Building a PC sound deck... with a twist!

[Music] back in the day if you wanted audio from a computer you'd probably go on with a pair of beige beauties thankfully things have somewhat moved on since then and these days you're more likely to use either a pair of bookshelf speakers or perhaps even a sound bar unfortunately though none of these options are particularly great on a computer because the bookshelf speakers are way oversized and the sound bar has a tendency to fire into your chest this really goes to show what an under invested category computer speakers are so let's fix it and build something special when it comes to speaker construction a common material to go with is mdf due to its cheap cost but i'm not too keen on it because it's so dusty when cut and is a bit time consuming to finalize later with either various paint layers or maybe veneer an alternative of course is to use real hardwood which just looks great without any effort but with it being very expensive at the moment i think it's time to explore an interesting middle ground in the form of reclaimed wooden flooring which can be made as good as new by thoroughly sanding it down and boy does it look fresh if reclaimed boards can't be found locally it's also possible to get end-of-line packs of boards at hardware stores heavily discounted which provides many aesthetic options to choose from my favorite at the moment is solid bamboo flooring as it looks super modern and is normally a highly unusual material to be able to source so is ultimately what i think i'll go with for this build simply for its unique aesthetic although despite being new i did sand them down to take off the lacquer for a more natural look to make larger sheets from boards like this they can simply be glued together like so although the design i've come up with doesn't call for particularly large sheets so it's possible to leave most of them as single lengths the only work required being to cut off the grooves to make them plain sided as for the design the plan is to take inspiration from a monitor stand and make an elegant looking shelf that can fit on a desktop with the side supports housing a set of speaker drivers angled towards the listener to provide optimal audio quality and avoid the same chest firing issue that plague sound bars constructing these supports requires the flooring to be glued together to make some long square lengths and perhaps surprisingly the internal air volume for these first enclosures doesn't actually need to be very large at all which is why there's a divider close to one end and you'll see what the remaining space will be used for later another thing you'll notice here is a small hole on its side which functions as a port to get more bass from the drivers to cut their fronts at an angle so that the drivers face the listener some 30 degree angles can be marked from where the divider is giving us a guide that can be carefully cut along [Music] as you can see this is a simple way of making a fairly complex shape perfect for mounting the speaker drivers onto after much research testing and experimentation i've settled on a set of drivers for this that will work beautifully specifically within this build and each unique in their own right for mid tones we're going to be using a pair of tectonic elements balance mode radiators which as you can see from their response graph have an extremely flat frequency response which should make midtones absolutely sing to complement their upper register we'll be using them in tandem with a pair of dayton audio air motion transformer tweeters these produce sound by exciting a corrugated plastic film and the result is incredibly detailed and airy the best way of describing the sound is to compare it to a normal dome tweeter if you were to play the sound of perhaps some rustling autumn leaves the dome tweeter sounds like it's recreating an impression of the sound whereas the transformer tweeter sounds like there's actual leaves inside it rustling about it's quite uncanny you can of course find links to these in the description if you want to buy some and they're surprisingly affordable given the tier of sound that they produce when it comes to fitting them the best way is to use a router to make a cutout in a spare piece of wood here i've just attached a piece of acrylic to anchor the router with a screw so that it can only move in a circle which is a great way of making circular cuts like this as these particular drivers have some flanged mounting holes they need to be marked and trimmed out manually which then allows a final smaller hole to be made right through to the front to make a lip for the speaker to fit into this routing process brings the driver closer to the front surface of the material which should avoid any distortion that might occur if it were making sound through too deep of a hole the same process can be followed for the tweeters to ensure an airtight fit when mounting them is a good idea to use some thin strips of black tack putty around the rim of each driver as this squashes down tightly when they're screwed in place although hot glue is probably the best choice for the tweeter drivers as you can see with them soldered up to some decently thick wire it's time to glue this to the main enclosure and as it's such a strange angle it helps to have some sand to hold it diagonally so that the top is flat allowing gravity to keep the front in place while it dries and now you can see the reason why the front is so oversized as the plan is to now use a saw to carefully trim it down with the saw being held flush against the side of the enclosure so that the complex angles are recreated as this has all been done with manual tools any gaps can be dealt with by mixing wood glue and sawdust to make a nice invisible filler and once sanded down they look absolutely stunning and i'm very much looking forward to hearing how they perform before we get to that though we need to make a platform that can bridge between them and support the monitor but this will be more than just for practicality as it's going to house a subwoofer as well to hit really low notes as you can see this particular one is impressively shallow especially when compared to other drivers of similar diameter and frequency response it's this shallow profile that will allow us to fit it into the platform and again the router can be used to make a hole for it and to make an airtight chamber behind it we'll need to border its underside with a few cutoffs positioning them to make a pair of ports to tune the subwoofer down to 41 hertz and you can see how they're formed with the top panel now in place for a subwoofer enclosure this is impressively thin but the internal air volume within it is presently too small to hit really low notes so it needs an additional rear resonance chamber making this requires one of the planks to have various openings made along one edge to allow free airflow beneath it which connects the subwoofer chamber to not only the remaining space in the side units up to where their internal dividers are but also to the entire rear section adding up to a volume of 10 liters the sweet spot for this driver you'll also notice that i've added a couple of electrical components here such as a usb hub and led dimmer this dimmer is controlled by a knob underneath the main shelf and it's intended for powering a strip of leds to illuminate things on the desk from underneath the shelf and