DIY Compact Speakers

[aziltz]

What do you guys pair with your Ruby/Gem/Cricket etc builds?  I'm looking for some ideas for a table-top amp/speaker combo to use with the bread-boarded designs.

[earthtonesaudio]

Headphones.  They make nearly everything sound worse, which is good to remember.   

[waltk]

If I want them to sound great, I plug into a 2X12 Celestion cab.  If I'm looking for cheap, expedient, or small - I use car speakers off of the bargain table at Best Buy or Target.  Although everyone will tell you that anything but official "musical instrument speakers" will sound bad, I have found some of these cheap speakers to be acceptable (to my tin ears and fingers made of clay).  If you are looking for a compromise, try mcmelectronics.com.  They sell raw drivers of every kind and size, at reasonable prices, and are good about publishing the specs.  Remember to put whatever you get into some kind of enclosure - even the best speakers sound terrible without an appropriate box.

[Nasse]

Few weeks ago I tried a pair of my Monacor SP-45 (8 ohm) in a refelx cabinets about 2...2,5 litres with a chipamp and modelling preamp with amp/spkr simulation. SP-45 is a 75 mm (3") "full range" speaker, almost hi-fi, much like what they use in mini stereo systems. The speaker has huge and powerful magnet and nice sound quality and takes quite much real R.M.S watts happily. It worked very nice, compared it to cheap studio monitors and was not so much difference I excepted. Perhaps little compressed sound was what I heard, but ok for bedroom level tracking and wide radiation pattern.

Small speakers have too much highs any way compared to a real guitar speaker imho. What I was looking was a system for a modelling preamp, and hoped backing track sounded nice trough the same speakers, aux input, of course bass was weak. Perhaps a "subwoofer" is needed so I can use it for bass gtr too

I have one nice 3" fullrange I found in the dumpster and have wanted to try it in a Voigt tapered pipe, for better bass response

[newfish]

I made a 1 x 3" cab the other week to sit under my Ruby.

The enclosure used to be a clear sandwich box with a tight-fitting lid.

Speaker is a 3" Mylar driver - also see-through.

The whole thing probably cost the price of a pint, and looks pretty good in all its transparent glory on my workbench.

As discussed above, the output of the mighty 3-incher is incredibly 'toppy' - but as a test-bench amp, it's perfectly fine.

The Ruby *does* drive a 2 x 12" cab - and gives a very repectful tone by the way...

[Caferacernoc]

A 5uf capacitor across the speaker terminals of a nasty sounding "full range" speaker will attenuate some of the spiky highs and make it sound more like a guitar speaker. Adjust to taste.

[sean k]

Old radio speakers. Minimal suspension, paper cones and alnico magnets... and always a little worn out so they have a distinctive quality which can be good or bad... but I always find something in there that appeals to me.

One little speaker won't push enough air to do bass... but lots of them will!

[petemoore]

  Yupp... old radio speakers !
  I used styrofoam buckets on the backs of the baffleboards they were bolted to.
  I heated around the board and used hot glue to adhere the styro' to the wood.
  Another 'cabinet' was made from paper mache' [use salt to prevent mold], 1/2' thick, molded on to an oiled, large stainless steel bowl [the oil makes it possible to remove the mache' from the form.
  These actually worked fine fastened to seal the back of a speaker, just don't sit on them.