the port, but I'm going to fit it on the back so I can always block it off if it makes things worse. I do need to get hold of some wadding, I forgot to pick some up on my trip out before I made them!

I think I'm fighting a losing battle to be honest though, so I'm already designing a little sub to sit under my desk. I'm gonna go with another cube, with the sub firing downwards, and the whole thing stood on 4 or 5 inch feet to give it some breathing room. Just need to keep an eye out for a cheap 12" sub somewhere.

Well I decided I wanted a sub, and found the very cheapest 12" woofer I could buy at work, £16

I got some more wood cut and set about building a box, then sanded the edges flush and rounded them over with the router:


I then used a circle jig to make the recess for the sub to sit in:

Which turned out nice:


Then I completed it by cutting the hole all the way through (The trick is to not quite go all the way through, leave about 1mm, that way the waste that the router is screwed to doesn't fall into the box taking the router with it and messing up the hole)



I gave the screwholes a coat of filler (Just normal automotive filler)



While the filler dried, I had to do something about the tacky writing on the face of the sub:


Paint renovator for the win 1 minute later:


I then sanded the box flush with the DA, and then put a coat of MDF sealer on it.


Followed by many coats of filler primer, more sanding and the topcoat:



I also added some feet



It all looks quite at home in my room



And I'm pleased to say that it sounds great, even with my very simple crossover setup

The speakers themselves cost:
Infinity Component Speakers: £30
MDF cut to size: £9
Big box of screws: £3
Paint and filler £20

= £62

And the subwoofer cost:
Mutant 12" Sub: £16
MDF cut to size: £9
MDF Sealer £3
More paint: £10

= £38

So all in they have set me back £100 on the nose, I'm really proud of how they have turned out!

yes, its 2 0.3mH and 2 0.16mH Inductors in series for about 0.92mH total, just wired as a first order filter (just in line with the sub)

It "should" give me a corner frequency of about 650hz, still too high but it was the best I could make with what I had in the garage at the time!

I had planned making something a bit better over the next few days, but to be honest it sounds fine as it is.