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September 10, 2023

Speakers

There was a time quite a few years ago when I considered myself a bit of an audiophile.  I'd pore over audio equipment catalogs, looking for components with the absolutely best specs.  I bought and built speakers.  I bought and built amplifiers, both tube and solid state.

Slowly, over several years, I became disillusioned with the insane spec race.  I read articles about double blind listening tests where experts couldn't always pick out the systems or components with the best technical performance.  My friends and I couldn't agree on what system sounded the best.  After some honest soul searching, I concluded that the whole "audiophile space" was largely driven by illusory ideals and manufactured hype. 

In truth, when it comes to sound, everyone has their own favorite distortions.

So it's with this more mature, realistic attitude that I began to think about speakers for the GT6.  Not being an audiophile any more, I didn't really care much about specifications.  I just wanted something that sounds pretty OK in the already sub-optimal space inside he car.

First decision:  Where would the speakers go?  I landed on the space under the luggage deck, behind the seats.  This keeps the speakers sort of out of the way, and sort of protected.  The the wide narrow space suggested a sound bar configuration with the left and right speakers in a single long, divided box.  I took some measurements and decided I could make the box about four inches high and still be able to slide it into place, and still preserve a little storage space.

I bought a pair of decent full-range 3-inch drivers.  Since the driver and the box need to work together to produce the best sound, I had to finalize the details of the box.  Rather than try to do a true technical design from scratch, I just used an online speaker box design tool that is apparently based on the well known Thiel/Small approach.  Plugging in parameters supplied by the driver manufacturer, the tool recommended a ported box of 0.18 cubic foot volume, and a 1 inch ID port 2.45 inches long.  I determined that I could just make the 0.18 CF without too much trouble.

I bought some 1/2" MDF, and started cutting and gluing.




I decided to hang the box from the fore/aft struts I added to help support the forward luggage deck panel.  I just needed to add a wide flange to each one.




I propped the box in place with the top still not glued.




So far, so good.  Made some nut plates to screw to the underside of the top and receive the mounting screws.  Also coated the inside of the box with a few coats od varnish to make it less susceptible to moisture.




Then hung the box with real fasteners.




Finally closed up the box, rounded some of the corners, and cut the holes for the drivers and ports.




For the ports, rather than dig around for some pipe or tubing of the right dimension, I just 3D printed them.  It took a couple of iterations.




I put some black plastic laminate on the front of the box.  It will improve durability, and be easier to keep clean.  Then painted the rest of the outside of the box.




With no crossovers, wiring was dirt simple.




Installed the drivers and ports.




And then the connector at the rear.




I like the way the box looked, but the drivers seemed a little too exposed and vulnerable to me. 

3D printer to the rescue.  Again.




Pretty much final install, I hope.




This project was a nice change from what I've been doing the last few months.  Cost was around $60 for the MDF, the drivers, connector, and incidentals.

Comments to Ed at elhollin1@yahoo.com

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