Designer:
Karthik Ravi

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
Bookshelf speaker build.

Real Speakers have real curves!

Design Goals:
Build bookshelf speakers within 150-200$

A non-linear design

Good clean drivers for crisp sound

Driver Selection:
297-436 HiVi M5N 5″ Aluminum/Magnesium Midbass

264-1040 Peerless BC25TG15-04 1″ Silk Dome Tweeter

Enclosure Design:
I loved the stripes look on the Curly Maple Speaker Build by David Hall. Kudos to David!

I also wanted to try a non-linear design and wanted to give kerfing a try.

The enclosure is entirely 3/4″ MDF with Cherry Veneer and Paint to finish.

Enclosure Assembly:
Wood glue and pocket holes with bolstering behind the front panel

Crossover Design:
Simple 2nd order crossover.

Tips & Tricks:
It’s all about the order of operations

Conclusion:
Speaker box construction:

As always with any project, it did cost way more that I initially expected. Had to play around quite a bit with kerfing to get a sturdy one. Kerfing is by far easiest with MDF and very tricky with hardwood. Finally it was a combination of a good rip blade and lot of steaming that provided a sturdy kerf. Also had a chance to work with wood veneer for the first time for me. Veneering was much easier than expected. Once again, credits to David Hall for the stripe accent that inspired a similar feature in my design.

Electrical:

I dont have any problems with the crossover design right now. However I haven’t considered half the stuff that I believe goes into crossover design (The crossover design cookbook – Mark Lawrence). There’s much learning to do for me in that regard.

It was quite a lot of fun (and frustration) building these speakers.

About the Designer:
Autonomous Vehicle Engineer during the week, Amateur woodworker in the weekend.

Project Parts List: