DIY Reference Quality Speaker Build. How I built these amazing speakers and proper sound comparison! 

Very nice build - I am a huge fan of transmission line speakers. I have designed several mass loaded transmission line speakers, including the crossover, and built them. And I agree that they sound fantastic - much better bass & midrange quality than any speaker I have ever heard, and with much better bass extension from a given driver. My favorite so far, use a 6" paper cone SB Acoustics woofer, and are essentially flat in my room to 32Hz. I used a 3D acoustic modeling program called Hornresp to design the cabinet; and drafted it in DataCAD. I used a miniDSP 2x4 HD to digitally design the crossover, listening to the speakers. I then used XSim to design an analog version of the crossover.

Amazing video! Did not really expect anything going into this but was just blown away by the production quality of the video and way you explained your process. Keep up the good work!

Great job, Chris! I've made about a dozen or so speakers myself. Looks like you checked all the boxes. Great work with the speakers and the video. Well done! Like button smashed!

Nice work Chris. I built a pair of TL speakers from a kit by a well known diy speaker kit supplier and designer here in the uk. They are still sounding good after twenty years. Room acoustics play a big part with your sound system, but you can tailor your kt to suit. There was a few tweaks I could do on my kit, that the designer had thought to include, was crossover adjustments, and driver damping. Might be one for a future build, if you hook up with the guy that designs crossovers. Mid band adjustments by removing some turns of wire from the inductors. Mount the xovers externally, then you can play till your hearts content.

Been using Parts Express and Dayton Audio for over twenty years. I have a pair of rebuilt Sansui Speakers that now use Dayton Audio products, as well as all of my vehicles sound systems being designed around Dayton Audio Reference Series speakers. Incredible performance at an Incredible price point!!!!

This is one of the very few DIY RU-vid video's that I have actually ENJOYED watching! What more needs to be said except...Great Job!

Nice work! I've never been any good with painting MDF so I'm going to try the sealant idea next time. As for the Dayton Reference drivers, I think these are better than a lot of far more expensive drivers. I use lots of Dayton Reference!

The production quality is top tier. You are really amazing

Definitely one of the best detailed video's , with a beautiful set of home speaker's , thank's .

Great video with tons of good information! Just one small correction in case someone is doing it for the first time: contact cement….you wait until the cement is dry enough that is NO LONGER sticky to the touch. Thank you! 🙏🏻

Many have tried..and yet you make it like so simple and very very awsome!..thank you for sharing this ! 👏👏👏

Excellent build log with great design tips. Thank you. Subbed!

Nice work, I've built my own and it's a really rewarding experience, assuming you know what you're doing!

Beautiful job done! Transmission line as well!!! 👍👍👍👍

As a beginner learner, I appreciate your teaching. 🙏🏻

These turned out insanely good, and gave me some nice pointers when it comes to finish! I'm building a pair of WMTMW speakers, where each woofer is in their own transmission line. I originally built them with a passive crossover, but I'm currently re-building them with an active crossover, while at the same time making a new front baffle where I'm flush-mounting the drivers. I'm finishing mine off with black fronts and backs (same way you've done it, thanks for the tips), but I'm planning to use vinyl for the top and sides. It was way cheaper than veneer, but doesn't look quite as nice. Again, yours turned out insanely good; both in terms of looks and sound!

You are right that was a really inspiring build and it’s sounds amazing thanks for sharingk

Amazing build tutorial! Love the final product . . . 💯💯💯

This is beautiful, and your work is really clean, taking care of the details.

Awesome, well produced video. You made it look so effortless, but have feeling its a lot harder than it looks.

Amazing video and project!!! next time I would love to see your process in designing the port.

Great speaker build ! A cent of suggestion, as I saw the picture that tweeter speakers placment are a bit under the cutting holes as I assumed it being cut a bit over deep. Actually in order to compensate the height, you can get a 3-5mm thick EVA foam sheet to cut a ring ,that its size idential to the tweeter mouting hole. And then put it underneath the tweeters and mount it onto the cabinet as a buffer cushion pad. And then slowly adjust the tweeter mounting screws until the tweeter suface being the in same level as the speaker baffle surface to make it look better like a pro built. Also the EVA pad can help to absorb some twitter resonance as well. You can also do the same way for the woffers with thinner EVA foam sheet to compensate the mounting height as well . For the crossover, its better to change the same value air core inductors instead of iron core inductor will make the mid bass sound greater ! Good luck!

Very nice and clean work ! Congrats

Outstanding demo. Thanks!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ EXCELLENT BUILD..! Always wanted to experiment with "T Line" enclousers.

Great build! Impressive for your first time with veneers. A response curve compared to the other speakers would have been great. Got a new sub

Really enjoyed this, great video!

Awesome build and great video. Please continue making content. Just discovered your channel today. Subscribed!

Chris your video is awesome & really inspiring to DIY build. Videography, Content & your step by step explanation are really motivating to build Speaker. Great fan of your work. keep doing more videos. i have watched you video already close 10+ times.

