Building your own speaker cabinets can be a rewarding task for the audio enthusiast and do-it-yourselfer. You can custom design and build cabinets that meet your specific needs and priorities, and have the satisfaction of doing the job yourself. There are some important points to consider before beginning the process of building speaker cabinets, which we'll highlight here. Does this Spark an idea?
Applications
Consider carefully what you'll be using the speaker cabinet for. Will the cabinets be used for PA speakers, for home stereo speakers, for outdoor speakers, or will the cabinets hold speakers in a car? Each of these applications presents different design and construction issues. For example, PA speaker cabinets will probably be large and should be designed to stand up to frequent handling. Outdoor speaker cabinets should have a degree of weather-proof construction built in. Automotive speaker cabinets may need to be designed to fit into specific locations with limited space. These are some of the issues to consider when building cabinets for specific uses and applications.
Materials
Speaker cabinets can be constructed out of a variety of materials, although wood is far and away the most common material to be used. Wood is easy to work with, even for less experienced do-it-yourselfers, and is relatively inexpensive. Fiberglass or even plexiglass are used on occasion -- fiberglass can be molded to a variety of different shapes, useful in custom cabinets or when a specific shape is required, and plexiglass cabinets can be quite striking visually.
But it's hard to beat wood for its strengths -- it's readily available, strong, and easy to work with. Not just any type of wood is always appropriate. Plywood tends to be too resonant, and particle board not strong enough. Most speaker cabinet makers will use MDF (medium density fiberboard) -- a strong composite wood paneling often used as an underlayer for cabinets and shelves. It's strong, non-resonant, and resists bending and warping.
Types of speaker enclosures and frequency ranges
The design of a speaker cabinet will vary depending on the frequency range it's reproducing and the enclosure type. Bass speaker cabinets, like those used to hold subwoofers, are often vented or ported to improve low frequency response, while the design of cabinets for full-range or higher frequency speakers are more common unported or "sealed" to improve the accuracy of the output across a wider range of frequencies. When designing a speaker cabinet, it's important to consider what the speaker(s) in the cabinet will be doing, and choose a speaker enclosure size and design that is appropriate to the need.
Tool and workshop requirements
A final thought in speaker cabinet construction -- to do a good job, it's necessary to have adequate tools for the task at hand. If you're building wooden speaker cabinets, you should have, at the minimum, a good circular or table saw, a jig saw, power drill, accurate measuring devices, levels, and squares, plus wood files, sandpaper, and screwdrivers.
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