The primary goal of my project was to design and build a 5.1 surround speaker system (two front, two side, one center, and one subwoofer) for my 14' x 22' living room. The living room is my house's largest and most inviting area, so it is used as a formal living room as well as a multi-media room. This compromise in the living space's purpose requires a careful balance between what looks great and what sounds great.

I spent the next four months drawing designs for various types of enclosures, including a quarter-wave length labyrinth, a tall thin three-way ported enclosure, and a 2-way closed box. Finally, my wife contributed to the design goals by requesting that the speakers not sit on the floor or make the room look like a college dorm. I settled on a 2-way closed box and decided to build the enclosures out of solid cherry that would match the wood and finish of furniture already in the room. The final design also drew inspiration from the style of the Bowers and Wilkins (B&W) 805S speakers.

The driver selection was much easier than determining the enclosure design. I consider myself an audiophile, so the drivers had to be accurate. I selected the Hi-Vi TN28 fabric dome tweeter because it offered accurate sound reproduction combined with styling that would allow me to imitate (and therefore flatter) the B&W 805S design. The sound pressure level (SPL) vs. frequency response graph published by Hi-Vi indicated that the TN28 was relatively flat from 2 kHz to 20 kHz, producing approximately 88 dB.

I used the tweeter's 88 dB SPL as a guide for selecting a 6" midbass, and quickly identified the Hi-Vi M6N as an excellent candidate. Since this was my first speaker design project in many years and easily the most complex, I decided to purchase a Dayton TITSK-10K Titanic MKIII subwoofer kit. Assembly of the kit took about two hours and the subwoofer sounds fantastic. I would highly recommend simplifying any surround system design by adding the Dayton subwoofer kit!

I decided to construct the enclosures from solid cherry (hence the name SC 5.1) since I don't like working with veneers and wanted an enclosure that was unique. This project could also be produced with 3/4" MDF, although I would suggest using a hardwood for the internal braces. The tweeter is self-contained and is attached to the top of the enclosure. The midbass is the only speaker "inside" of the enclosure, so the volume of the box results from the characteristics of the Hi-Vi M6N.

I purchased 100 board-feet of solid cherry from internetlumber.com and used less than half to construct ten speakers. I had to join several 5" wide boards to create 10" wide sections for the front and back panels. Total cost for wood with delivery was approximately $450. MDF would be a less expensive option.