hifi design
Princess Loudspeaker System
The Princess Loudspeaker System is a project that is still in-progress, a continuation of my thesis project for the Rhode Island School of Design. The Princess Amplifier (pictured above) was fabricated in the fall of 2023, constructed out of patinated mild steel, ash, brass, patinated bronze, and hardware/electronic components. The chassis will carry a modified version of the JE Labs 2A3 circuit, but has not been fully installed due to the fact that this work has needed to be transported a number of times, and will be installed once a more permanent location is found for the entire system. Renderings and progress of the Princess Loudspeakers are pictured below with additional information about the process. Fabrication for the Princess Loudspeakers began in the spring of 2024 and was cutoff due to the project being unfinished at the time of my graduation and then lacking access to a woodshop/metalshop.The Princess Loudspeakers are 3-way horn-loaded loudspeakers, which will include an upper-midrange/tweeter LeCleac’h horn (cutoff frequency at 300hz), a midbass exponential horn (cutoff frequency at 78hz), and a Hypex-powered, sealed subwoofer cabinet (crossed over at 90hz). The upper-midrange horn will be driven by a Radian 475Pb, the midbass horn will be driven by a 18Sound 12MB1000, and the subwoofer will be driven by an Eminence Lab 12. The passive crossover will be housed in the rear cabinet where the input is also located (shown in image #6).
Renderings & Progress
The renderings pictured above are mostly accurate to what the final loudspeaker will look like with some minor changes that were made during the fabrication of the individual parts. These renderings were modeled in Rhino and rendered in Keyshot. Fabrication for the Princess Loudspeakers began in the spring of 2024, constructed out of black lacquered mild steel, laminated maple, ash-veneered plywood, matte PLA, brass, and hardware/electronic components. Apart from the steel rod, all steel components are lasercut 3/16” mild steel; pictured below to the left is a lasercut cardboard full-scale model of a Princess Loudspeaker, including dowels, test 3D printed throats, and test horns made out of chipboard soaked and layered with epoxy.Pictured above to the right are the upper-midrange and midbass horns being finished with a polymerized tung oil-resin hybrid. Each horn is constructed with 9 petals to avoid reflections. The petals of the upper-midrange horn are made by laminating 12 layers of 1/16” maple veneer; the petals of the midbass horn are made by laminating 4 layers of 3/16” resawn maple. Threaded inserts will be installed into the base of each petal so that the throat can be fastened.
The first photo below shows the four structural components that support the upper midrange horn on saw horses and the midbass rear chambers on the table against the wall being finished with blackened lacquer. The middle photo below shows the fully assembled subwoofer cabinet. Recesses were milled out of each face and threaded inserts were installed so that the other components could be fastened. The front-facing recesses will be used for the component shown in the third photo and the recess on the left side (and the right side) will be used for the structural components shown in the first photo. The third photo below shows the front structural component of the loudspeaker that supports the front end of the midbass horn. This is the latest state of the component being welded as there are a few pieces of steel remaining to be welded, but once the welding is able to be completed, the components will be cleaned and sprayed with blackened lacquer.
This is most of what I will share about the progress of the Princess Loudspeaker System. I would like to thank Jeffrey W. Jackson who advised me throughout my research and the entire project, this progress could not have been made without him. I am hoping to gain access to a studio space where I can finish the remaining components, assemble the loudspeakers, and perform some tests. Eventually, I also hope to hold a listening session with this system within a curated room of additional furniture and designed objects. In the meanwhile, I have joined Jeffrey W. Jackson at Experience Music & EM/IA to design and fabricate hifi audio gear, which can be found under the EM/IA section in the menu. Please also look through the IN-PROGRESS section in the menu which will have additional process photos from this project and others.
Loudspeaker Graphics
These four posters were designed and shown as a part of my thesis presentation to explain some of the terms and concepts associated with horn-loaded loudspeakers. Most of these terms and concepts come from my reading of Bjørn Kolbrek and Thomas Dunker’s book “High Quality Horn Loudspeaker Systems,” as well as Jeffrey W. Jackson who advised me throughout this project.Hifi SYstem I: First Attempt
One of these Days — Pink Floyd (shot on an iPhone)
Hannibal — Carlos Santana (shot on an iPhone)
The two videos above show my first attempt at building a hifi system entirely from scratch. This was during my Junior year at RISD for my metals class when I had basically no knowledge of hifi (and only a couple months of practice behind a TIG welder), but wanted to deep dive into it anyway. Under the advisory of Jeffrey Jackson, I built a 3-way mono system. The system was powered by a modified JE Labs 2A3 amplifier, which was housed in a maple chassis with vintage hardware and tripedal steel stand. The subwoofer featured a ported cabinet with an Altec 421. The tweeter used a LeCleac’h flare of Jeffrey’s design, driven by a Radian 475Pb. The midrange horn was my attempt at replicating a Western Electric 24A, also driven by a Radian 475Pb. The passive crossover was designed by Jeffrey. Unfortunately, physics were against me and the 24A replica could not be securely mounted to the top of the loudspeaker as I had designed and was placed angled up on the floor—but at least, the time alignment was a bit better...
Process photos and videos of the system during our final critique are the only form of proper documentation I have. The system had many flaws, and was eventually taken apart and scrapped for parts. However, the experience was invaluable. I was able to learn a lot through this deep dive into something I had little knowledge about and it began my pursuit of designing and fabricating hifi gear professionally.