Building a new set of speakers for church

[pwfirst]

I have always been a DIY kind of guy. Last year I built a PA system. This thing sounds just great with 2 main speakers and 2 subs. So now I am redoing the Churches PA system. We have some old 12 in Peavey speakers that are pretty muddy sounding along with my two Subs for the low tones. The speakers I am building are a TLAH system which stands for transmission line and horn-loaded.
It will have #9 - 3X5 in full range drivers in it with # 12 small 1 1/2 inch tweeters on each side. They will go up to 96 Db , we play at 87 to 90 Db on a normal day. (For those of you that are interested when you go up 6 DB the precieved volume to your ear doubles in volume.) They are 17 in wide and 50 in long and they are designed to fit into the corners and be tight with the ceiling.
They extend into the room less that 10 in. I will post some pictures if you are interested. Very clear and clean sounding.
Time to make some saw dust.

[lesblues]

Hi Phil, I am very interested in following this project so photos and a diary would be great. And if you could keep it in layman's terms that would be perfect.

[469roadking]

Interested...yep definitely interested.

[pwfirst]

Well here I go again.Here are some pictures of my newly clean shop.
This a picture of my mobile board that I use for small get togethers.



This Is the mock up of the speaker. There will be 9 speakers and 12 tweeters in each speaker.
The thing that makes this type of speaker very desirable is that they are very easy to build. They will blend in to the church and they have crystal clear sound. And they are cheap, I will have about $60 in each speaker. I bought the speakers on a closeout.

[pwfirst]

I am getting closer. The picture above show the final pieces ready to be assembled. All I have to do is router the small tweeter holes and mount the drivers and seal all the edges.
The parts that are their are the back of the speakers that I mount to the wall with some screws. I then fasten the front (baffel) to the back. . This needs to be removable so I can get into the drivers for repairs. Once this is painted and mounted I will make a speaker cover for it . Then start working on the sound checks.
Before I mount any drivers or tweeter I will check each one.With a plug in into the headset and the two wire with clips and the run a sound wave and see if it is working.

[pwfirst]

Here is a picture of the driver and tweeter lay out.

It should be up and working this weekend.

[469roadking]

Very cool brother. You are quite the DIY king.

[gasman]

Very interesting! I wish I were a DIY guy...but I'm not, not even close!

[pwfirst]

As you can see I have been buisy. I took the frames up the the church and they fit well. So I tested the drivers and the Tweeters and put them in place and sealed all of the edges to make the air tight. I then wired the up as directed . Kust for got one thing , these guys need a crossover that limits which signal goes where, I forgot to order them so, I ordered the parts from Parts Expess and will add them when the parts come in. The last thing I will do after they are mounted on the wall is to make a front cover grill for them. They tell me the reason this type of speaker works so well, is the additive affect of the close spaced line of drivers. I guess I see next week. And they are cheep to build since they don't require big expensive drivers. I will have about $120 in both the speakers. They also make great home theater speakers they say.

[Mojo]

Sept 11, 2010 0:11:30 GMT -5 pwfirst said:

As you can see I have been buisy. I took the frames up the the church and they fit well. So I tested the drivers and the Tweeters and put them in place and sealed all of the edges to make the air tight. I then wired the up as directed . Kust for got one thing , these guys need a crossover that limits which signal goes where, I forgot to order them so, I ordered the parts from Parts Expess and will add them when the parts come in. The last thing I will do after they are mounted on the wall is to make a front cover grill for them. They tell me the reason this type of speaker works so well, is the additive affect of the close spaced line of drivers. I guess I see next week. And they are cheep to build since they don't require big expensive drivers. I will have about $120 in both the speakers. They also make great home theater speakers they say.

Thanks for the details and pics. Man, that's a lot of drivers!

[Happy Jack]

Nice Phil - make me some for my 12 x 10 conservatory please - I could piss the neighbors off even more than I do now

[pwfirst]

No Happy Jack these are the ones you need to get your neighbor's attention. 106 Db at only 300 watts of power from the amp. and ear splitting clarity.
They are 2 DR 250's for the tops and 2 T 39's for the subs.
This is my mobile set up that I made. They are both folded horns in design. Like, take a megaphone and put in front of a speaker and bend it in half so it is not too long. ;D

[lesblues]

Sept 11, 2010 20:28:52 GMT -5 pwfirst said:

No Happy Jack these are the ones you need to get your neighbor's attention. 106 Db at only 300 watts of power from the amp. and ear splitting clarity.
They are 2 DR 250's for the tops and 2 T 39's for the subs.
This is my mobile set up that I made. They are both folded horns in design. Like, take a megaphone and put in front of a speaker and bend it in half so it is not too long. ;D

I wouldn't mind some detailed instructions on how to build those.

Actually I don't know the first thing about speaker requirements for a pa system. I do have a couple of large Wharfedale wooden cabinets with speakers (the cabs are big, maybe 4 feet tall, no idea what the speakers are). Anyway I thought I might try playing around with those if I can find a cheap power amp. No other reason than simply because they are just lying around not being used. So your views on the viability of this project would be welcome Phil.

[pwfirst]

Les here is the web site where you can get everything you need. Great forum with a lot of brain power there.
www.billfitzmaurice.com/DR250.html
The Tops (DR 250) HARD build unless you are a wood worker, the subs T39 preaty easy build. He has several models to pick from according to your needs. These speaker will surprise you in the volume on such low wattage. The clarity is like nothing you hear when you go to a pub or small billing. May arms are 3-400 watts and I run them at the 3-4 setting.

[pwfirst]

Les here are a few picture of the construction of the speaker.

These are the T39 subs.









these are the tweeter #20 in a cross fire configuration.




Finish DR 250.