using some led strip channeling is a great way to keep them neat and soften their light output and it's going to be interesting to see how these look later the back panel features a recessed opening for the various connectors keeping them out of the way to allow the unit to fit flush against the wall when complete for a neat look putty can again be used when mounting the subwoofer in place for an airtight seal which leaves one last thing to tackle the sound source and amplification system what i've come up with here is actually quite an interesting setup as we'll be using a four channel amplifier for the main stereo drivers with a single channel amplifier for the subwoofer giving each driver its own channel has some major advantages mainly that it makes for much simpler crossover construction crossovers for those who don't know ensure that select desired audio frequencies reach only the speaker drivers that handle them best and having this done prior to amplification allows it to be constructed out of low cost and readily available resistors and capacitors with everything wired up the amps can be glued inside the speaker but where do they get an audio signal from well i'm using a high-end usbc dac board here for the best sound quality although cheaper ones get you 90 percent of the way there or you can simply give the system an analog input to drive it straight from a computer's headphone output if you're on a really tight budget and with that it can be closed up threaded inserts are ideal here as it allows the last panel to be removable again using the last of the putty to make sure that it's an airtight seal in its final form it looks remarkably cohesive and i love the pure fresh look of the bamboo but before we can put this on a proper desk setup and see how cool it looks as well as take a listen to hear how it sounds it's time for a quick add from what is perhaps the most important sponsor this channel's ever had better help open communication is very important if you have a problem the first port of call is friends and family but sometimes there are topics you just don't want to broach or burden them with at which point it's time to talk to licensed professionals signing up with betterhelp allows them to pair you up with a therapist specifically trained in whatever category is relevant to you whether it's to help you iron out a rocky relationship or recognize and remove barriers that are hampering you in your work life even if it's just to help you if you're feeling down and demotivated we've all been there one of the most important aspects of their service is that it's entirely online and worldwide which opens up access to people to whom specialists weren't previously available in their local areas just have a read of their customer testimonials to get an idea of the positive impact they are making you can start communicating within 48 hours and once you've been paired up with your specialist you can send the messages at any point in time and schedule a weekly video call with them for when you need to talk one on one it's more affordable than traditional therapy too but if you want an additional 10 off your first month with them you can visit betterhelp.com diy perks which you can also find linked to in the description so again that's better help help betterhelp.com diy perks [Music] so with this thing complete the first thing i want to do is put it on a proper desk setup with all the desk accessories and pc and things like that and see how it looks i have a feeling it's gonna look quite good thanks to the recessed port area on the back the units can fit flush against the wall and for those wondering its power source is a repurposed 15 volt laptop power brick aesthetically i think it looks spot on it adds interest to the desk area but is also super practical for example when the computer isn't being used the keyboard and mouse can be stowed away underneath the shelf leaving the desk area clear for other tasks and the leds can provide soft illumination if you're working late with the main drivers being at angles they face the listener directly and proudly declare that they're present and here for one thing only amazing audio quality for which i have high hopes because i've spent four entire days fine-tuning the crossover circuit that's in here and obviously the crossover circuit defines which frequencies go to which drivers and at what volume so that kind of thing takes ages to figure out but i think i've just got it to a point where it brings out the best in each speaker and it sounds fantastic so to show you guys how good it sounds it's very difficult over a video because of microphones and also it depends what you're listening to it on at home but this time what i'm going to try doing is using a pair of binaural microphones and these basically fit into my ears and should in theory allow you guys to hear what i'm hearing as long as you use headphones you've got to use headphones otherwise the the effect won't work so let's try some gaming wow that's some seriously deep bass i approve very nice you can really hear the uh like subsonic frequencies uh or by grenade fire and things like that this is categorically the best audio system i have ever used [Music] as you could hopefully hear the sound is highly detailed without harshness and there's a lot of separation between the different audio frequencies which stops it from sounding muddy it's a great performer given the build cost but how does it compare to professional speakers costing five times as much [Music] let me know your thoughts in the comments below now one thing i'd like to note before i sign off is for watchability's sake i've had to exclude a lot of the finer points of building this thing such as the measurements and port dimensions as well as fine details about the crossover circuit but i don't want to leave anyone out who wants to build one of these things so what i've done is made an extended how-to video on how to build one yourself entirely from scratch this is somewhat educational including information about what glue types are best used how the crossover circuit actually works um and you can find a link to that in the description down below another thing i'd like to note is that there's now a diy perks forum and you can access that at forum.diyperks.com and on there i'm hoping that you guys will help each other out and explore all sorts of topics like building speakers microphones doing diy lights all that kind of good stuff i'll be posting there but not too regularly so please don't ask me too many questions on there because that's all i'd end up doing um so if you see a question and you know the answer to it please help that person out and post this your whole goal is to make a community not make a faq forum for matt so so please sign up and share your stuff and what you're working on and your discoveries and things on that i'd very much appreciate it and also there's now a diy perks discord server on here there's a load of activity going on about making various projects and stuff and you can find out all the information about joining in the description below and we've just hit a thousand members so please help us make that grow but other than that i'm matt you've been watching diy perks and i hope to see you next time goodbye for now

Channel: DIY Perks

Views: 1,876,680

Keywords:

Id: nmU7u_RFFSo

Length: 16min 33sec (993 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 08 2022