History
I'm
a 30-something guy from Sweden and I've been building speakers for a
many years now and at the rate I keep learning new stuff I don't think
I'll ever get bored of it. Even as a kid I remember playing with old
drivers I salvaged from various electronics, putting them in cardboard
boxes or hacking them to pieces to see how they worked. My dad was
building speakers as I grew up, and I still remember the ones he built
for me. Made out old CD storage shelves using no-name drivers. They
were amazing in their simplicity.
Today I
still find the mechanics of a loudspeaker driver to be fascinating.
They are so primitive and yet capable of recreating something as
beautiful as music. Even though the basic parts of an electromechanical
driver are the same now as they were, say, a 100 years ago, the
material research and refinement never cease.
The first
serious speaker I built was an isobaric ported sub woofer box using two
no-name car audio woofers. It turned out pretty well and shortly
after that, Swift (as presented on this page) followed and that was my
main system for quite a while. Most speakers I've built after that
hasn't been for myself, but for friends or family or just for fun. Some
projects I haven't presented here includes two 90-liter bass modules
that can could play 20 Hz at 120+ dB, and an open baffle sub woofer/coffe table.
I don't want to stop doing this and I must
say I dream of being able to make a living out of speaker design in the
future. But whatever happens I'll keep building. There's nothing better
than seeing what was once just an idea, now materialized in front of
you, playing graciously your favorite tune...
Reference system
My
reference system was for a long time a pair of Philips DSS930 Special
Edition, which are fully active, DSP-controlled speakers. Great speakers which were way ahead at the time of release in the 90's.
High excursion five inch woofers and a true ribbon
tweeter in a 2.5 way config. The cabinets are sealed and very well built. The
digital amps and electronics are on the back. Only 700 (or was it 800?)
speakers were made. Signed owner certificates and measurement reports
were included!
Other equipment
When I
drive passive speakers I do it through a Behringer SRC2496 DAC to a
Behringer A500 amplifier. It is neutral enough for making crossover
adjustments or detecting any flaws in your speaker, even though I
prefer a bit more warmth when actually listening to music.
Measurements
are done with a Behringer ECM8000 microphone through a USB interface straight into the computer. For my speaker designs I use LSPCad for
the crossover simulations and 3D Studio MAX for design and Solidworks for
pre-construction.