New sound bar design / project

PWRRYD

My wife's Mom is going through some serious medical challenges right now.  My brother in law bought them a really nice 55" LED TV to replace their 25" tube TV since they will be pretty much home bound for quite a while.  Like all flat screen TV's this one's speakers sucks big time.  We were at their house Saturday to celebrate Christmas.  I took a few quick measurements of their TV stand and the new LED TV which has outboard legs instead of a center stand.  Yesterday morning I got up early and designed the enclosure.  It will sit underneath their TV.  A quick trip to Home Depot for a 1/2" MDF handi-panel and I was cutting up the pieces in no time.  This sound bar is 30" wide across the front, 4" high, and has an overall depth of 9".  This yields a net volume of 4.4 liters per side, with a 1.5" diameter by 6" long port.  The drivers are Dayton ND90-8 woofers and ND16fa-6 tweeters.  I have never had an enclosure(s) come together so quickly.  My plan is to veneer this with some paper backed cherry veneer that I have.  A black grill (cloth) has been requested... diffraction be damned right?  Anyway, the ND90-8 woofers in this alignment aren't too far off from what Paul Carmondy did with his Sprite project.  I think they will do quite well for the intended purpose.  My father in law has limited hearing (he wears hearing aides) so my voicing will be geared to help him hear the news channels and sport games as clear as possible.  As simple as this project is, it just might be my most rewarding.

Kornbread

How are you going to get sound to the soundbar?  Curious as I built a small soundbar for our even more badder sounding flat tv.  The only output it had was for headphones and that output had so much noise in it that it was utterly useless.  

PWRRYD

Kornbread said:

How are you going to get sound to the soundbar?  Curious as I built a small soundbar for our even more badder sounding flat tv.  The only output it had was for headphones and that output had so much noise in it that it was utterly useless.  

Oh no! I didn't check their new TV to see what audio outputs it has  

I have a Sony (pre HDMI era) receiver that I planned on using to power it, but it will suck if their new TV doesn't have analog audio out.

Ron_E

PWRRYD said:

I have a Sony (pre HDMI era) receiver that I planned on using to power it, but it will suck if their new TV doesn't have analog audio out.

The adapters to convert digital outputs aren't too pricey. I've had to advise a couple of people on what they need to run their TV through external audio systems.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-optical-coaxial-digital-to-analog-converter-black/4226000.p?skuId=4226000

Ron

PWRRYD

Thanks Ron!   That isn't too bad at all.

Wolf

I think PE has those too, but I don't recall them being that expensive.

PWRRYD

Has anyone ever had a project where every step along the way just spelled trouble/issues/mistakes?  I certainly have

On the flip side this project has gone absolutely perfect.  I couldn't be more pleased with how this is all falling together.  Man-O-Man I have needed a project like this

Happy New Year all of my DIY brothers!

Wolf

I must say I really enjoyed doing the Bar-Gain myself. Soundbars seem to come together easily.

Tom_S

It's great that you have the skills and motivation to do something like this for them. What a good son-in-law you are! They will always remember it.

PWRRYD

I'm actually listening to this sound bar right now with a prototype crossover!  Sounds really good watching the Michigan/Alabama game.  I'm voicing it more for dialog clarity than for music.  8 parts per side, but 3 of them are cheap 5 W sand cast resistors, the caps are all small values (4.7, 3.9, and 0.1 uF) and the inductors are a cheap cored 1 mH and a 0.15 mH 20 ga. air core.

PWRRYD

Crossover is LR4 @ 4500 Hz with a ~10 dB padding on the tweeter.  The width of the soundbar and having a large flat screen right on top of it has greatly reduced the baffle step loss.  Just like everything else with this project the xo design just fell together easily and I had all the necessary parts to build the xo.

D1PP1N

Good to see it come together! These projects are what most people want now. My last project everything went wrong and I kinda just gave up. Ill need to get back into it at some point. 

6thplanet

TV sitting on top of it or it's in front of it?

PWRRYD

TV on top of it.

squamishdroc

PWRRYD said:

I'm actually listening to this sound bar right now with a prototype crossover!  Sounds really good watching the Michigan/Alabama game.  I'm voicing it more for dialog clarity than for music.  8 parts per side, but 3 of them are cheap 5 W sand cast resistors, the caps are all small values (4.7, 3.9, and 0.1 uF) and the inductors are a cheap cored 1 mH and a 0.15 mH 20 ga. air core.

The TV had audio outputs then I assume?

PWRRYD

Voicing is complete and I am very pleased.  I do have to say, Dayton drivers like these produce great bass for their size.  Time to veneer and finish this project.  I'll post the crossover design and pictures of the final product shortly.

6thplanet

Seems like a lot of wasted time when you could've went to BestBuy and got a really sweet Bose unit. 😝

PWRRYD

Here is the final, voiced, crossover design:

PWRRYD

BOM:

PWRRYD

I finished veneering this project last night with the paper backed cherry I had.  I have to say, after reading John Hollanders post about using a super sharp, large, wood chissel to flush trim veneer my whole veneering experience has gone up a few notches.  I am super happy with how great and easy this veneer job turned out.  Shout out to John!!!  Today I did the final sanding and I applied my new go to finish that Dave Fred posted about.  I can't imagine trying to do all this in a vacuum...   pictures to follow, maybe tomorrow.

Tom_S

I must have missed John's post about trimming veneer. Can you point me to that thread?

jhollander

I think that was Ron's comment over in Ani's thread about sealing tape edges. 

PWRRYD

Yes it could have been Ron E.  (Thanks Ron!).  Anyway, using a long, 1" wide, super sharp, wood chissel has greatly improved my veneer trimming skills.

If it wasn't for the requested speaker grill this project could have been done as early as tomorrow night.

Ron_E

Yes, I'm the big chisel guy.  It's called a framing slick and I picked up this old beater on Ebay.



Ron

PWRRYD

PWRRYD

Tom_S

Looks great! In fact, way too nice to set a TV on top of it!

PWRRYD

Thanks Tom.  I know, but I wouldn't feel right about giving them a soundbar with a Duratex job.  Not that there is anything wrong with Duratex (I use it a lot), but they have seen my nicer stuff with veneer and/or real hardwood.

PWRRYD

All done except for a grill.

squamishdroc

Looking good👍👍