Audio Speakers by Oscar Jones

This was the first complete pair of speakers I ever made, making the first one when I was about 12, then completing the stereo pair a few months later.

My interest began not too long before when I was in Maplin with my Grandad buying parts for a computer he was building. I happened to see a shelf of speaker components, and fancied trying to put one together.

So, we bought the speaker drivers, an amplifier module, and the other parts we thought we’d need. It took a few days of experimenting to make it work, and a few more trips to Maplin, but eventually we made a working system, speakers wired up and enclosures made.

This worked ok, but now having tried and learnt, I knew it could be done better. And so, I began to make the big speakers.

The original plan had been to make one unit with many drivers in it, however the local Maplin did not have enough speakers, so I settled for fewer, three, and ended up with the speaker pictured here.

It was an active speaker, with audio and power inputs and volume control on the back, and a mini amplifier and crossover board inside to split the sound to the high, mid, and low frequencies for the three speakers. This worked well, and soon I made another one with a mirrored design to create a stereo pair.

Over the years I learnt more about speaker design and how they are made, using my growing knowledge to improve these speakers. Improvements I made included making the speaker air tight to improve bass response, by lining the inside joins with glue and fitting draught excluder to the removable back panel. Isolation feet were also added, raining the speaker off the ground and improving the definition of the sound.

I also bought a large HiFi amplifier to power the speakers, removing the mini amplifiers in each speaker and gluing up the holes for their inputs. This greatly improved their sound. These changes took place over a few years, leading to the speakers I now use on a daily basis in my room.