Garage Speaker
Designer: Bradley
Project Time: 8-20 hours
Project Complexity: Intermediate
Project Cost: $500-$1000
Project Description
We have a new metal garage that our family spend a lot of time in and I wanted a sound system for it. the building is 48×48 and enclosed on 3 sides.
Design Goals
Something that sounds good while we are playing out there and would play loud enough for the occasional party!
Driver Selection
4 HF 10″ Dayton Audio subs 4ohm
2 HTX 8″ in wall 2 way speakers
Enclosure Design
Sealed 3/4 MDF screwed and glued with liquid nails.
Subwoofer section 1.65 cubic ft. sealed and braced.
Top section sealed at about 1 cubic ft.
Enclosure Assembly
3/4 MDF pre drilled and assembled with 1 5/8 decking screws every 3 inches on all seams. All interior surfaces lined with 1.5 inch foam mattress pad.
Crossover Design
Top section with the HTX wall plate speakers had there own crossovers installed and are run from a Crown XLS 1000 at 8 ohms Stereo. This amps HPF is set at 88 Hz. I figured these would hold up a little longer with some of the lower Hz cut off!!
The woofers are run by a separate Crown XLS 2000 at 2 ohms stereo, thats 1050w per side. This amps LPF is set at 125Hz, no other crossover between the amp and woofers.
Conclusion
I have not built any speaker boxes since I built a few car subwoofer boxes back in high school. Turned out better than expected and sounded great too. I figured I would go with a sealed box since I had plenty of power to run them and I’m glad I did, there won’t be any animals crawling in or nesting in my speakers!! They are not too boomy but plenty of bass and go down low too. The HTX speakers blend great and are a steal at $48 for a pair.
Tips & Tricks
The Jasper Model 240 Circle Jig PT# 365-265 may seem a little pricey, but after the first use you will see that it was a DEAL!!
About the Designer
I’m 38 years old and run a family owned trucking company. We do all our own mechanic work and I’m at the shop most all the time, that’s why you see all these trucks in the picture backgrounds. These speakers turned out so good I may have to try another set sometime!!
Project Parts List
|
Part # |
Description |
Qty |
|
309-630 |
HTX IX-8021 8″ 2-Way Kevlar In-Wall Speaker Pair with Pivoting Tweeter |
2 |
|
295-460 |
4 |
|
|
245-507 |
Crown XLS 1002 DriveCore 2 Power Amplifier 2 x 350W at 4 Ohms |
1 |
|
245-509 |
Crown XLS 2002 DriveCore 2 Power Amplifier 2 x 650W at 4 Ohms |
1 |
What did you use to power the car stereo (ac to dc converter)??
Walt and Kris you can look at the picture with the car stereo and the two power amps from the back and he has a small power supply ” black box” running up to the power indicator light and to the terminal strip. From the terminal strip is a red and black wire feeding the car stereo. Don’t need much for watts I wouldn’t think.
Had the same question. I am looking to do something similar to your setup, what did you use to power the radio? (convert the 12volt to 110volt)
The look of these beasts is totally amazing and the out of the box (and off the shelf!) design blows me away. For your first Crack at it, you hit this one right out of the park. Never would I have thought to use in wall speakers in a cabinet. The look just “works.” I would love to know how these measure, and I’m sure if you now have the bug, you’ll find out some day. I suspect that they do sound good, but with minimal intervention with some crossover parts, they’d satisfy the stingiest ‘phile. I’m inspired to try something similar and am going to start curiosity calculations immediately. This is a wow.
Looks awesome! I want to do something similar just had one question with regards to how you wired the radio to amps. Did you just go direct RCA output from radio to the amps? Just wondering because car radios put around 2-5 volts (Nice ones anyway) and I was wondering if the higher voltage would mess with the amp inputs over time? Or are power amplifiers meant to take high input voltage? Might be a dumb question but I’m curious.
Thanks