Building Custom Subwoofer

[SubaruxDriver 0]

I've been doing some research online, and I know a handful of people who manufacture and sell subwoofers frequent this forum.  So was hoping I could get some info on good ways to approach building my own custom subwoofer. 

My goal: Purchase all the individual components of a subwoofer (motor, basket, voice coil, cone...etc) and build something nobody else has.

My issue:  Other than a few sites selling certain parts, or trying to pickup blown subs/recone kits, I can't find a reliable source for buying the individual pieces.  This makes it very difficult to piece together multiple subs that are the same.

Does anyone know of good places to pickup parts?  I know places like FI have their own CNC machines and build things in house, but where do people pickup parts who don't build them in house?  I know there used to be subwooferparts.com, but I believe they are out of business now.  Any info or guidance would be much appreciated. 

[///M5 2,833]

Goals and design are where you start.  If your goals don't make what is on the market obsolete the it is a terrible idea.  Slapping together random parts will net you a driver that is super expensive for crappy performance.  That being said if you are looking to improve on an available driver for a reason and understand mathematically how to resolve that concern then by all means.  I can assume you have no idea though since you asked the question.  If my assumption is wrong I apologize.

Here is another hint.  If you can't design a box by hand with paper and pencil and calculate port tuning, port velocity and such.  The endevour you are pursuing is WAY over your head.  Start with the box always!

[SubaruxDriver 0]

43 minutes ago, ///M5 said:

Goals and design are where you start.  If your goals don't make what is on the market obsolete the it is a terrible idea.  Slapping together random parts will net you a driver that is super expensive for crappy performance.  That being said if you are looking to improve on an available driver for a reason and understand mathematically how to resolve that concern then by all means.  I can assume you have no idea though since you asked the question.  If my assumption is wrong I apologize.

 Here is another hint.  If you can't design a box by hand with paper and pencil and calculate port tuning, port velocity and such.  The endevour you are pursuing is WAY over your head.  Start with the box always!

Thanks for the reply. 

I'm looking at this 100% as a hobby.  I don't expect the outcome to be a cheaper and/or better version of what is already available on the market.  That being said, it's very difficult to design anything without knowing what is possible from a manufacturing perspective.  I guess a better wording of the question would be something like this.

"Stereo Integrity is looking to come out with a new line of subwoofers.  They know all the specs of what they want to build, how do they acquire all the pieces?  Is there 1 manufacturer that companies like them work with that can manufacturer any basket/voice coil/motor...etc combination?  Or are there separate vendors for each part that people use?  I assume who Stereo Integrity uses isn't the same as other companies on here (maybe that's wrong) that have their own line of subwoofers.  So what other companies can manufacturer these parts?"

I know 15 years ago RE had a parent company (believe the name was Destijl) who would be the go to.  Trying to figure out the equivalent(s) in todays world. 

And I've designed and built probably 50+ ported/sealed enclosures for various drivers over the past 15 or so years.

[///M5 2,833]

Two choices.  Source each part separately or source them all from one source.  The first is cheaper IF you are buying 1000 at a time.  Units of 1 are not how any contract manufacturer is setup.  If you follow the path of 1 without a true design you will end up with $500 into something that gets out performed by a $50 CL special.  if you follow option 2 you will end up with a copy of a driver that is already on the market for more money than buying it.

Again - if you have zero engineering capability the whole idea is way premature.  Develop that first.  If you read Vance Dickason's book and don't understand it what you propose to do is a horrible waste of time and money.  I do shit like this for a living, but the only way I'd put effort into doing a design is if I were going to market it.  I can EASILY find drivers on the market that do what I need.  

[SubaruxDriver 0]

48 minutes ago, ///M5 said:

Two choices.  Source each part separately or source them all from one source.  The first is cheaper IF you are buying 1000 at a time.  Units of 1 are not how any contract manufacturer is setup.  If you follow the path of 1 without a true design you will end up with $500 into something that gets out performed by a $50 CL special.  if you follow option 2 you will end up with a copy of a driver that is already on the market for more money than buying it.

Again - if you have zero engineering capability the whole idea is way premature.  Develop that first.  If you read Vance Dickason's book and don't understand it what you propose to do is a horrible waste of time and money.  I do shit like this for a living, but the only way I'd put effort into doing a design is if I were going to market it.  I can EASILY find drivers on the market that do what I need.  

Do you know the names of the contract manufacturers?

I'm an engineer by trade, and I enjoy building things.  Spending $500 to a build a $50 speaker is actually comparatively very cheap in the world of engineering (usually the barrier to entry is 10-100x that and many times you are left with nothing of value). 

Based on your figures, my goal would be something like this.

$500 for speaker 1 (worth about $50)

$500 for speaker 2 (worth about $100)....etc

With the end goal of having some cool custom speakers that are on par with some of the decent products out there.  This is meant to be a hobby while being stuck inside during Covid.  Not a "how can I get the best speaker for the money proposition". 

[///M5 2,833]

Start with the box.  Master that.  

Then learn FEA.  Start designing the structure to do what you need.  Then source prototypes.  Multiply your build cost by 10+.  Otherwise just buy something.  There is no benefit to sourcing all the components to build an off the shelf sub versus buying it.  There is a SHITLOAD of benefit to designing a good box and crossover.  If you are an engineer apply what you know here.  This will be a MUCH better hobby.  The speaker is the easy part as there are a TON of good ones out there.  There are zero good crossovers and nearly no good boxes.  Your idea to have fun in audio is good, but you should start by learning about the whole process which would be the implementation of the speaker versus the speaker itself.  As for the manufacturers, they are primarily in Asia.  Lots of manual work.  If you want it done here as I said above, 10x the price if not more.

[Impious 1,476]

I think what you are missing is that companies like Stereo Integrity work with a build house or with vendors who do large order OEM only production runs.  If you want to build 1000 drivers, they'll work with you.  If you want to buy 2 VC's, spiders or cones from them, they likely won't even bother responding to your email.

The guy who used to run PSI Car Audio was named David and was one of the main guys at the old RE.  They have the option to request a custom built sub.  https://psicaraudio.com/request-form/

He also ran https://fixmyspeaker.com where you could buy custom parts/recone kits but there is a header that says they aren't taking new orders.

Anyways - my suggestion would be to either request a custom sub through PSI and ask if they can ship it unassembled, or see if he can or can direct you to someone who would be willing to just sell the parts.