Speaker enclosure

Well, after a lot of thought, sweat and a little blood I finally completed my project. It started with a simple drawing and a full size template. I used 1/8” 5005 aluminum alloy on all the bump rolled speaker midrange and horn enclosures and 1/8” 6063 extruded aluminum alloy on the two bars welded together. The reason for these alloys is because they are cleaner (less graphite) which makes a better finish if you want to polish it like I did. Once I received all the speakers I simply traced the perimeter and marked the holes on a piece of paper. I then had them bump rolled and welded at a sheet metal house. They also welded tabs on the interior per my template that I previously traced. Once all the welds were ground down as smooth as possible I situated the speakers exactly how I wanted them on the tower (I didn’t have my boat yet so the template was key). Once I had it completely symmetrical and situated, I duct taped everything together to hold it in place so that I could mark the holes, I took all the components and pre drilled the holes for the speaker wires, thru bolts, tower mounts… After that I took all of the components to get polished. I then had to weld the two extruded bars together and once again back to the polisher to polish the welds.

Once everything was complete and polished to my standards (apparently the polisher had different standards) I laid the components out on the floor and applied Zoopseal, it’s a sealer that will last for a few years. Once that cured I assembled the enclosures and prayed that it would fit once my boat arrived.

This was a process that took a lot more time effort then I originally estimated but well worth it. There are no visible anchors or speaker wires and the whole unit disconnects and comes down. I do have to say that the weight of the whole assembly is more than I thought (Approx. 80-100lbs) and I have to fold my tower down to disconnect it. I’m currently working on an easier method.

Very clean sound at the back of the boat and very, very loud at 75’, more so directly behind the boat apposed to out in the flats, probably because I have the compression horns located in the center of the enclosure assembly.

Anyways, here are some pics just in case you have a lot of extra time on your hands.

Dave

That boat is sick. Good Job

Nice job on the speakers. I was wondering where you got the speaker enclosures. I was thinking of custom building my own too.

THAT IS SICK!!! that is the way to show some ingenuity man RIGHT ON!!!

Nice job.

Hate to ask, but what was the total damage? Email me if you like. Thanks in advance!
chris_molidor@countrywide.com

did u plumb in the sacks in the bow under the cushions if so how? got some pics that speaker job is sick

Nice "jig saw" puzzle!

I'm glad my finger prints came off during polishing!

I can vouch for the clarity of the sound at riding distance........clean and clear!

BadA$$ setup!!!

Not counting speakers, what's the ballpark $$$ on the enclosures? (ie. Materials, Labor, etc.)

Take in consideration I did a good portion of the labor and made it very easy for the sheet metal company to roll to my templates. I also have done and will do more business with this company and feel they gave me a little break on the price.

Form, grind and weld the enclosures: $700.00
Polish: $250.00
Extruded round bars: $100.00
Speaker covers: $80.00
Misc. anchors and attachments: $60.00
Zoopseal sealer: $140.00

Approximately $1,330.00 for the enclosures.
Approximately $600.00 for the speakers.

Dave,
They came out real nice, no, REALLY NICE!
Gotta ask this though, If you were to do it again would you do it the same? use the same speakers? etc.
Since I know pretty much what speakers you did use, how did you power them?
Duane

thanks for the info

Are those 6.5" or 8" mids? I made a bunch of 6.5" cans with the intent of replacing my 4 - 6x9 box with 6 - 6.5" coax's. With all of the recent talk about the pro audio gear, I'm a little curious an I'm thinking about giving it a try. I found a round horn that fits my 6.5" can perfectly, I just need to pick out some mids. All of the pro audio stuff seems to be paper cone and that has me a little worried since I store my boat outside without a tower cover sometimes. The sensitivity of the car audio mids is a few dB less than the pro audio gear, will that make a big difference if as long as you give them enough power? Is it the use of the compression drivers that makes for the loud clear sound at distance or pro style high efficiency mids? Thanks.

