Build your own Z560s

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BrentBlain

Junior Member
Jul 10, 2001
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Originally posted by: SuperMAC
Parts express has the same drivers that are in the Z560s available separately.

These would make sweet front speakers in your car. Put them in parallel and have twice the output at 4 ohms, perfect for your automobile. To make them work the best, I recommend an active crossover set at 100hz.
Black Phase Plug
$10.59 each

aluminum (silver color) phase plug
$11.32 each

The speakers specs are very similar, only major difference is the color. I kinda like the black better myself, and for some reason, its cheaper. Still, these speakers have an impressive frequency response and eliminate the need for a passive crossover, and the distortion crossovers make.

If you are really into this stuff, they have both 2" and 4" versions of this. Only the 3" version has the best overall frequency response. If you know what a line array is, these speakers would make for a sweet setup.

I hope this deal is hot to some, I lurk a whole lot more than I post.

 

XCLAN

Platinum Member
Mar 22, 2001
2,401
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Originally posted by: tydas
Originally posted by: iamme
nothing wrong w/ building speakers....people do it all the time.

others probably think building your own PC is over the top ;)

HUH? you want to point me to the thousands of "build your own speaker" websites???


as for the quality of those speakers...i didnt look and didnt see the brand. But i have built many many speaker enclosures, car audio setups, and etc,etc,etc,etc
 

Fya

Junior Member
Sep 14, 2002
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If you were going to spend the money to build something yourself, wouldn't you get something better? And you not only need the speakers, but you would need crossovers, wires, and some sort of amp.
 

TwicK

Junior Member
Dec 22, 2001
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Originally posted by: DoeBoy
The power rattings are a lot different so they must look the same but be different or the logitechs might be a higher model. If you want good car speakers and have some money i would say go infinity kappa all the way but thats just me. =]

I don't think I would say go with the infinity kappas. Did they sound good in my car? Yea they sounded pretty good, my MB Quartz component speakers sound better now (of course that is all opinion) However, my main reason for not liking the kappas is that the 4x6 speakers that were in my dash for around 3 years basically fell apart. My guess is the sun got to them (being in an all black car with mostly black interior that wasn't garage kept) but they are dashboard speakers they should hold up to the sun. The speakers were crossed at 300Hz.....

This is what happened to them.
 

tigerbait

Diamond Member
Jan 8, 2001
5,155
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Originally posted by: TwicK
Originally posted by: DoeBoy
The power rattings are a lot different so they must look the same but be different or the logitechs might be a higher model. If you want good car speakers and have some money i would say go infinity kappa all the way but thats just me. =]

I don't think I would say go with the infinity kappas. Did they sound good in my car? Yea they sounded pretty good, my MB Quartz component speakers sound better now (of course that is all opinion) However, my main reason for not liking the kappas is that the 4x6 speakers that were in my dash for around 3 years basically fell apart. My guess is the sun got to them (being in an all black car with mostly black interior that wasn't garage kept) but they are dashboard speakers they should hold up to the sun. The speakers were crossed at 300Hz.....

This is what happened to them.

that's no opinion...i'd say fact...anybody that thinks Infinity Kappas sound better than MB Quart needs a hearing exam.
 

jamautosound

Diamond Member
Oct 15, 2000
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Good post. Great speaker!

I remember reading about a guy who took the Z-560's apart and found a 15 watt 8 ohm driver inside one of the satelites.

Dayum, I would love to build a line array out of these bad boys.
 

SuperMAC

Member
Jul 12, 2001
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I did some modeling with WINISD. THis speaker if setup in a ported alignment has a -3DB point of about 60 hz! These speakers have underhung voice coils and very linear response.

A 16 speaker ported line array is quite feasible. I calculated a 3.48 cu ft. with a LARGE "slotted" port tuned to about 70hz.
Four drivers only need .78cu ft and a 1"x4"x9" rectangular port.

Right now I am super broke from fixing up my race boats, but I hope someone can take advantage of their inginuity and this decent price.
 

? (=Þ)

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
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exactly what would be needed in creating a similar setup to the logitech speakers? say 4 or 5 3" speakers alone? with one sub? and how much should the parts run?
 

FOBioPatel

Banned
Jun 15, 2001
314
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pics?

:)

Originally posted by: oLLie
Man this would be cool, if I knew what/how to do it.

-------------------------
Top 7 AnandTech Non-sensical Replies:
1) Pics?
2) OMG!!! OH NO! AIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! NOOOOOO!O!OO!O!!!!
3) St@b her!
4) Stick it in her pooper!
5) Throw acid on her face!
6) Pee on it!
7) My cat's breath smells like cat food!
 

