Hand Built Speaker Enclosure With LED

The main aim of this project was to make a speaker that isn't very complex to make, sounds decent, looks fine and is solid enough to last at least a couple of years with MINIMAL investment. The driver I have used is TYMPHANY PEERLESS TC8FD05-04(20 WATTS 4 OHM). This enclosure is made from MDF. The only power tool used in this project was a drill that I had borrowed from my brother with hole saw for making mounting baffle. Besides that all the cutting, planing and sanding was done by hand. For the front baffle I have used matte black spray paint and for the remaining sides I used multiple layers of primer that was mixed with black stainer. End result was quiet satisfying for me while acknowledging the fact that it was my first attempt at making something out of wood with absolutely no experience. Before making this enclosure I had made a small enclosure for 2" driver completely out of cardboard that is easily available in any stationary store, it was quiet a solid enclosure and no one was able to tell or believe that its made out cardboard till the time I showed them the insides. This did give me a lot of idea about what can be done with wood and after watching some really great speaker building videos on Youtube I was ready to begin. So, let's begin.

THINGS REQUIRED -

Full range driver - Tymphany Peerless TC8FD05-04

20 WATTS single channel amplifier for testing (I am using TDA2030)

Blue LED*4 of 3mm

10k resistor

On/Off switch

Cable for connection

FOR ENCLOSURE

MDF Sheet

Straight saw blade (with assembly)

Block plane

Wood glue

Super Glue

Rubber based glue

Scale

Sandpaper (100 grit,1000 grit)

Power drill

Hole saw

White primer

Black stainer

Matte black spray paint

Instead of completely taking control on my first speaker build project and ending up in a disaster I purposely ordered a driver that was cheap, powerful and had information available related to it that will help me to make an enclosure for it. In this case I used the optimum sealed enclosure data provided by PARTSEXPRESS.COM and it says that the volume of the enclosure for a sealed one should be 0.055 cubic foot. After getting the volume I used the speaker dimension calculator from DIYAUDIOANDVIDEO.COM. to get the exact size of all the sides. The same website can be used to calculate speaker volume as well.

After this I could have begin making the enclosure but just to get a feel of what is happening around I used a free speaker enclosure making software called "WinIsd Pro Alpha" which is readily available for download.

In order to use any speaker enclosure building software we need certain parameters about the driver we are going to use and these are provided driver's manufacturer.

Now I will be adding my driver data in WinIsd ,save it and then proceed with it.

Images are in sequence to sub steps written below for how to add a new driver in WinIsd with first image showing complete driver parameters provided by TYMPHANY itself.

1) Add new driver by clicking on "New" in new project box.

2) Type in driver model and manufacturer details.

3) Select parameters tab in driver editor window and start adding driver parameters by using the first image in this step. Only green highlighted parameters are to be added and the rest(in blue) will be auto calculated.

4) Saving driver data.

5) Select the saved driver and click next.

6) Select 1 in number of drivers and click next.

7) Now we have to select the type of enclosure we want to build. Although WinIsd recommends a ported/vented enclosure for this driver I moved ahead with sealed enclosure just to keep things simple and error proof to some point.

8) Performance graph of the speaker. Note that I have manually entered 0.055 cubic feet in volume section and the graph represents that.

I have used MDF for this project as it was easy to purchase and work with (except the dust part).

Dimensions - (Width) (Height)

Front & Back 4" 5"

Left & Right 9" 5"

Top & Bottom 4" 9"

I also added two thick blocks of hardwood while joining sides to keep things in place.

There are visible flaws in joints that can degrade our final audio output as well as the paint job that will be done later but in the next step they will be taken care of.

In red I have marked the gaps that can leak air and also make the final look amateur. These can be treated by applying the mixture of wood dust and wood glue. In second image I have applied the mixture and also sanded complete enclosure with sandpaper to have clean surface.

Initially I had planned to use just one driver in this enclosure but in third image you can see two holes and that is because midway i planned to test two drivers in one enclosure.

After testing two drivers it was clear that only one speaker is better off in this enclosure so I decided to cover one hole with music reactive LED panel.

This was a very random, impactful idea that gave really professional feel to the look and design of the enclosure. Using a block plane I curved out all the edges and then sanded them with 1000 grit sandpaper to have a very smooth surface.

After working on edges i prepared the LED panel.

I just applied multiple layers of stainer mixed primer to the sides and sanded them till second last coat to get a very clean and smooth surface. For the front baffle I applied 4 thin layers of matte black spray paint that complimented the stained primer appropriately. I have also added 3 handful of poly fil inside the enclosure

This was all about it. For sound test checkout the video I have posted (skip to 3:22 for sound test and use earphones for better idea of the output.)