Designer:
Alan

Project Category:
Bookshelf Speakers

Project Level:
Intermediate

Project Time:
8-20 Hours

Project Cost:
Under $100

Project Description:
Having experience building several subwoofer TLs I decided to take on a full range. Mostly just a fun project to do something I had never tested before.

Design Goals:
To give as much extension into bass as possible in a single small speaker with reasonable high frequency response.

Driver Selection:
I originally had a pair of Kicker R4c midrange speakers form a 3 way car audio front stage build. Different speakers were used in my next car and I had them left over to experiment with. The original kickers fried with some heavy bass and I decided to use the Dayton RS100T as a replacement with lower Fs and higher Xmax. The Truncated version was used as to not block the vent.

Enclosure Design:
Behind the speaker, the pipe is 3” deep, tapering to a 1” exit. Enclosure width is 4” internal and length of the line is 74” tuning to 1/4 wave to 46 Hz.

Enclosure Assembly:
The exterior of the box is built out of 1/2” MDF, clamped and glued with tight bond II. The interior baffles are 1/4” HDF also glued with tight bond, temporarily held in place with cleats and staples until the glue set. 45 degree corners were held in place with small left over pieces of rubber foam during gluing.

Crossover Design:
Full range, no Xover used

Tips & Tricks:
Building a multi fold TL can be a little tricky, but get some graph paper and start drawing! You’ll figure out how to make it work eventually.

Conclusion:
During initial testing, it had a weird echo resonance that was eliminated by lightly stuffing the first section of line behind the speaker with polyfill. The bass extension of these is simply amazing for a 4” speaker. It’s not gonna shake anything down but for relaxed listening they are great. High frequency has a nice wide image and non fatiguing.

On a side note, the vocals with the RS100 are simply outstanding. I’m planning on using these as dash speakers in my next automotive build.

About the Designer:
I started out with family leftovers when I turned 16, and eventually got into spl competition. Fell out of that as I got older and started building more sound quality tuned cars. I dabble in home audio and guitar speakers from time to time.

Project Parts List: