Anyone built or heard Bill Fitzmaurice DIY speakers?

http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/

I have known of this guy's designs for quite some time now, and am tempted to give a set of subs a shot. Anyone here build any of his designs, or see/hear a set of these speakers?

Pretty interesting DIY project....I guess I just better go out and get some good baltic birch plywood, and get to it!

thanks,

Jeff

His Tuba subs are very well known. There is another board that has a very active following of his speakers. They are supposed to be very good without being very power hungry. If you want the board PM me. If anyone lets me know its ok to post links on other boards, I'll jjust post it here. BTW, its also a DJ board.

I just looked at the website and it looks interesting. Building the cabinets is no problem for me, but where do you buy the speakers and crossovers and jack plates?

you get all the other components form Parts Express.

And would you really say that these are DJ quality speakers, or very good home theater speakers?

I have a buddy who is handy with cabinet making and he would love to try something like this if he thought the end results would work in his home theater.

You can get a lot of the parts from www.partsexpress.com or www.speakerhardware.com.

Papa- BFM applications vary from Home to Live Sound

I am part of the "other" board that heavily follows and pushes his designs. I built 2 of his Tuba 24 subs, and let me say that the claims are very real, these subs are amazing. The folded horn design allows for extremely clean bass with minimal driver sizes and powers. My tuba 24s use a 10" eminence driver, and will easily abuse a Mackie SWA1501 in terms of SPL, and compare slightly higher than my JBL MRX518s. When I V couple the subs, its the equivalent of an earthquake.

Papa- BFM applications vary from Home to Live Sound

I know... but he has plans for both types.

Any other sources for parts like speakers, crossovers and such?

Any other sources for parts like speakers, crossovers and such?
www.simplyspeakers.com.

Some years back, one of the guys on the Carvin forum built a pair of Fitzmaurice's tuba subs. These were 18s if memory serves. The poster included photos of the construction from start to finish. 3/4" Baltic birch is quite expensive but it was a lot less expense than buying 'em already made. :)

Anyhoo, his review of these cabinets was superb. If I'm not mistaken, the tuba design is long-throw with a narrow footprint. He built 'em for his band to use at outdoor shows so's they could get the bass to the lawn seats.

I have built 8 of his Tuba 30 slims. They are the 24" wide version. They have JBL 2206 12" inside of them. Powered by a QSC 3402. Depending on configuration of the system we use, that gives us anywhere from 700 w/ch to about 1100 w/ch, running in stereo. The reason for 8, is 2 per system, with our small packages, or 4 per system with our larger sound systems. He recommends that you group them together, but we tend to break the laws of physics with the way we set things up.

They are very efficient, and original ran them with lower wattage, but found that the JBL's really liked the power, and so transitioned to the larger 3402. They have amazing, clean bass. Especially at low dinner music volumes. You can hear every tone of a bass guitar at the other end of the room during dinner. Simply amazing.

When you turn them up, they are clean, very clean. Low bass, but NOT the distorted bass that most DJs are used to from front loaded 15" or 18". This is clean, tight low end... not a "one note" wonder sound like a B-52 or CV, or such. The overall system is smooth, very smooth.

The key is that you can build one of his designs at a cost that will perform equivalently to a $2000 or $3000 sub, without the cost. He recommends Eminence drivers, but driver specs are good with JBL and maybe one other line. You can also modify the designs to make them easier to transport, lift, roll, pack, fit through a door, etc... sort of customized to your needs.

I'd say your wood working skills need to be above average, and that you need to READ the plans multiple times before you begin cutting and building. If you have ANY air leaks, the design will NOT perform, and you will NEVER be able to get back into the cabinet to fix the leak (due to the design). You can't just put any driver in them... they need to have strong motor capability of the driver with a high Xmax, if they don't you'll blow the drivers apart quickly due to the pressure generated in the cabinet. You need to do your homework. Depending on the cabinet you choose, the horn wave length could go from 5 feet to 7 feet in length... something you will NEVER find in another cabinet commercially produced.

Some coat them with Duratex, we chose to cover them with carpet for better durability and less slippage when packing things on top of them in transit. Baltic birch would be too heavy a build. He recommends 1/2" all the way around, inside and outside for most of the designs. We chose 3/4" ply for the outer shell, but did the inner horn shells with 1/2". The total weight, with the driver and hardware shown in the pics below was 85 lbs per sub. Specs for the wood need to be greater than 5 ply (???) I believe, it is 5 or 7 ply. We used maple wood internally (1/2" at 9 ply) and 12 ply 3/4" for outside.

I've attached a pic or two below of our finished product.

I have built 8 of his Tuba 30 slims. They are the 24" wide version. They have JBL 2206 12" inside of them. Powered by a QSC 3402. Depending on configuration of the system we use, that gives us anywhere from 700 w/ch to about 1100 w/ch, running in stereo. The reason for 8, is 2 per system, with our small packages, or 4 per system with our larger sound systems. He recommends that you group them together, but we tend to break the laws of physics with the way we set things up.

They are very efficient, and original ran them with lower wattage, but found that the JBL's really liked the power, and so transitioned to the larger 3402. They have amazing, clean bass. Especially at low dinner music volumes. You can hear every tone of a bass guitar at the other end of the room during dinner. Simply amazing.

When you turn them up, they are clean, very clean. Low bass, but NOT the distorted bass that most DJs are used to from front loaded 15" or 18". This is clean, tight low end... not a "one note" wonder sound like a B-52 or CV, or such. The overall system is smooth, very smooth.

The key is that you can build one of his designs at a cost that will perform equivalently to a $2000 or $3000 sub, without the cost. He recommends Eminence drivers, but driver specs are good with JBL and maybe one other line. You can also modify the designs to make them easier to transport, lift, roll, pack, fit through a door, etc... sort of customized to your needs.

I'd say your wood working skills need to be above average, and that you need to READ the plans multiple times before you begin cutting and building. If you have ANY air leaks, the design will NOT perform, and you will NEVER be able to get back into the cabinet to fix the leak (due to the design). You can't just put any driver in them... they need to have strong motor capability of the driver with a high Xmax, if they don't you'll blow the drivers apart quickly due to the pressure generated in the cabinet. You need to do your homework. Depending on the cabinet you choose, the horn wave length could go from 5 feet to 7 feet in length... something you will NEVER find in another cabinet commercially produced.

Some coat them with Duratex, we chose to cover them with carpet for better durability and less slippage when packing things on top of them in transit. Baltic birch would be too heavy a build. He recommends 1/2" all the way around, inside and outside for most of the designs. We chose 3/4" ply for the outer shell, but did the inner horn shells with 1/2". The total weight, with the driver and hardware shown in the pics below was 85 lbs per sub. Specs for the wood need to be greater than 5 ply (???) I believe, it is 5 or 7 ply. We used maple wood internally (1/2" at 9 ply) and 12 ply 3/4" for outside.

I've attached a pic or two below of our finished product.

Your tubas look better than mine do, I don't have good carpeting skills, and at the time couldn't afford duratex so I sanded the heck out of it and applied some flat black paint. And the recommended wood is 5 ply, 1/2" plywood.

So how much can you save building your own set of speakers from buying a comporable pair??

I think mine completely done with JBL driver, hardware, wood, etc... ran about $450 per cabinet. You'd probably have to spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,500- $2,000 per cabinet to get equivalent sound.... now those comparisons are per BFM.

I think mine completely done with JBL driver, hardware, wood, etc... ran about $450 per cabinet. You'd probably have to spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,500- $2,000 per cabinet to get equivalent sound.... now those comparisons are per BFM.

Yup...I think the total for my Tuba 24 was $200-$250...Its comparable to subs costing well over $800-$1500

Build your own cross over... all you need is to know your ohms law and understand how capacitors and inductors work and your good to go... LOL
On a serious note, I do build my own cross overs... But I have not done any pro audio stuff, just boxes for friends cars and some home theater speakers...