Designing and building a home audio system is one of the most enjoyable DIY activities. An individual can construct an audio system accurately as per his requirements and acoustic environment of his house. The acoustics which vary over a wide range in different environments and different room sizes is a very important issue deciding the nature of design of the audio system. The expectations also vary from one individual to another. A clear and excellent listening experience of one person may be unsatisfactory or cheap to another person depending upon their tastes and requirements. Thus by proper research and a bit of hard work, you can easily build a custom home audio system of your own.
Difficulty level
The difficulty level can be rated as moderately easy depending on the capability and expertise of the individual working on it.
Time required
Depending on the complexity or simplicity of the job and its design, it may take a few days or months to complete the work.
Estimated cost
The most important thing to be kept in mind while fixing the related budget is that the system should be built out of the best quality kits and components manufactured by renowned brands in the same field. This is apparently costly but the output is really worth the cost. On the other hand it should also be seen that the involved cost is 5-8 times lesser than the purchased one. Generally a well furnished system costs around $150.
Resources required
- Main sound receiver
- Main woofer speaker
- Tower speakers
- Sub-woofers
- Tweeters
- Drill machine
- Wooden plates
- Screws
- Screwdriver
- Soldering iron
- Glue
- Nails
- Connectors or female-sockets
- Emery Paper
- Connecting cables and wires
- Sound source or input
Instructions
- First of all, choose a high quality sound receiver. This is the most important part of the entire process which actually decides the quality of the product. The main audio receiver can alternately be called the brain of the audio system. The complex electronic circuitry present in it is actually responsible for decoding of the input audio signal and feeding the output to the speakers connected to it.
- Choose your receiver as per your requirement. If it is going be a part of your home theater, then you should go for the one with an inbuilt DVD player (High Definition Quality). Whereas, if you want a system for only listening to music, then go for as many inputs as possible. Always remember to go for the renowned brands of the market while purchasing an audio receiver such as Bose, Pioneer, Sony, etc. Always check for the output rating (wattage) of any receiver before purchasing the speakers. If you connect a high power output receiver to a lower rated speaker, you will surely end up with a blown-up speaker very soon.
- After you are done with good receiver, take your step toward the construction of the output speakers. Design your own cabinet for mounting the different speakers. Cut round slots by taking proper measurements of the speakers and mount them properly with the help of screws. Choose a bigger size of cabinet for the main woofer as it demands a bigger space channel for best performance.
- In the case of the tower speakers and sub-woofers, you can go for sleek and stylish stand-alone models making sure that the height of each speaker from the ground level is 4-5 feet. Proper care should be taken while making the cabinets as any loose fitting or gluing may produce a blurry and flat annoying sound output.
- Mount the tweeters (preferably 2 each) in either of the tower speaker cabinets and sub-woofer cabinets. The tower speakers reproduces majority of the sound while the sub-woofers produce the surrounding sound effect. The tweeters adds a soft tinkling effect to the whole audio effect.
- Don’t forget to mount the input connector or female socket at the rear part of each speaker cabinet.
- Once you have mounted all the speakers properly and tightly, start making the electrical connections. Solder the power wires carefully to the speakers and connect them to the terminals or female sockets.
- Make sure that the wires you use in the above process is of a very high quality preferably a shielded one to avoid interferences caused by electronic devices using radio signals to communicate such as a cellphone. You should also check the current carrying capacities of the same and go for a moderately high rated version to ensure safety of the wiring.
- Finally, go for the finishing part of each cabinet. Smoothen all the surfaces and especially the joints with an emery paper. Apply a polish paint of a glossy nature or anything of your choice to give the final touch.
- Interconnect your system and you are finished with building a custom home audio system of your own.
- Connect it to any audio source and start enjoying the music.
Quick tips
- Don’t sacrifice the quality of the audio system kits and components for the sake of high cost. As a high priced quality component can serve you for a long span of time and give you an unchallenged listening pleasure as compared to the cheaper ones.
- Don’t overload your speakers with a higher rated audio receiver as it may blow-up the speakers and cause damage to the system.
- Design the speaker’s cabinets properly because they form a part of your house interiors reflecting your taste and style statement.