Bobo, you might be interested in this. I got my aluminum tube here.

http://www.yarde.com/catalog/cat42.html

The prices are pretty good and with the tubing you wont have a weld seam accross the top so it will save you some fab cost and some grinding time. They will also cut to length for you. I odered 24 7.5" OD x 10" long cans and it was $385 plus $60 for shipping. This is the most complete list of available sizes I have found anywhere.

Brad, Those sound like a great option. What wall thinkness did you buy and what did you use for your speaker covers? Also, with the 7.5" OD, do the 6.5's fit perfect inside the cans?

Tmorefi, The cans and the back of the cans are 0.250" thickness and the front ring that the speaker mounts to is 0.375" thick. The 7.5" OD is a perfect fit for flush mounting a MB QUart 6.5" co-ax with the flush mount ring that comes with the speakers. The speaker itself is 6.5" but the flush mount ring is slightly under 7.5". The cans are basically the same as the Mako MBQ65 http://www.mako-ind.com/ .

I'll try to post some pictures soon, I just moved and haven't found the box with the digital cam in it yet.

I (like many others) thought it sounded like a good idea to build some speaker enclosures to sell, but after building my first 24 can realized that these are expensive to build. I got about $200 of cost into each pair, and I don't think they would sell for much more than that.

If anyone is interested in some cans, I am planning on keeping 6 for myself and selling the rest (18 cans) for what I have into them so far ($200 per pair). I still need to grind the welds smooth (both ends are welded on not screwed on like some of the others out there, I think this looks much better, but this is what cost me the most money.)

Brad,
I might be interested in a pair of your cans!
When you get some pictures together, I would love to see them.

Bobo - If you dont mind my asking what kind/power of amps are you running to the towers?

I've been emailing with Duane quite a bit and have a good idea of what I want to do with the speakers/components but haven't settled on amps yet.

Thanks.

Gary, I'll try to get you some pics soon!

Duane,
I have one MTX4200 Amp pushing the 4-mids and 2-horns. All the speakers are wired in stereo. The set up works great for my needs, which is to be able to here the music loud and clear at 75 feet when and where I want. I just installed a separate volume control for the tower which is very important if you want to hear the interior speakers when hanging out.

Possibly going to 10” mid’s would be a change I would make, however, my current set-up is already pretty heavy and I could probably get a little more mid range base from the 8’s when I start to adjust the gains. Maybe separating the compression horns so that the volume is equal all the way into the flats as well. I certainly would not go any smaller than the 8’s because it takes a good amount of base to fine tune with the horns.

I love the set up, thanks for the direction Duane

Very impressive.

Me likey!

What speakers and amps are you running in the boat? Any subs to offset all of that volume? Looks great.

Where can you get those covers or did you make them? $60 for all 4?

Dave,
Thanks and I'm glad everything turned out so good. You really did a nice job.
Please tell me though that you did use the crossovers on the HLCDrivers?
Also, their are some devices available that can trim the input for the HLCD's. I used a separate amp for my HLCD's and have it way turned down.
As far as the 10's go, someone else is doing just that. One pair of 8's and one pair of 10's along with the same compression drivers but different horns....I think. We should be seeing that set up here soon as he says he is busy "Sanding" when not riding.
Since I'm on here, the grills are from Audiobahn and can be had from several car audio e-stores (8" chrome is $40/pair).
Dave, send me your mailing address and I'll send you a cd that I put together. It was my turn in our crew to publish our annual WakeSickness cd. I used a pic of the speaker grill as a label, courtesy of NVS, New Vertical Systems.

(Message edited by nvsairwarrior on December 09, 2003)

I did run the crossovers on the compression horns, it’s a must. Even though I have just the one amp, I’m able to adjust the horns separately (fine tune) through the gains because I have them hooked up to the rear channels and the mids on the front channels.

On the interior I’ve run another MTX amp to push the Sub and another Rockford Fosgate amp for the four 6" speakers.

Bobo great job!

Same concept but a different method.

I used 1/8" aluminum. also. Cut a flange for the front. Connected the speakers together with aluminum rod. Painted them but put a polished design on the side. The clamps I purchased form Mako. Lined the inside with sound deading material.

4 JL 6 1/2
2 JL 8" subs