Small Home Stereo/Project

[iceman1575]

My girlfriend's birthday is coming up, and she loves the stereo in my car (nothing impressive, two AQ 12's on 1500 watts), and she's jealous because all she has is a cheap little $50 home stereo (which does sound like shit and cuts out randomly FYI). I was wanting to build her a mini tower system as a birthday gift and a fun little project for myself. Goal is to be cheap but still put out decent quality to make a 17 year old girl who listens to music happy, using parts from Parts Express. I was thinking of doing a three-way (as all towers copying Meade have done...) with a dome tweeter, between 4-6" mid woofer, and a cheap 8" sub (there's a Lanzar 8" sub for $26 apiece on PE). Only problem is finding a cheap tweet/mid set, an amplifier that will suffice (was actually looking at doing something like this but can't figure out how to make a crossover for that, or what parts I'd need or anything. Tips or suggestions? I'm NOT going to be putting more money into it than needed, it's not going to be anything that's going on display or on a TL or anything, just a small system that's better than the one she has now, and is simple to use (hooks straight up to iPod, volume, and go).

[bassl0va]

You can't really be cheap on building speakers. If it were me doing it, and I was on a tight budget, I buy some old school equipment, and if needed beef it up to handle more abuse. I have a small collection of old Technics gear which kicks ass. The SU-V series of amps is pretty awesome. And they have some pretty epic speakers too. But that's just me.

If you want to do it DIY (probably the nicest IMO, because you made it just for her) You'll want to look for a decent set of components and make them a nice box, then build a separate compartment with the mid-bass woofer in it. The most important part is the crossover however, which is why you're best off buying a component set, as for crossing the mid-bass woofer, that's a bit harder.

You can take a awesome and super expensive set of speakers and put them on a crappy crossover and they will sound like ass, just as you can make a cheap set of drivers sound pretty good with a proper crossover. If you have a look in old Hi-Fi speakers you'll see that they have massive crossovers. I have a set of Wharfedale Dovedale 3's, the crossover networks in them are large and complex, unfortunately the tweeters need rewinding.

You could always make the speakers then get a old amp. Lots of people on here don't understand how awesome old stuff is, even if it is second, third or fourth hand. I swear by old home audio gear, not only is it cheaper than new stuff, you don't need all the crap that comes with the modern stuff. I go for 2.1 (although occasionally turn on the 1980's Technics simulated surround) all day.

Anyway, if you need anymore help/me rambling, then just ask!