I have one bit of advice as a fellow DIY'er, novice wood worker and music junkie.....Nothing! you nailed it. Great video production, great build, and anything you are going to do differently in the future is learnt from this video. Experience is the only true source of knowledge. Keep it up. I hope to make a video as good as yours some day. Cheers.

I built a pair of these inspired by this video - a few changes: I made the cabinets taller by 4" to extend the TL, and kept the drivers in roughly the same location. Also coated the interior completely with 1/2" padding, and added acoustic foam over 1/2 the tunnel. They sound amazing - originally they were scheduled for the garage, but I liked them so much, I replaced my Klipsch F2's with them in my home theater.

Great job Chris, speakers look fantastic.

Dude... How you don't have more subs is beyond me. I'm loving the shit out of this!!! So tastefully done too!

Just found your channel. Love it!! Im a fan now!

Wow, what is this quality? Great job Chris, here's a new sub

Very well done brother!

This was awesome! Keep making video 👌🏾👍🏾🤗

Great quality video if the rest of the world could follow your format everyone could stand to watch and listen to an entire video on how to do for the first time projects. Nice work. I learned 3 things at least. Was not a waste of my time.

Great video, nice work!

Wow really nice! Great job!

You do great work! Thanks for sharing.

As a woodworker i will give you my advice about glue. PVA glue is not a filler. put just a thin film of glue and dont clamp very tight so it wont squeeze out. Less is more with wood glue.

Nice build! Love a clean TL speaker! ✅🍿

Congratulations for your great build! Top passion and excellent videomaking here. Just a few suggestions to improve your wonderful creatures: 1) Glue is super well made on your side and a good base, but not enough to ensure proper stiffness. One screw each 10 cm approx is needed to keep all panels together, included lateral ones for internal panels. Top importance for the front baffle, even if difficult implementation now because of the rounded edges. 2) Tweeter looks a bit recessed, but it must be exactly in line with gaskets of the other drivers. 3) Stands must be much more rigid, if properly coupled with the floor, then soundstage will take huge profit. If you also fine tune them on your room resonance by adjusting length of the tube port, then I'm sure you will be even more satisfied about the comparison. Hope it helps! Cheers

it looks great and clean too

Nice work Chris

Your video is really helpfull. Progect is really good. And - the most important- REALISTIC))) thank U for this DIY

amazing work!

Great professional look!

Amazing job 👍🔉

Great video! Nice speakers.

Nice aesthetics. Look very good

15:19 Totally worth my time. I simply enjoyed this alot. I dont know why but this was great for my inner peace.

I thought this channel might have couple of million subs.Great content !

those 250F are pretty bright on the treble, but also give it great clarity in comparison.

Beautiful speakers!!

Dayton Audio's parts show up in everyone's builds so it seems. (including mine)......... I believe it's Parts Express's House brand. PE is located in Springboro Ohio, a suburb of Dayton OH. Yeah, I'm in the Cleveland area, so I'm 1 day away for them shipping me stuff. I am glad you are happy with your project, and I hope it brings you lots of enjoyable listening.

Hi Chris, I heard you say spikes decouple the loudspeakers. As a matter of fact, spikes couple the loudspeakers, allowing vibrations reflecting back into the cabinet out of fase. To decouple the loudspeakers, you should shove something under the loudspeaker that absorbs vibrations to really isolate. I use IsoAcoustic Gaia feet with far better results than with cones or spikes.

Very nice build. You mentioned this was your first speaker build but surely you must be a woodworker. Good tools, good techniques. I have these drivers and love them. I’m especially a fan of the tweeters. Very crispy.

They look great. Next logical step would be a custom crossover as I'm sure the stock is going have some issues and is really leaving performance of the Dayton Reference drivers on the floor.

Good woodwork! Tech wise: The with the foam it really depends. Most use polyester wool. The crossover always should ve made specifically to the drivers as every driver is different and needs a different crossover because of it. Apart from that solid work!

Great video, next step build the Subwoofer, and keep up the good work.

Awesome build Chris, got a few ideas for my current design and helped me understand a little bit more. Just a tip, wear a mask next time you cut mdf, its really horrible for your lungs

Very underrated! This is just next level content. When I started to watch video I didn’t look at the subscriber count. I was just watching the video and in my mind I had “ this is a million subscribers channel”. Truly he deserves it.

Great job sir

Yow! The purpose of the port and its design is critical, is to allow the back pressure to exit the box in-phase with the front pressure, thereby allow you to harness the total movement of the woofers. Unlike an acoustic suspension where only the the front pressure is utilized and the back pressure absorbed by damping material.

Excelente trabajo!!

Nice job!

💯💪🏽🔥thank you, enjoyed this video 💯pct…very nice and beautiful speakers…

Great Job! Those look fantastic! And the cinematography was spot on. If you ever want to learn custom crossovers it ever want to collaborate on a project sometime, let me know. I'm always up for a good collaboration build 😁.

Very nice video!

