Build Speaker By Your Own (English Version)

 Preliminary
This column is dedicated for lovers of speakers or the hobbyist of building its own loudspeaker system, while not closing the doors for businessman as well as car audio, home audio or pro audio, because I myself was a true lover of audio and loudspeaker building in particular and wanted to share knowledge with fellow other  lovers, may be beneficial to all of you  the audio lovers.

A Glimpse of Audio
Observing the way the audio in Indonesia for several decades it was caused for serious concern, since the economic crisis in 1998 until now it's also still lack of improvement at all, especially in designing speakers that still follow the old ways from making the box, plug the speakers were roughly matched, etc. and if there is a new system being viewed ,its only being duplicate it just as that, which is meaning we will never surpassed others in front of us. And it is very unfortunate, we are as a great nation, under pressured of continuing economic crisis to the present are also likely to be more consumptive by buying up all the stuff that we think are getting cheaper as dvd, tv, etc.which are generally also made abroad, although generally made in China. Similarly, in the audio field, if you try to notice, a good home audio system or car, starting from the head unit, cables, power amp, speakers, etc., all of which are still the dominant foreign-made, one of the original made in this country might just the " box " of the speakers only, but that's the fact that we have now. And if we do not utilize the knowledge to create a system that is right and good so we could get maximum value, how pathetic we are, because all devices must be purchased and the devisa had also run away to abroad all. This means that we are not able to provide added value to the devices that we had can only buy, therefore I feel the need to do everything I could to minimize the effort as it continues ongoing tragedy. Science is useful to enable us to create added value, so if for example, given a bamboo we aren’t not only can make gedek, baskets, tampah, rope, just kind of bamboo gadget as it used to be,etc., whose value is not much, but is expected to create more high-value items with the same material as chopsticks, flooring tiles from bamboo, woven from bamboo and so on.
I  am so concerned by the same considerations which had already started doing similar teaching since the last mid-year 1999 and lasted until around 2006, and also have built a website about speakers building in 2003 that you can click here www.geocities.com / henrymmr, www.oocities. org / henrymmr or www.geocities.ws / henrymmr that unfortunately because of busy and other things have never been updated at all, and also the teaching continuity had stopped .
As for my students in general are the car audio business player, which spread across several regions of: Medan, Jakarta, Cilegon, Serang, Tangerang, and one or two in Central Java, and some of them have won car audio contests , and all the teaching was conducted in Cilegon  where I was domiciled at the time, and now I live in Bandung. Few of them are just a lover or a hobby, but then there is even jump to the car audio bussines after was enough knowledge and growing self-confidence and was quite successful. Of course I am pleased to see such progress, because what he got from me is not just a mere technical knowledge, but also inspired to start business in audio generally that were never  came to their mind before, bravo!.


