I've been floating around ebay and I've noticed that there are a number of high quality raw drivers avaliable for very reasonable prices. So I began to toy with the idea of building a set of bookshelf speakers.

Although there are a number of proven kits available, I would like to know how to match drivers to create my own.

It seems that driver sensitivity would be crucial as drivers with similar sensitivity would result in a smoother frequency response. These speakers will be powered by a single amplifier and thus without biamping the output of both drivers need to be equal.

I know this may not be the only factor but I was hoping that you guys could add to this...

 

I built a decent set of tower speakers a few years back, I used Gefco 6.5" mids, and Vifa tweeters, it was a very balanced combo. I did big cabinets, over 1 cube vented each (for 6.5's) and built my own 18db/octave crossovers. I was very pleased with the results, the only adjustment I made once I played with the vent lengths a bit was to add a resistor in line with the tweets to cut the high end a bit. If you want any more info or model numbers, let me know.

 

Model numbers would be cool but I'm more interested in learning how match drivers. I realize that there is alot of trial of error and testing involved before arriving at a final product.

Right know I'm looking at a set of Focal Tweets on ebay.... TC90KB

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...723470238&rd=1

Here are the specs on them...

http://www.falcon-acoustics.co.uk/units/tc90kb.pdf

What type of midbass/midrange driver should I be looking at?

 

I think most of whats involved is pretty much intuitive (sp?)

If Iam putting something together I try to match up nom. impedances and/or size, build a suitable X-over, and EQ accordingly....

obviously... if you have a 2" titanium super tweet that can take 200wrms thats 105db@1w @1kz sensitive... a 200wrms 6" mid probably won't keep up.....

A 1" tweet would be more suitable with that mid.. or use a 16ohm super tweet... or you could use a 200wrms 15" mid with the supertweet... ect... ect...

First thing to realize is that its going to be near impossible to set something up and get flat response with no EQ...

You can play with box size, diff drivers, Xover points, ect... but its much easier to just set up something reasonable, and EQ from there..... IMHO...

 

So I guess the best thing is to use drivers with similar sensitivities so that one driver won't be playing catch up. In addition the drivers should have the flatest frequency response as to avoid equalization.

I also realize that the crossover used will be crucial as the crossover point and slope could mean the difference between a good setup or bad. I guess notch filters could also be utilized to make up any shortcomings in the response.

 

^ it can be hard to compair sensitiviy ratings too, though...

everyone knows that SPL1w/1m at 1khz dosen't say jack about SPL1w/1m @ 20hz...