Bobartig

Senior member
Apr 1, 2000
442
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a few websites related to speaker building/audio:

DIY Audio
<a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.speakerbuilder.net/[/L
[L=Audio Asylum]www.audioasylum.com">SpeakerBuilder</a>
some guides and calculators

I think you'd all be supprised just how similar a hifi website is to a PC hardware site. Just as opinionate, just as close minded ;). Also, just as intolerant of newbie questions. Building your own speakers is not overly complicated. Its more complicated than building a PC, but anyone with a little math background (I'll say 2.5 semesters of calculus) should be able to laugh at the math/calculations involved. By enlarge, after studying the art of speakerbuilding for a while (and its really more an art than solid engineering for most), its pretty amazing just how little thought, money, and consideration goes into the sound of logitech speakers, as opposed to "features" like blue LED's and "bass knobs"

If you really want to build speakers, you should get Vance Dickason's 'Loudspeaker Design Cookbook'. It literally has all the information you need to get started designing and building your own speakers.
 

kukks99

Junior Member
Jan 3, 2003
6
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What level of skill and tools are required to build your own speakers? I build my own golf clubs and computers, but that's just slapping them together and I can say both are fairly easy. I'm wondering if building my own speakers might be biting off a bit much. Are there cost advantages to doing it? or is it more "get exactly what you want?" Any special tools required?
 

huesmann

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 1999
8,618
0
76
Has anyone here actually built your own speakers for your 'puter?

Cars, I can understand, some people just need to fill up every cubic foot of their car with speaker so they can share their music with the whole neighborhood (and several surrounding). I wonder if those cars experience rattle and shake any worse than the cars of people who can actually hear.
 

FenrisUlf

Senior member
Nov 28, 2001
325
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Originally posted by: huesmann
Has anyone here actually built your own speakers for your 'puter?

Cars, I can understand, some people just need to fill up every cubic foot of their car with speaker so they can share their music with the whole neighborhood (and several surrounding). I wonder if those cars experience rattle and shake any worse than the cars of people who can actually hear.

Yes, I have. I built a 5.1 system a few months ago. I used five of these amps. They have a built-in electronic crossover which greatly simplifies things. Each of the 5 satelites has a woofer and a tweeter in a closed box (3/4" MDF), about .25 cu ft. each. I built my own power supply and these things can crank out about 300 watts total. They roll off at about 70-80 Hz, so a sub is needed. The sub is a 12" Sony I already had, I would recommend the PE 10" sub instead. The Sony is actually pretty craptacular compared to a "real" HT sub, but it works in my small computer room.

These sound pretty good for the price (under $200 for everything but the sub), although if I were to do it again I would use slightly better drivers. If you want to go the line array route, these are the ones to use. The guys on this message board have been using them (search for "NSB") to great effect.
 

FenrisUlf

Senior member
Nov 28, 2001
325
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BTW, if you want to build Bose speakers, you can find the drivers from their Acousitmass series here. Suddenly makes you realize how little goes into them (please don't flame, I used to own a set <shudder> and realized just how bad they sounded).
 

jteef

Golden Member
Feb 20, 2001
1,355
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building speakers can be as easy as putting a computer together if you are just following a good design, designing them is a whole other story if you want to do it correctly. The logitech speakers are incredibly cheap and poorly engineered as far is "doing it right" goes. They put their engineering effort into cutting costs rather than improving sound quality. There is some "voodoo" or "art" in hifi loudspeaker design, but it is largely just good engineering. "Doing it right" basically requires a good formal education in electrical/mechanical engineering or physics, a lot of experience, and a lot of expensive equipment.

The Z560 at $100 is a good price. It would be very, very difficult for somebody to replicate that system by doing it themselves.

$11.32 x 4 = $45 Satellite Speakers
$15 Really cheap 8" woofer for sub
$15-50 Transformer depending on surplus availability
$15-50 Heatsink depending on surplus availabililty
$5 x 6 = $30 Amplifier IC's
$10 Power Supply Capacitors
$10 Connectors, wires, capacitors, resistors

Total: $125 and that is being extremely frugal.

Logitech also has a leg up as they can use their thin molded plastic (which is a terrible material to use for a speaker enclosure) to make their stuff really small, attractive, and managable in a desk setting.

Do It Yourself Audio is a very good thing, but you just can't compete with the cost on the super low end systems, and you can't compete with the quality on super high end systems. In the middle is where one can really outdo the competition. From say $50 per pair - $10,000 per pair you can often do better than a similarly priced commercial offering.

jt
 

sat4fun

Senior member
May 29, 2002
999
0
0
Speaker building is an art with a little sicence. Computer building is not an art. Most guys here will not appreciate this, it is lost here. Please do not crap on what you do not understand.

Thanks for the post.