Retro HiFi PA speaker boxes, custom made by Geert

Geert has made custom speaker boxes himself. These DIY speakers are made of chipboard and black MDF. Geert ordered the sawing work for these custom boxes online. The inspiration for these speakers comes from the German magazine Hobby HiFi.

Description by Geert

I was ready for new speakers and saw this "Retro HiFi PA" design will be featured in the 3rd edition of 2022 of the German magazine 'Hobby HiFi'. It is a two-way bass reflex speaker box with a capacity of approximately 90 liters, and an efficiency of 96.5dB/2.83V RMS. They have an impedance of 4 ohms. I liked the high efficiency and the strong retro look, so I decided that I wanted to build it myself.

How I made this project

The original design is based on 19mm mdf. I changed that to 38mm chipboard, and a baffle of 44mm MDF (2 22mm plates glued together). Due to this change in sheet thickness, I had to adjust the dimensions to be sawn, so that the volume in liters remained the same. The speakers have become a lot heavier due to this change. All parts were cut perfectly for me. After gluing everything together, but before gluing the MDF front to the chipboard back of the cabinet, I veneered the chipboards. I had never done veneering before, but with YouTube you can come a long way. I had chosen to coat both the chipboard and the veneer with white wood glue. Allow to dry for at least 45 minutes, and then iron the veneer onto the panels with the iron (cotton setting). Then (after cooling) remove the excess veneer from the edges with a router. I milled the holes for the speakers countersunk in the fronts, so that the speakers are flush with the front of the front. Then follows some soldering work (filters, cables and speakers) and mounting them. The speakers are now playing, and I am happy with them.

Dimensions of my DIY project

the external dimensions (h*w*d), without the stands of 20cm high , are:

84.0 cm x 50.2 cm * 40.1 cm