hi,
i am looking to build my own speakers - Im currently leaning towards “Dinas” as I want monitor speakers with a boomy bass, but I am a little daunted by the crossover build.
before I buy the plans etc. is it possible just to buy an out the box ready to go crossover
something like this? what is the cons of using a preassembled xover
sorry If this has been covered before but I couldnt find any information on the same.
thanks
I have used Dayton/Parts Express crossovers. And have been really happy with them.
The plans come with a crossover schematic if you go with the passive version.
My first ever soldering attempt was a pair of crossovers. The component leads are long and the components are big enough to not be scared of frying them with a little excess heat. I just drilled holes in some hardboard, stuck the leads through, and twisted the connections together and put a little dab of solder on there. Boom, done.
That was almost 20 years ago now and the speakers are still my mains in my home theatre set up.
Fwiw the dinas build has received a fair bit of criticism. I’m not sure which other builds are good on bass but there are lots of builds/kits, especially if you’re in the US.
ah wish I read this before I just purchased all the components lol
thanks for the advice all, got the plans and ordered the stuff. wish me luck!
lol no worries, it’s probably still a decent kit (I’m personally not knowledgeable enough to be in favour or against the dinas). Best of luck, it’s a good learning process either ways!
It’s a pretty good rule of thumb that if the DIY comes from monetized YT channels, it’s really just an ad sponsored by the components vendors.
I wouldn’t build any of Toids designs for music listening. Some of his HT stuff is probably just ok, but not worth the $20 for plans plus the usually high components cost relative to performance.
Heck $20 for simple bass reflex and passive radiator box plans is pretty much a rip off there alone being simple empty boxes of simple rectangular dimensions and a crossover spec sheet. I have way more respect for people selling flatpacks their CNC router made while they were sleeping.
Yeah I agree almost completely with you. I don’t know if the designs themselves are bad but there are hundreds of designs out there that are free or at least designed by someone competent (reminds me of Jeff Bagby). YouTube designs rarely make sense.
I agree with previous comments that crossover should be custom designed for the speaker you are interested in. IF you buy a kit from Madisound they can assemble the crossover for you. maybe you can pay somebody to assemble your Dina crossover? or maybe just practice some soldering on scrap wire for a little while until you gain confidence?
Every crossover needs to be custom tailored to the set of drivers and enclosure it’s going into. In order to get the best results out of any speaker system, this needs to be tuned in every design. And off the shelf crossover like the one you linked will function but it won’t perform optimally. You should definitely buy the crossover plans for the kit that were created by the expert designer any chance that you have.
I think it depends on the level of quality and customization you’re going for.
The 3 way is fine. I would be more comfortable with something adjustable, myself.
On the extreme end, if you can have an amp each for high pass and low pass direct to the respective drivers, that’s an advantage over passive crossovers, and one where tuning after is more possible and more expressed. By which I mean, you could crank the bass with a much larger differential to the high end without introducing distortion. Or, considerably less, anyway. Whether its possible or worth it depends on your end goal, costs and sanity. A standalone amped sub is also just fine; I’m happy with the one in my current system.