Problems in learning about building speakers
As I first started, it was until now even the same problem still to be obstacles for those who want to learn in generally, namely:
1. Lack of literatures / books that comes to audio and speakers in particular, recently it is quite a lot of magazines or car audio hifi covering about it, but no one can be learn there, because it tends to invite the consumer instincts tendency to its readers, with the device exhibits -branded devices, etc.. You can go to the bookstore even the famous ones, but it would be very difficult to get a book on speaker building, but so much about electronics, computer, etc.. Even abroad though there are not many books specifically about it, which of course in addition to high-cost as well its all in English / French / German that not everyone can learn it.
2. There is almost no place to ask for problems in this regard, there may be a master, but almost no one willing to share their knowledge to others, or anyone want to tell but unfortunately he is also just a know-it-alone, as a result of course you are also likely to must bear the consequences.
3. In today's internet age, it is very easy to obtain information about many things, including the matter of speaker building, but the information is generally still raw, and random, making it difficult for the beginner who seriously wants to learn. But this progress is also beneficial for audio lovers, because there are also some free software that can be used for the benefit of learning.
4. The difficulty of obtaining a driver / loudspeaker that will be used to build the project, because so many variations of outstanding speakers who now are generally made in China, but not with the parameters T / S are to be believed, there is a fraction that includes the parameter T / S but tend to be too " made for to be good in maket ", so it is not useful at all. I do not mean to say it's degraded all which made in China were, not so, because although the percentage is not great, actually there are some drivers with good parameters with a fairly cheap so it would be advantageous to use it. Materials for the manufacture of speaker boxes namely: MDF, Particel Board, is not difficult at all  to obtain, because in most cases is made in this country.
5. The difficulty to obtain the components which good enough to build a cross-over, such as capacitors, resistors, and inductors, and if there is good also very expensive because it is generally made overseas such as USA, Denmark, France, Canada, Japan, etc.. Common capacitor is not too difficult to obtained, there is a china-made to spec pretty well, and can still be upgraded again with the capacitor by put in pararel  the expensive one but of little value such as 0.1 UF, so it does not change its value significantly. Resistor will be used on live line in crossover, therefore, absolutely will not harm the sound of passing it, and the type of sandblock 2w, 5W, 10W etc. are the worst, as well as the type of carbon, but for which there is a “thin pocket guy” to obtain reasonable great results with an acceptable cost, by using resistors metalfilm 0.5 w connected in pararel about 10 pieces to make a 5W capacity, and of course the value of each resistor is adjusted to the desired value of the parallel. Inductor may be the hardest to come by, since almost no one sells inductor according to your desire and the results of your calculations, there is a market inductor made overseas, there is a kind of stranded copper or foil, but only certain values only, therefore I will taught how to count and how to make a crossover inductor so that you will have no trouble making your own inductor is needed, regardless of its value.
6. And the last is the difficulty of the problem of "speakers measurement tool", because the speakers  measuring devices is absolutely necessary so you can select the speaker to be used and also to obtain the parameters T / S that will be used to calculate the design of the speakers for your project. The  Speakers Meassuring Toll are all still made abroad such as: USA, Japan, Germany etc.,namely: MLSA, CLIO, LMS, Woofer Tester etc which will generally be expensive not including shipping cost to Indonesia. That’s only the kind of personal speaker measuring tool  for hobbyist level, do not ask for a level of industrial measuring instruments is certainly the price is not feasible for a hobbyist. By these difficulties, I studied in recent years and managed to make a speakers measuring instrument which are accurate and reliable. You can get the software for free on the internet, namely Audua Speakerworkshop, but the biggest problem using the program is on its  jig, as for the schemes included jigs are very difficult to build there besides also very prone to error even in very small though, so far not much in the world who successfully use the software to take speakers measurements. I have simplified the scheme and had a good jig to do the measurements, the scheme is so simple that even junior high school kids will not have trouble building it. Also using a common computer soundcard and cheap in the market, such as: Creative 128 which cost only Rp 85.000, -, but it limited its use on a PC at home, because the soundcard type must to be connected on the CPU. If desired a more freely able to use a portable soundcard and connected by USB, making it possible to use with a laptop so it can be more mobile, surely the price is also quite expensive, around Rp 600,000's.

Learning  materials
As for teaching that I do can be specified the materials as follows:
1. Measurement parameters T / S speakers, inductor, capacitor, resistor.
2. Know the speakers and crossover design software
3. Calculating speaker system Closed Box / Acoustic Suspension
4. Calculating speaker system Vented Box / Bass Reflex
5. Calculating speaker system 4th order and 6th order Bandpass
6. Designing speaker boxes with Corel Draw.
7. Tips and tricks to make the speaker box and speaker applications.
8. Designing a crossover Bessel, Chebychev, Butterworth, Linear Pase, Legendre, Linkwitz Rilley, 1st order, 2nd order, 3rd order, 4th order, 2 way and 3 way
9. Counting technique and make inductor
10. Speakers applications in cars, homes, buildings and field.

Teaching all the materials above will take 10 x meeting, each of which will take 3 hours, and from now on I can do teaching at my own place in Bandung, so for those of you from out of town should contact me beforehand to arrange it, I also lets do the teaching outside the city but the accommodations and the cost would be your responsibility, and you should not study alone so that cost is not too heavy.

Cost of learning
1. Total cost of 10x for the meeting and includes the jig is Rp 3.500.000, - / person, without a soundcard.
2. If there is more than one person is not limited in number and above, the cost to Rp 2.000.000, - / person without souncard.
3. For out of town, the cost remains the same with the provisions above, only the added cost of transportation and accommodation for 10 days.
4. I also opened the possibility when there who just want to learn some of it, for example a special crossover, or a special box, for such event to be ½ the cost of a full, ie Rp 1.750.000, -/person to 5 x the meeting. But I will test the mastery of those who do not need to be studied.
5. If you only need the Jig I serve it well, it costs Rp 675,000, - without a soundcard including the manuals and postage throughout Indonesia.
6. Payment can be made by bank transfer if necessary, to the BCA account no: 8320052719 a / n Henry Mamora. I can be reached at xl: 081806970250 or simpati: 081319541008, or email: henrymamora61@hotmail.com.
Finally, if there is you want to ask or issues related to speakerbuilding in particular, can write a comment or question below, hopefully a very small thing can make a change in attitude and our perspective as the people of this nation.
Best regards,
Henry Mamora

Copyright @ Leon Audio Research & Mora Car Audio