Should you build Panel Speakers? Let's find out!

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Original Video by Tech Ingredients:

Sound Absorber Material Used:
Sinfonia by OWA

Driver used:
Dayton Audio daex25fhe-4

[scottbehl]

I made my set last year and I love them. It's like a singer is right in front of me. I used the pink polystyrene panels, the kind for insulation like Tech Ingredients did. I would leave it open in the frame because the sound waves go behind also. Don't get the idea that they will put deep bass out because bass needs Air Movement. But the highs and mids are EXCELLENT ! I'm not even using my nice Towers anymore !! If you don't try this you will never know just how good they are !!

[TracyNorrell]

I want Tech Ingredients to adopt me. That dude is so smart and likeable

[BobbyKinstle]

I like that you put material behind them. I bet that makes them super smooth. So glad to see more people playing around with DML I like adding a small AMT tweeter like the Dayton AMT mini 8 to really make them sparkle above 6KHz

[toddincabo]

DML's are best suited to not being enclosed like that. With all that space you have you should take them out of those crates and hang them a few feet from the wall and let the sound flow from all directions from the panel.

[carlitomadrona]

Came across this builds this morning and I may end my day scrolling all videos about flat panel speakers, found it interesting... and I like cheap electronics 😍👍👍👍👍👍

[Insanity_Crow]

Five Star (yes the school paper notebook company) made a binder in the mid 00's that had a small Class-D amplifier and an exciter driver. I've never seen one since then so cool project.

[focus-digital-marketing-ai]

Very cool approach. Nice seeing different executions of DML panels.

[EatRawGarlic]

Very cool! I bought the same exciters, but still need the time and space to laser cut my foam panels. I'm going to combine them with a FreeDSP board and a closed sub based on a Peerless driver.

[Butternose]

I’d love to know if you have tried them with/without the rockwool? Assuming your diy panels follow dml theory, diffuse dipole behaviour means the front/rear waves (although not entirely coherent) are not destructive. you may find the rear wave is a benefit. If you have the chance to compare, I’d love to know your thoughts!

[MarioIArguello]

I assume the resonator panels are acoustical ceiling tiles? they still sound metally, due to lack of woofer or woofer qualities to pass the low frequencies. There are ways to get around this using the same panel material with specific size and additional geometry. A single small panel, as most people build these DML panel speakers, is not enough. I have done a great deal of experimentation and tweaking to get panel speakers to sound more full but they will never equal box or sealed ported speakers.

I built a set of furniture quality La Scala Klipsch horns back in the 80's with my own twist to them, I was going to get rid of them because they take a lot of room, but on second thought, I decided to keep them because they are excellent speakers for listening to Jazz or home theater, and the huge size is simply the tradeoff one needs to deal with for high quality sound. Unfortunately, the panel speakers, even with cross over network to pass the low frequencies to sub-woofer are simply no comparison. I had a set of them 2x4Ft pink foam panels ) behind my DIY 15x6 ft home theater 2-ply spandex screen, in space of 2.5x4ft windows at the ends, as their cubby holes but opted to simply use a modern wireless soundbar system, for better sound and to avoid having to pull out my old 5.1 channel audio amplifier and avoid all the wiring with larger box speakers.

While on the subject, I have also experimented with multidirectional speaker configurations using PVC pipes to mimic the sound dispersement, that is typically heard when you are in front of a band or concert, and this setup, while a bit more cumbersome, and strange in appearance, has a much more realistic sound distribution, if the speakers and tubes are sized according to instrument volume one want to replicate the range of its related frequencies. For example: if you want to replicate base or kick drums, a larger diameter tube and woofer is ideal, while if you want to replicate a metal instrument, horns, etc., a smaller diameter tube and speaker is ideal. There is really no magic here just a lot of common sense and experimentation and ultimately what sounds satisfying to one's ears.

[jimsvideos]

I can only take your word for the sound quality of course - the spectrograph is objective but I don't have the depth to really appreciate it - but they look _good._

[andywason]

How efficient are they? do you get a lot of sound per watt? Great video!

[justimoore]

Been thinking about doing a surround sound system with these. Then just add a regular sub to even it out

[UltraNuggz]

Thoughts on adding a surround membrane to edges of panel attached to box instead of hanging thus a sealed enclosure? Would prevent front and back wave cancelation... wonder how much deeper it would measure.. or affect open sound? Heading to garage to try it!

[Famine]

I know this is old, but if the way you're holding the speaker panel at the top is pinching the panel is will cut the panel's ability to give off sound.

[JohnSmith-ilwi]

Liked and subscribed, thanks from Chicago!

[ACWDDesigns]

need to round the corners buddy will help

[wanderingthrougheurope]

Thanks for the video. What is the thickness of the XPS panel you have chosen. I am trying to decide between 30mm and 20mm since most US based videos use 1inch.

[lattinator]

Sehr cool umgesetzt! Beschäftige mich auch mit DML Speakers! Ein fast nie endender Prozess von Vebesserungen. Es gibt immer etwas Neues zu entdecken! Du hast nicht zufällig zwei Paneele übrig, da diese in Österreich anscheinend einzeln nicht zu bekommen sind? Bin gespannt auf die Fortsetzung! Lg

[MickeyMishra]

I wonder if the techniques used on magnepan speakers would work with these as well. For example increasing the sides or the wings of the speaker however it's described to increase bass response.

due to the nature of the speaker I don't think this would work in a typical box type design but it will be really interesting.