Designer:
JDCrae

Project Category:
Loudspeakers/Cabinets

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Converting a late 60’s Stereo Console into an updated Stereo. Needed to procure a sufficient power source, speaker design that would fit the parameters of the cabinet, and then finish to a beach house distressed appearance.

Design Goals:
The goal of this project was to turn a 1968 Stereo Console into a hifi piece of furniture for our living room. We were looking for an aesthetically pleasing appearance, wide sound dispersion and capable low end response.

Driver Selection:
The speaker design was suggested by Chris Roemer, which called for 295-310 – Dayton 8 inch Woofer. The 275-075 – Dayton Tweeter was chosen because the unshielded version was on a pretty extended backorder. Went with 268-350 – Ports and cut those to 8.5 inches per the crossover design

Enclosure Design:
The enclosures were essentially already determined by the cabinet speaker cavities. It was originally a 2.5 way so I need to close off the extra opening in the baffle. Luckily the openings were smaller than what I needed, so I simply routed out the proper sized openings using a rabbeting bit. I preferred the port to exit on the rear of the cabinets to a 3 inch hole was cut to slide the port in. It was a very snug fit so I didn’t need to secure the port with anything. The dimensions of the cabinet compartments were 9 inches Wide, 13 inches deep and 21 inches tall externally. This was close enough to the original size recommended that I felt confident the sound would not change greatly.

Enclosure Assembly:
Luckily, besides some plugging of the previous front firing port, and routing out the new driver openings, there was little assembly to mess with. I did redesign the rear of the cabinet to be rear port firing, and added gasket tape to seal up the back of each “enclosure”

Crossover Design:
The Crossover design was done by Chris Roemer. Picture attached below shows the values and placement. Please remember my dimensions were different than the originals called for, so this design can no longer be described as for critical listening in my application.

Tips & Tricks:
If I were to do it all over again, I would more than likely completely build the cabinet from scratch. It would have been cheaper in the long run given the amount of paint and distressing I had to do to given faux maple laminate a grain. If you were going to simply paint it, modifying would be cheaper

Conclusion:
Overall, my wife and I are completely thrilled with the outcome of this project. I will be changing out the amplifier for something diy in the future, but for the moment, this old Yamaha NS is working perfectly. While not for critical listening, this radio puts out an amazing amount of sound, is accurate, provides ample low end response and most importantly provides much enjoyment for our family. We like the fact that 50 years ago people circled around this very console to listen to music and spent time together, and we will be continuing that fine tradition.

About the Designer:
I am a veteran of the USAF, and am in Marketing within the Recycling Industry. A woodworker on the side, I enjoy all aspects of building and modifying things. I am in no way a speaker designer, much more a builder.

Project Parts List: