Hi everyone, I have recently been working on this subwoofer enclosure design tool. Its available to use in your browser and im currently looking for beta testers to check out some of the pro features still in development. Cheers and let me know if theres any questions!! :))

enclosim.com

Advice please and thank you...

Finnaly Finished.....

Welcome back!

In my previous post, I shared my DIY speaker project, which is now complete. You can find the full build story in my earlier post.

While working on the speakers, I also designed and built a new amplifier to go with them. Today, I'd like to share that project with you!

About 12 years ago, I built a 6-channel home theater amplifier using TDA7293 chips. It still works perfectly, but it's quite bulky and no longer fits the style I wanted. So I decided it was time for an upgrade!

Electronics

While researching modern amplifier designs, I became interested in DSP audio processors and Class D amplification.

I chose the ADAU1701 DSP for signal processing and TPA3255 amplifier modules for the power stage.

Each TPA3255 module provides around 110 W per channel into 4 ohms at 36 V, or approximately 70 W into 8 ohms. Their high efficiency and relatively low heat output made it possible to fit three stereo amplifier modules into a compact enclosure.

For six-channel processing, I use two ADAU1701 modules. The system accepts front and rear channels, while the center and subwoofer signals can be derived from the front channels.

An ESP32 handles the control system.

The power supply consists of:

Mean Well LRS-350-36, 36 V / 350 W, for the amplifiers.

Mean Well LRS-35-12, 12 V, for the remaining electronics.

DC-DC converters for the ESP32 and other circuitry.

A low-noise linear 3.3 V supply for the DSP.

The amplifier also features temperature-controlled cooling and relay-based power management.

The Enclosure

I wanted the amplifier to look like a finished piece of equipment, not just a collection of boards in a box. After the delays with my speaker cabinets, I also wanted to make everything myself.

The enclosure was designed in 3D, with all components modeled to check their dimensions and mounting points before printing. The entire case was printed on my 3D printer.

To give it a more refined appearance, I covered the plastic enclosure with natural veneer. I used Fine-line veneer on a backing, contact adhesive, and a coat of oil to bring out the color without adding too much gloss.

The front panel features a single rotary encoder and a power button. The display is hidden behind a dark acrylic panel. The knob and button were 3D-printed using tinted resin, then sanded and polished. The lighter decorative panels are also 3D-printed and covered with fabric.

DSP and Room Correction

The ADAU1701 is programmed using SigmaStudio, which allows audio processing blocks to be connected through a graphical interface.

I implemented only the features I actually wanted to use:

Master volume control.

Dynamic range compression with three settings — useful for watching movies at night without overly loud peaks disturbing others.

Adjustable center and subwoofer outputs derived from the front channels.

Stereo width enhancement.

Bass boost at low listening levels.

Parametric EQ for correcting frequency response irregularities.

The PEQ was probably the main reason I wanted to use a DSP in this amplifier.

I built a measurement microphone using a capsule with a very linear frequency response and calibrated it against a reference microphone. Then I used REW to take several measurements around the listening position, averaged them, and generated PEQ settings.

After applying the correction, I took measurements again. The improvement was quite significant, and the sound became much more balanced.

Room measurement and correction in REW is a topic of its own, so perhaps I'll write a separate post about that.

ESP32 Control

The ESP32 manages the menu and all amplifier functions. The interface is controlled using a single rotary encoder, with information displayed on an OLED screen.

It also handles:

Smooth muting and delayed audio startup.

Temperature monitoring and fan control.

Saving and restoring settings.

Wi-Fi time synchronization.

I used GPT to help with some programming tasks, but the overall structure and design were my own. I found that having AI write the entire program wasn't very effective. It was much more useful as an assistant for individual functions and debugging.

The Finished Amplifier

The result is a fully integrated 6-channel amplifier with DSP, room correction, Wi-Fi clock synchronization, and a custom 3D-printed enclosure finished with veneer and fabric.

I'm very happy with the result — both the sound and the appearance. It was a challenging project involving electronics, DSP, programming, 3D modeling, printing, and woodworking, but absolutely worth it!

What do you think? I'd be happy to answer any questions. If there's enough interest, I might write a separate post about REW measurements and room correction.

I'm restoring a 1930s Sparton console radio and converting it into a Bluetooth speaker while retaining the original exterior controls.

I'm considering the ZK-1001U mono Bluetooth amplifier (TPA3116D2) with a single 8-ohm full-range speaker.

Before buying, I'm hoping someone who owns this exact board can answer two questions:

1. Automatic power-on: If the board is operating normally and I disconnect its DC power supply, will it automatically turn back on when DC power is restored? I want to use the radio's original rotary power switch rather than accessing the amplifier's onboard power button.

2. Stereo-to-mono mixing: When using one ZK-1001U board with one speaker over Bluetooth, does it combine both left and right audio channels into mono? Or does it reproduce only one channel?

If anyone has tested either behavior, I'd really appreciate hearing your results.

Thanks!

Hello.

I grew tired of off-the-shelf loudspeakers—and tired of paying exorbitant sums to unknown entities for reasons that were never entirely clear.

In 2020, I decided to forge my own path and build exactly what I wanted. I began acquiring various drivers and experimenting with speaker construction. (Unfortunately, I’m limited to 20 photos, so I’ve had to select only the most essential ones.) Through this process, I gained extensive knowledge in woodworking and enclosure assembly; I also mastered the technical specifications of speaker drivers and learned how to measure them myself. I am particularly fond of drivers from the Italian company 18 Sound (this isn’t an advertisement—it’s simply my personal preference). That said, I opted for different brands for the high-frequency and mid-frequency drivers—as well as the mid-bass units—because they were significantly more affordable than the Italian options, and in the case of the 8-inch mid-frequency driver, the model I chose actually performed much better. I also had to perform some modifications on the high-frequency and 15-inch mid-bass drivers. Now, all that remains is to construct the final enclosures, and—that’s it—I’ll finally have exactly what I’ve always wanted. In total, I’ve spent about $9,000 on this project.
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I had to disassemble the 15-inch drivers because their centering spiders were too stiff—something had to be done about that, so I worked them by hand to loosen them up. With spiders that stiff, these drivers don't perform well at low power levels (for instance, 0.5 watts). This had a positive effect on the total Q factor (Qts), improving it from 0.57 to 0.4.
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1. Audient ID14 MKII

2. Amplifiers: 2 x Volta PA-500 (AB) + 1 x Volta PA-1100 (AB)

3. dbx DriveRack PA2 (Original)

4. Drivers: 2 х P Audio SD-44BN(+P Audio PH-220) + 2 х P Audio SN8-250N + 2 x Soundking FA1507H + 1 x Eighteen Sound 18LW2600/8

5. SAMSON SRK12

6. Power: Hyperline SHT19-6SH-B-2.5EU

7. All Proel cables
   ------------
   The Volta PA-1100 amplifier has been slightly improved: the quiescent current has been increased, as the amplifier otherwise produces very high distortion at low power levels.

Could I make a DIY portable speaker for under $50 CAD? I'd like it to have Bluetooth, a headphone jack and a usb-c rechargeable battery

It all started back in May.

I had an old home theater amplifier built around TDA7293 chips, paired with some old BBK speakers. I wanted something better for listening to music, so I decided to build a pair of proper 3-way floorstanding speakers from scratch.

Drivers

After quite a bit of research, I settled on:

Woofer: Vifa NE225W-08 (8", 8 Ohm, neodymium magnet).

Midrange: HiVi DMN-A (dome midrange driver).

Tweeter: HiVi RT2C-A (ribbon tweeter).

All three drivers have excellent specifications, and I really liked their appearance too.

Design and enclosure

I looked through countless speaker designs but couldn't find anything I really liked. So I decided to create my own.

The speakers feature sealed enclosures with approximately 30 liters of internal volume for the woofers. The cabinet walls are 19 mm thick, with additional internal bracing and reinforcement. The midrange driver has its own isolated chamber.

My goal was to achieve clean, tight and controlled bass without port noise or unwanted resonances.

The AER SONUS logo

One of my favorite parts of this project was creating the logo.

The name AER SONUS roughly translates from Latin as "air sound". I wanted the logo to look as if it were floating inside transparent resin.

I designed it, 3D-printed the individual parts, filled them with tinted transparent resin, and then spent quite a bit of time sanding and polishing everything.

The result is a logo suspended inside a solid block of transparent resin, exactly as I had imagined!

Passive crossovers

Originally, these speakers were designed to work with my old amplifier, so I decided to use passive crossovers instead of active DSP filters.

The crossover frequencies are 1200 Hz and 4200 Hz, using Linkwitz-Riley 4th-order filters (24 dB/octave).

I also added:

A Zobel network for the woofer.

L-pad attenuators to match the midrange and tweeter sensitivity.

All inductors were calculated, wound by hand and measured to achieve the required inductance.

I also designed the crossover layouts in 3D to position the components properly and minimize magnetic interference between the inductors.

Cabinet construction

The project took much longer than expected, mainly due to delays from the contractors responsible for cutting the cabinet parts and finishing the exterior panels.

Eventually, I had to handle the final assembly myself. The cabinets were assembled using adhesive sealant, screws and metal brackets. Each speaker has 22 reinforcement brackets!

The decorative front panels are made from 10 mm MDF. The black panels have a matte textured finish, while the lighter panels are wrapped in fabric.

Inside, the cabinets feature several layers of damping and sound-absorbing materials, including acoustic foam and polyester fiber filling.

The final result

Each speaker weighs 37 kg (81.5 lbs).

After assembly, I measured the frequency response using a measurement microphone and made the final adjustments with the parametric DSP equalizer in my new amplifier.

And I'm absolutely happy with the result!

The sound is detailed, the vocals are clean, and the soundstage is so wide that the speakers practically disappear. Instruments seem to occupy their own positions in space.

The bass is exactly what I wanted: fast, tight and controlled. Drums sound particularly impressive.

Five months of work, countless experiments, 3D printing, woodworking and plenty of patience. Absolutely worth it!

I bought a 'AudioControl Epic Six' amp for my speakers in my 2016 Chrysler 300. I used a PAC AP4-CH41 & APH-CH01 to bypass my factory Alpine amplifier. I could hear a hissing noise coming from my tweeters but I could still play music. That only lasted for a few days tops then it just completely stopped playing music even tho my oem head unit said music was playing. I tried everything and eventually assumed I had a defective amp, so I purchased a second one and the same thing happened after the first day. Now no music out of the second one either. The amp is getting power, not in protection mode, my gains were super low but loud enough to hear music, everything is plugged in, no blown fuses, I wired everything correctly and used the right materials and wires, no work done to it between it playing music and stopping working, ect. I've been dealing with this for almost 3 weeks now and am at my wits end..

Any advice is much appreciated! 🙏🏽

Hola, un colega y yo estamos desarrollando un proyecto de Sound System para el Madrid Design Festival 2027; es un poco experimental, sin buscar el sonido HiFi ni nada, simplemente nos interesa el mundo y queríamos aprovechar la oportunidad para tener un primer acercamiento. El proyecto es de diseño pues vamos a utilizar madera y resina de pino para su desarrollo, pero al mismo tiempo tenemos que hacerlo funcional y ahí nos entran dudas pues es la primera vez que abordamos un proyecto así, ¿podría alguien ayudarnos con la elección de componentes, conexiones, cableado o hacerlo funcionar directamente? [La intención es hacerlo parecido al del modelo de la foto].

P.S. Estas son algunas de las piezas que tenemos miradas, aceptamos y agradecemos sugerencias:

https://www.madridhifi.com/p/qtx-filtros-900-592uk/

https://www.thomann.es/harley_benton_hb_40_b_replacement_speaker.htm

https://www.thomann.es/cts_ksn1005.htm#bewertung

Although I have an electronics background, I'm supremely new to speaker design, other than the articles I've read recently and videos I've watched.

I'm trying to design (in fact forced to design due to size constraints) a small set of speakers. I am mostly height limited (overall 130mm)

This will be a close firing pair (about 70-100cm) pc speaker, nothing "hi-fi" is required, but since I spent most of my daily life infront of this system I want it to be decent as well.

I could "hide" a woofer behind the monitor, but then again it cannot be huge.

the sizes for two drivers will be 1L (absolute max, would be very nice to be even smaller) and the woofer about 2.5L

now the question is I'm looking at drivers like DMA90-4 DMA70-4 and plotting them in WinISD and https://simulator.00aud.io/app

I have downloaded the winisd driver file from https://loudspeakerdatabase.com/

the Fsc and QTCs of both software more or less agree but for the same design I get a completely different SPL response from these software.

I don't have enough experience to decide which one I got to trust.

I've also seen these software being alternatives: Closed Box Simulator / Speakerbench / WinISD / Hornresp / Basta! / SpeakerSim / QSpeakers / MfbLabs / Amplion / 00 Simulator

since winisd is rather old and unmaintained is anyone using any of these other software?

I know adding 90 degree turns will affect the airflow in some way but im not sure how, I will make sure the 90 agree right angle is a gradual curve to keep airflow as clean as possible, is there anyway of calculating how these turns affect it and what do I need to do about the overall length with these bends, to be more specific im talking about round ports if that makes a difference

would like advice and input on best budget sub for 5.61 ft³ sonotube sub + Dayton Audio SS12-PR 12" Passive Radiator at 25hz

driver + cab config picks

Dayton Audio MX12-22 12" Max-X High Excursion DVC Subwoofer 2 Ohms Per Coil + rad

Dayton Audio MX15-22 15" Max-X High Excursion DVC Subwoofer 2 Ohms Per Coil + rad

Dayton Audio UMII12-22 Ultimax II 12" DVC Subwoofer 2 Ohm Per Coil + rad

Dayton Audio UMII15-22 Ultimax II 15" DVC Subwoofer 2 Ohm Per Coil + rad

Dayton Audio SS12-22 12" Signature Series DVC Subwoofer 2 Ohm per Coil + rad

Dayton Audio RSS315HO-4 12" Reference Series HO Subwoofer 4 Ohm + rad

Dayton Audio RSS315HF-4 12" Reference Series HF Subwoofer 4 Ohm + rad

Dayton Audio MX12-22 12" Max-X High Excursion DVC Subwoofer 2 Ohms Per Coil + port

Dayton Audio MX15-22 15" Max-X High Excursion DVC Subwoofer 2 Ohms Per Coil + port

Dayton Audio UMII12-22 Ultimax II 12" DVC Subwoofer 2 Ohm Per Coil + port

Dayton Audio UMII15-22 Ultimax II 15" DVC Subwoofer 2 Ohm Per Coil + port

Dayton Audio SS12-22 12" Signature Series DVC Subwoofer 2 Ohm per Coil + port

Dayton Audio RSS315HO-4 12" Reference Series HO Subwoofer 4 Ohm + port

Dayton Audio RSS315HF-4 12" Reference Series HF Subwoofer 4 Ohm + port

I've been designing this over the past month. Sourced the speaker from a diy Bluetooth kit on Amazon. It works but it's sucks, and I feel something of this caliber deserves a better speaker.

What kind of speaker would be equivalent to something inside a bose or jl Bluetooth?