Hi Chris, really well done video and expertly done speakers! They are works of art and simply gorgeous, especially the way you designed & built the stands. Now fill in the Tweeter and top woofer holes and recut for a center Tweeter, D'Apolito design, or did you already consider it from the start and have a reason why not? Yes that was inspiring and I need to get back to a sawdust-eyebrows weekend! 👊😁👍

Very Very nice . let's this be a lesson to those that think you can't do excellent with crappy tools . 😂😉 seriously man ,you did a great job !

I'm playing this on my pc that has a sorround sound setup, the difference is as clear as day! GREAT JOB!

That was a great video. I would like to have a try at it. Could you please provide more details on the port size and its internals dimension wise?

Very nice!!!

Love the build ! Really inspiring. Thanks for sharing it. Could you tell us the size (lengths) and the angle between the inner bracing (tr line )?

@4:41 "A Double Diamond works wonders" Those were the days!

Hi i prefer the DIY Reference Quality Speakers ! i would only think about placing a thick foam ring around the tweeter Imhe in a normal home situation this tends to limit nasty reflections from side walls, ceiling and floor and the soundstage could improve a lot (the sound image is more focused) Congratulations and kind regards, gino

Very nicely done. Sign me up!

Just a suggestion that will save you some saw dust. Us a smaller diameter router bit, an 1/2" up cut bit will take out less material, and still get the job done. Thank you for the Dayton Audio info.

We see the work of a good furniture maker. In addition to the sound, there are many questions.

Very nice job and editing. Very dark wood shop though!

Great build job. They look fantastic. And from what I could hear over my headphones they stood up well. I am a Klipsch fan but they sounded really balanced. Do you have build plans available at all???

Very nice build and video ! Would only suggest maybe going back in the crossovers and add some Sonicaps or Earsie components will make ur build sound so much better .. great job. !!!

Hi 👋, Chris, Nice job, A few tips on connecting the back and sides together, That is depending on what tools you’ve got available remind me to help line up the joint to keep it square, Biscuit joints about every 5060 mil apart or small Domino, I see you’ve got around the table, There is a router bit that is at 45° angle but it’s got a finger joint in it which makes it very very strong, When using it you have to remember which part of the cabinet or the side or the front or the back it’s been jointed to which component because you run one piece flat on the table up against the fence you run the other piece up against the fence with his end against the table so when you put the two pieces together they lock together and line everything all up, I hope you can understand what I am trying to explain, I am into transmission line speaker cabinets I’ve built mine 40 odd years ago they are quite big however I stand approximately 1 1/2 m in height 30 cm across the front 37 cm deep. I just recently put new drivers into the cabinet the drivers are made by Seas 8 ohms 150w , I used a Fibre quilt Which you tease to open up the fibres and it’s got a Sounds exorbitant pitch like paper I can’t remember what it was called, The crossover unit it’s built into a box, Which plugs into the back of the unit so If you need to change any of the components you can do, And they are Bywired , They set on a metal frame with large spikes so I can adjust the cabinet either to stand upright or lean forward or back, Spikes then sit on four steel blocks with sound absorbent material underneath, Because they fire out of the bottom there is a 10 cm gap underneath, Play are made out of 1 inch thick or 24 mil thick MDF needless to say they are very heavy, They where built from a plan that I’d found in a hi-fi magazine back from the 70s, I hope this can be some help to you and some other people, I am a great believer of transmission line loudspeaker cabinets especially if you’ve got the room, These have got a very good face response not for the faint hearted, They sound amazing . I might be an old dude as they say approach and 71 years young, my choice of music is very varied , From heavy metal to classical, blues, Viking war music, and the list goes on, Good luck with your next build , I look forward to seeing your next project, How you explained the construction of your cabinet, I thought that’s quite interesting.. PHIL FROM THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOULIN FRANCE.

Congratulations on your successful build! They look amazing. I don't listen to utube sound tests due to the compression etc, but I'm impressed with the job you did.

Great job with the content. Keep it up. Anything you'd do different with the speaker build now that you've lived with them?

I have to learn some knowledge from you 💚👍

The stands are a great idea, should have great isolation compared to normal floorstanders.

Thank you for the detailed video. I'm fascinated in the wiring of 4ohm speakers to 8ohm impedance. I never knew that could be done. i'm still learning. So can i wire all 4ohm speakers in this manner and will it be safe for my amp which allows from 6 ohms ? Thank you sir.

I'm glad to see you being a good example by wearing ear protection but a mask can help to especially with the sorts of adhesives found in MDF.

Great build and video! +subscriber Could you please tell more about transmission line. How did you calculate it?

I love this video so much it makes me want to build my own speakers. The build is clean and solid, and the finish is very nice. I don't exactly understand the purpose of the transmission line instead of just a port, what's the adventage ?

you did good, better than the Infinity obviously but Klipsch is the Klipsch! the Best. I'm so lucky to have ref 62 , nice build! bravo!!!

Great speaker build. You should be proud. The only minor thing I would have done is use a better acoustic foam, with a higher density .

Aaaah yeah! Very niiice!

Freaking love this

Great looking speakers!! Great job! How do you get the cabinet size ? Would be nice a video about this. Thank you

Terrific job on the video and a great looking set of speakers. What is the transmission line tuned to and how low does the bass go? Plans?