Building your own tower speaker

[Sdc77]

The box is in place since yesterday. What a good surprise ! This thing is loud and the sound is cristal clear. We can hear it far away from 80Ft. Very good opening on the sides of the boat, clean and very audible détails. I'm proud of this setup.
I really would like to compare it to the best HLCD aftermarket speakers now.

[Wylietunes]

I really would like to compare it to the best HLCD aftermarket speakers now

That would be a pair of the Wet Sounds Rev-410 https://wetsounds.com/pages/products/REV410.html

10" mid-bass drivers compared to 8" = about 50% more surface area. This yields more output and deeper mid-bass.
The Rev-410 uses a 2" compression driver
Proprietary Composite cone material over a laminated paper based cone

Ive heard just about every production HLCD out there, and nothing comes close to the Rev-410 in output and sound quality. It is at the top of the food chain.

[Sdc77]

Yes Michael, that's the kind of thing I would like to compare my setup to.
I've designed two MTM HLCD with 2x10" + 1 compression, the system 4 and 6 you can find on my PDF :

SDC HLCD systems

I'm absolutly sure the Rev-410 is more powerful, more clean, more durable etc. It's also 10 times more expensive ($1200 each) than my system 6 ($265 a pair).

Hope some people will be interresting in building their own HLCD based on my systems, it's so rewarding to listening it, and say "man, I built this thing and it rocks ! Can't believe it cost me ... $400 all included"

Unfortunatly, nobody has enough money to buy Wetsounds in France, so I only can compre to JL audio, and my HLD already better than the OEM 7.7 component mounted on Mastercraft boats ($1900 a pair), but's not difficult, it's not HLCD actually

[Sdc77]

I just took a look at your website, very cool and nice installations man
I wish I could open or work in such shop, but unfortunatly, there is no "market" for it in France, Wakeboard boats are still very expensive and we don't have many sport spots here.
Most of the people wakeboarding in France go to cable parks.

I just sold my previous speaker box for 300€. A guy asked me if I can build another one, I propose 800€ for the wall thing with speakers, he sreamed !
I'm not born in the good country

[flipz96]

That looks awesome man!

[Sdc77]

Thanks Marvin

[Sdc77]

Hi guys !
I just get impedance curves from PRV audio (not provided in their datasheets), and founded a perfect alternative to the FANE CD131 compression (difficult to almost impossible to get in the USA) with the PRV D280Ti-B.
It should sound even better than the Fane.

So just designed system 9 and 10 for those who want to build their own low cost/HSQ HLCD speakers.

Also designed few System 1/9 arrangements on page 3, need your opinion please !

http://sdch2o.free.fr/perso/bateau/s...ject-suite.pdf

Every part can be bought at Parts Express

[trayson]

Some thoughts.

1) Is there any separation between the chambers for each of the speakers? Or is it one huge enclosure? My understanding is that while having one huge enclosure is feasible, it's preferable to have separate chambers for each.
2) I think this would look a lot better as 2 pods that have the pair of speakers with the horn in the middle. It would then look just like the WS Rev410's. The idea of having one giant long fiberglass enclosure that spans the entire tower is not in fashion anymore. and as anyone that wants to go into the boat audio market knows, FASHION is just as important as function.
3) I think that the aluminum face provides too much contrast. It makes the speaker drivers stick out too much and looks more pieced together than a finished unit. I think that a black face would mask the drivers some and make the whole unit more aesthetically pleasing.
4) what are the holes for in the center? Are they port holes? did you actually do computations for the airspace with that many drivers and the frequency that the ports would be tuned to? I really can't imagine that you have enough airspace to justify a ported enclosure and imagine sealed would sound better.

You've got great skills. more than me. But I figured you'd appreciate some constructive criticism.

[Sdc77]

Thanks for interrest and comments trayson. Will try to answer each point :

It is one huge enclosure. Every speakers are playing in the same volume. No need to separate them for that usage. We need high SPL, big opening, good quality. In home audio you can probably hear the difference but 80ft behind a 20MPH V8 Ski boat... we just need power and sensitivity. More speakers to the same enclosure = more SPL.

Yes the 2 holes are not just holes but ports. 50mm lengh. I did a simulation on WinISD, it's a high frequency tuning. As I high pass the tower speaker @ 125Hz, then I'm good with that setup. The Faital 8FE200 Qts brings to ported enclosure. But with that high pass frequency I could go fore sealed. Problem I met with sealed on my previous TSB : It was full of water after 1 year ! Don't know if it was bad sealing or heat condensation. With ports and black vinyl, then no more water inside. And as woofer are paper cone (for now, I have a plan...), I don't want to change them every season.

I could go for 2 separate cans, but it's twice more building time, more clamps etc. I choose that setup (1 big speaker) for cost AND fashion as I found it nicer than bullets. You will find bullets on any wake boat. But big speaker no. It's a way to stand out.

Aluminum face is also my personal choice. I like shinny stuff and contrast. I will polish it this winter. If somebody ask me to build one unit with red vinyl, white face and grills on speakers, I will do. The pic you see above is the way I like to see it.

Great comments man

I computerize every step of that thing : frame, space between speakers, clamps alignment, ports, filters calculation. Believe me, this thing is loud, and sound quality is here.

Most people think more power is better, more power means more sound ! It's (almost) completely wrong. Power alone means nothing, you need to associate it with sensitivity. Those 2 parameters give sound pressure level (SPL), that is what you hear. More SPL = louder.
Let's calculate it, just for fun

Take this calculator :

http://www.stageaccompany.com/support/calculator.html

A Wetsounds REV410 is 92dB/w/m and handle 400Wrms (speaker handle, don't produce power). You get 118dB SPL at 1m, assuming you use a 400Wrms amplifier.

Now enter my numbers (99dB/w/m and 260Wrms), You get ........ 123dB SPL at 1m ! For about 1/5 price of a REV410 pair.

I only push 80Wrms in it (from a $160 5 channel class-D Soundstream amplifier PN5.640D, powering all the boat), but it's already ... 118dB ! Same score than REV410 with 400Wrms in it. No more need for big power wire, big amplifiers, big alternator. Sensitivity is the key.

Ok I'm not pretending to beat Wetsounds with my $400 setup, it's not marine grade, I took curves from pdf, it's probably not accurate, and Wetsounds is the pioneer and leaders on HLCD.

But I'm just happy with those numbers, cost, and fashion of that setup. And people around often ask me about it

[a_deleon]

Looking really good I just wish I had a setup that cut everything out as nice. I am trying a similar build as well but I am trying out the Crecendo audio speakers to see how they sound. We have been using some of the pro audio stuff in the car audio builds we are doing to handle the spl pressure. I like how loud but good they sound and wanted to try these wmx series because they offer them in marine grade but it looks like they just paint them white because they already come in the black carbon fiber cone.

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