ABSTRACT

Building a great sounding stereo system involves

much more than just mounting a speaker to a
box. For a proper design, the loudspeaker
parameters should be measured, type of box
carefully considered and designed, and a
crossover network implemented to match the
individual loudspeaker drivers. This report
details the process of designing a 2-way stereo
loudspeaker system with a given pair of drivers.

Joseph Langr
Kansas State University
ECE 715 Dr. Dyer

ELECTROACOUSTICS
PROJECT REPORT

18 December 2015

Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2
Design............................................................................................................................................................ 2
Thiele/Small Parameter Measurement .................................................................................................... 2
Enclosure Design ....................................................................................................................................... 3
Crossover Network ................................................................................................................................... 5
Performance Tests ........................................................................................................................................ 6
Results and Discussion .................................................................................................................................. 8
Closure .......................................................................................................................................................... 8
References .................................................................................................................................................... 8
Appendices.................................................................................................................................................... 9
Appendix 1: Loudspeaker Driver Information .......................................................................................... 9
Focal 6V3252 Mid-bass woofer............................................................................................................. 9
Focal TSC Tweeter ............................................................................................................................... 10
Appendix 2: Component and Cost Analysis ............................................................................................ 11

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Introduction
The proper design of a loudspeaker enclosure system is critical to take get the best
performance from loudspeaker driver. This is the design of a small floor standing 2-way stereo
loudspeaker enclosure system with Focal loudspeaker drivers. The drivers were not picked for a
particular application or loudspeaker enclosure and there was very little manufacturer
information on the drivers. The first step was measuring the Thiele/Small Parameters in order
to have the information to design an enclosure. An enclosure was then designed taking a closed
box and bass reflex ported enclosure into consideration. Another important component that
was designed is a crossover network to ensure only frequencies that can be accurately reproduced
are sent to each speaker. After design and construction, a test of the loudspeaker enclosure system
overall frequency response was made.

Design
The design specifications for this project were as follows:
1. 2-way stereo loudspeaker enclosure system
2. -3dB frequency response of less than 60Hz to 20,000Hz
3. Bookshelf or small floor standing speaker enclosure with a footprint of 2 square feet or
less
Thiele/Small Parameter Measurement
The first task in the design process was to test the loudspeaker drivers in the laboratory. The
process utilized for testing the loudspeakers was based on the process described in section 11.7
of Introduction to Electroacoustics and Audio Amplifier Design [1].
First, the DC voice coil resistance of each driver was measured. This was done using the lab
multimeter set to measure resistance with the leads connected to the + and - terminals of
the loudspeaker.

Figure 1: Speaker Measurement Test Setup

Next, a circuit was set up as shown in Figure 1 with the speaker on a fastened on a baffle. Va
and Vb are two separate multimeters set to measure voltage. The leads were connected as
close to the circuit elements as possible to avoid error in measurement caused by the
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resistance of the wires. The Vertical and Horizontal connections are sent to two different
channels of an oscilloscope set on x-y mode. The frequency of the oscillator was then changed
while adjusting the amplitude of the signal to keep Va held at 1 volt until the Lissajou figure
shown on the oscilloscope became a straight line. The frequency the oscillator is producing
when this occurs is the resonant frequency .
After the resonant frequency was found, a series calculations were done to find the voltage Vb
that will be across the speaker at frequencies 1 and 2 . Once this voltage was calculated, the
same process of adjusting the oscillator frequency while keeping Va at 1 volt was followed until
the two frequencies were found where the measured Vb was equal to the calculated Vb (1 is
less than and 2 is greater than ). Once 1 and 2 were found, the QMS, QES, and QTS
parameters were calculated using the methods described in [1].
The last Thiele/Small Parameter, VAS, was calculated using a test box. A relatively small closed
box with a known volume was constructed. Speaker was mounted with the front facing into the
box. A piecewise approximation to the volume the speaker cone was found by taking depth
measurements at several points along the diameter of the speaker. This volume was then
added to the volume of the box. The measurements steps were repeated to get the values with
the driver on the box. Using the previous off-box measurements along with the new on-box
measurements, VAS was calculated.
All of the measurements taken on the loudspeakers are located in Appendix 1. The following
are the averaged Thiele/Small Parameters of the two woofers.
= 73.55
= 7.64
= 0.8785
= 0.788
= 8.2
Enclosure Design
The next step in the process was to design the enclosure. A quick calculation of a closed box enclosure
was done first. It was quickly determined that the ideal system QTC of .707 could not be attained
because the QTS of the drivers was calculated to be greater than .707. The best response could then
achieved with a box with the largest volume possible while not lowering the frequency response of the
system.
Since a closed box seemed very impractical for these speakers, a calculation was done for a ported
enclosure. A series of calculations were done as described in Appendix 1 of Smalls Vented-Box
Loudspeaker Systems [2] to calculate the enclosure size while maintaining a -3dB point of less than
60Hz. When these calculations were done, the response was plotted and tweaked to get as flat of a
response as possible while decreasing the -3dB frequency as low as possible. The result is shown in
Figure 2.

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Figure 2: Frequency Response Curve of Enclosure

The calculated volume came out to be 1680 in3 which is 0.97 ft3. The port was calculated to
have a Helmholtz resonant frequency of 42 Hz which came out to 1 inch in diameter with a
length of 0.79 in. The enclosure dimensions were calculated from this calculated volume
subtracting an approximate volume of 0.5 of fiberglass insulation covering all internal walls,
the volume taken up by bracing and the speaker driver internal to the box. The final external
dimensions were made considering MDF would be used for construction and can be seen in
Figure 3.

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Figure 3: Speaker Enclosure Mechanical Drawing

Crossover Network
The final part of the speaker system design is the crossover network. After analyzing the
frequency response graphs for the tweeter and woofer as seen in Figure A1-1 and Figure A1-2,
it was decided that 3 kHz would be the best crossover frequency for this loudspeaker
combination. With the 6 tweeter and 4 woofer, and a 2nd order crossover network, the
component values were chosen to be:
L1 = 0.45 mH
L2 = 0.3 mH
C1 = 6.25 uF
C2 = 9.38 uF
The layout for the crossover network is shown in Figure 4.

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Figure 4: 2nd Order Crossover Network

Performance Tests
One of the best ways to determine the performance of a speaker is by testing its frequency
response. A speaker with an optimally flat frequency response from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz will
most accurately reproduce an audio signal. Figures 5 and 6 show the frequency response of
each loudspeaker that was designed. In figure 5, there is an overall +/- 6dB frequency response
of about 35 Hz to 15,000 Hz if you ignore the dips at 750 Hz, 900 Hz, and 1300 Hz and a peak at
3 kHz. In figure 6, the +/- 6dB frequency response is approximately 50 Hz to 16,000 Hz ignoring
the dip at 2 kHz.

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Figure 5: Completed Speaker 1 Frequency Response

Figure 6: Completed Speaker 2 Frequency Response

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Results and Discussion

There were several challenges in designing and constructing this loudspeaker system. The first
being the loudspeaker parameters. These parameters were really not ideal for a closed box or
ported enclosure. Since the QTS value ended up being very large, alignment charts for a ported
enclosure could not be used because they dont go up to values that large. An iterative method
of finding the ideal parameters had to be used instead. Also due to the large Q TS a closed box
would have to be very large to just keep the response of the speaker itself without decreasing
the bandwidth. Another challenge was during construction, the boards were left in the covered
bed of a truck after they were cut and ended up warping. To overcome this, the boards were
taken inside, stacked up, and weighed down with an anvil to try to flatten them out. This helped
significantly but didnt remove all of the warping. This created a challenge when gluing the
boards together when constructing the enclosure. Many clamps had to be used to ensure there
werent any air gaps which only allowed one box to be constructed at a time.
The frequency response ended up being worse than expected in that the response did not stay
within +/- 3dB over the entire pass-band. For Speaker 1, the main problem is the spike at 3 kHz.
This is the crossover frequency and so the spike is probably caused by a larger than expected
overlap in response from the tweeter and woofer. This can be fixed by tweaking the
capacitor/inductor values in the crossover network to reduce the overlap. The main problem
with Speaker 2 is the tweeter is more sensitive than the woofer. This can be fixed by adding an
L Pad attenuator on the tweeter.
Since these speaker will be primarily used connected to a computer, the response can be
further flattened out by using a visual equalizer application to increase the gain at the dips in
the graph and decrease the gain at the peaks.

Closure
In this experience of designing and constructing this stereo loudspeaker system, there are many
things that were learned and several things I would do differently if I were to do this project
again. The first, I would not use speakers I received for free. Instead, I would come up with a
design I want to build such as the approximate size of enclosure, type of enclosure, and
frequency response. I would then calculate the Thiele/Small parameters needed for a speaker
to meet these specifications. Then I would buy a speaker with these parameters as given by the
manufacturer. This would allow better overall planning of the project as well as a better idea of
what the final product would look like earlier in the process.

References
[1] W. M. Leach, Jr., Introduction to Electroacoustics and Audio Amplifier Design, Third Edition,
Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 2001, ISBN 9-780757-503757.
[2] Small, Richard H., "Vented-Box Loudspeaker Systems", J. Audio Engineering Soc., Vol 21, No.
5, June 1973, pp 302-329.
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Loudspeaker Driver Information
Focal 6V3252 Mid-bass woofer

Figure A1-1: Woofer Frequency Response

Table A1-1: Speaker 1 Parameter Measurements
Measurements with Baffle

2.99

72.1 Hz
/
0.301

+ =
30.118

7.73

Measurements with Test Box

Test Box Volume
8.46 L

104.0 Hz
/
0.332
+
32.219
1
9.815

0.0981 V
1
91.21 Hz
2
120.19 Hz

104.7 Hz

11.78

1.205

1.093

0.85

= (

1 = R E ( + )

= (1)

9.49
0.0948 V

1
2
= 1 2

61.22 Hz
90.82 Hz
74.6 Hz

s
=

= (

1)

8.84 L

0.767

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Table A1-2: Speaker 2 Parameter Measurements

Measurements with Baffle

2.94

75.0 Hz
/
0.274

+ =
27.416

7.55

Measurements with Test Box

Test Box Volume
8.46 L

105.0 Hz
/
0.293
+
29.318
1
9.284

0.0928 V
1
91.85 Hz
2
122.0 Hz

105.86 Hz

11.0

1.226

1.103

= ( )

0.907

= (

0.809

1 = R E ( + )

= (1)

8.978
0.0897 V

1
2
= 1 2

63.45 Hz
93.78 Hz
77.1 Hz

s
=

1)

7.55 L

Focal TSC Tweeter

Figure A1-2: Tweeter Frequency Response

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Figure A1-3: Tweeter Impedance Curve

Appendix 2: Component and Cost Analysis
Speaker Drivers: Focal 6V3252 and Focal TSC

FREE

Speaker Wire

FREE

Fiberglass Insulation

FREE

Speaker Port Tube x2

$3.96

Speaker Gasket Tape

$9.25

Speaker Terminal Cup with Binding Posts x4

$7.00

Banana Plugs x12

$16.20

Crossover PC Board x2

$7.40

.45mH Air Core Inductor x2

$10.18

.30mH Air Core Inductor x2

$11.38

10uF Polypropylene Capacitor x2

$8.62

6.2uF Polypropylene Capacitor x2

$6.16
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4x8 Medium Density Fiberboard

$30.00

Wood Glue

$2.98

Shipping from Parts Express

$16.21

TOTAL COST: $126.36

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