Advice on DIY Speaker cabinate

[ish]

Can I please have some advice on a Fostex FE 126En speaker cabinate build.I want to build the standard backloaded horn design.
(180mm wide x 600mm high).First for the outside does the type of wood affect the sound? What would be a good solid wood to use that looks good?
And what wood is best for the inside baffles.(I would think that chipboard would be fine due to the absorbant nature of the wood)
Any suggestions are welcome.
Thanks
Ish

[Kent Kassler.]

Give Alternative Route a pm.....he can guide you correctly with regard to your questions.....perhaps before a massively complicated build(if thats what you would like to do)....you could easily put together a pair of the "Frugalhorns" in no time and very cheaply to get an excellent idea of the capabilities of the little 4incher.....it may well be all you need.They are elegant wife friendly and perform excellently!

[Atjan]

Its not generally advised to build solid wood speakers due to the natural tendancy of wood to expand and shrink depending of humidity levels.
Natural wood also have variation in density etc which is generally not considered ideal.  Most diy speaker builders uses MDF (Supawood) and a few uses plywood. To get a real wood finish,  veneers work best. Seeing as you get MDF in large sheets, internal bracing is normally made from the above materials as well. As you are more or less guaranteed to have flat boards and you can have the material precision cut, it helps a lot with the building process.
Its a lot less work to make things fit than with solid wood. MDF also has excellent accoustic properties.
You could savely go with 16-18mm MDF with the particular driver.

If you want solid wood pieces, try getting <6mm veneers to glue onto your MDF. You also get plywood with premium wood faces which will work well.

[Hi-Phibian]

My Sonus Fabers are crap then?

[Atjan]

/\ 

[CAD]

My Sonus Fabers are crap then?

made me smile 

[mahleu]

My Sonus Fabers are crap then?

I'll swap you some MDF for them.

[Atjan]

I'm sure the SF speakers are excellent, even if made from solid wood. You'll note I used the word 'generally' quite liberally.
I reckon its a completely different story if you can specify density and absense of imperfections from your local timber merchant. And have some kickass treatment and thicknessing equipment.
And ja, I don't think SF falls in the general/average catagory.

For us plebs though, mdf is best. Easy to find, relatively cheap, if cut nicely, its simple to assemble and you should end up with what you planned.

[ish]

Thanks for you input guys. I think supawood is a good balance between finish and strength/durability.

[alternativeroute]

I am almost certain that SF use a mix of mdf and solid wood... could be wrong...

[Hi-Phibian]

Baffles and  back panel are mdf I think and sides top bottom are interlocked "staves" of walnut.

Newer affordable designs of theirs use more mdf and thinner wood panels.

[JimGore]

My Sonus Fabers are crap then?

Not crap, but probably not quite as good as you think they are either    just messing with you, don't worry 

In the larger Sonus Faber speakers (with the curved sides) they make up their own plywood using Maple for example.  This then makes the wood a plywood rather than a solid wood as the cross grain of the ply makes expansion a non-issue.

Solid wood is perfectly fine as long as you can take care of the wood movement:

* If your panel is narrow enough across the grain, then there is no problem.  My thumb suck estimate is that you shouldn't use a solid wood panel any wider than about 250mm.  If you can get away with dimensions smaller than that, then go for it.  The length along the grain makes no difference, and also please take into consideration that different types of wood have different expansion properties.

* If your panel is wide, then use a veneer, or have solid wood resawn to 6mm thickness or less as Attie has advised.  Doing this greatly reduces any issues you will have.

Failure to take these matters into consideration is well documented and understood by cabinet makers who craft furniture in solid wood.  The item will break itself apart if you don't design it correctly, so be careful!

Regards,
Ian.

[Hi-Phibian]

They are my secondary back ground music lounge speakers. As posted previously the cabs are made up of interlocked smaller pieces. These are the old style Minuetto, date from before they shipped 1000s of speakers.

[ish]

Again , thanks for all your suggestions. I normally use Builders Warehouse to cut up any timber I need but that was for shelving kind of work. I am not a DIY person. Any suggestions as to who else  I can get to supply and cut up the boards acurately or is that asking too much from the suppliers considering that the cuts have to be fairly accurate.
Ish

[Atjan]

Depends where you are situated. There's certain places that will let you down with accuracy. That 1mm can sometimes be a problem, like for bracing.

If you're building you boxes yourself, make sure you get a router and flush cut bit that will handle your thickest panel. Then you can always sort issues like that out by checking sizes before you start building.

Unfortunately, if you want funky joints for solid wood panels,  you'd need to get a proper carpentry shop to do that.