Some days it just doesn’t pay to try.

I have a David flat pack that needs to be finished. They’re a complex cutout, use damn near every tool in the shop. I’d done all of it but the sides and baffle front, yesterday. I know better than to do complex cuts when it’s late in the day, so I left them for this morning.

Get to the shop, the laptop won’t boot. It says no HDD. It’s an SSR drive, so I assume it’s dead. Run back across town to print out the David plans. Not having the sketchup available is trickier, but I was doing Bill Fitzmaurice cabs long before sketchup came around. His sometimes mind twisters take a bit of interpolation, they used to take a lot before the plans became so excellent.

I get the sides laid out, and start the rough cuts with my jig saw. 1/2 way through the last cut, I break a blade. No big deal, except that I discover I’m out of blades. I need the saw for the rough cuts on the baffle also. I finish the side cut with a handsaw, figuring I’ll get a jigsaw blade when the hardware store opens this afternoon. Except it’s Father’s day, and they’re closed. The odds of Wally World having a bosch jig saw blade are pretty slim.

Okay, I figure I can make the access panel cutouts. I use a 1/8 upspiral in a Bosch Colt router, which allows me to make the cutout and the panel in one operation. I get it out, and it’s broken. In the protective case. Sitting on the shelf. I know it wasn’t the last time I used it. The alternative method requires the jigsaw.

So I think I’ll do some speaker testing on the new MVW 2 speakers. Wait, the laptop is broken.

One of those days. What really sucks is it’s only about 75 degrees today. Working in the shop with all the doors open is a pleasure. A no wind, cool day perfect for testing speakers too. Netflix and chill I believe is the order of the day. It’s Father’s day, that’s what I’m supposed to be doing anyway.

Here’s bunch more train graffiti pics for your edification.

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SpeakerHardware has long been the home for DIY pro audio and instrument speaker cabinets. We’ve always had a smattering of home audio kits, but that’s now changed. A whole new lineup of home audio is now at the DIY Home Audio Speaker department

We are proud to announce that SpeakerDesignworks has joined our stable of innovative speaker cabinet designers. Their cabs embody the concepts SpeakerHardware was created for. Interesting, innovative, excellent designs that the DIY’er can build at home and have an amazing system. There are 6 new kits, including the famous “Statements”, with flat packs from 3/4 baltic birch available. Assembly videos will be sent with each kit showing the correct assembly procedure using the easy techniques we’ve acquired from many years of kit design. They can all be built using minimal tools and quick assembly.

Also added into the DIY Home Audio is the excellent “David” from long time designer Bill Fitzmaurice. We’ve collaborated with Bill to create two versions of this excellent horn loaded sub, MTM top design speaker. A budget version that gives excellent performance, and a no holds barred break your walls audiophile version. Assembly and kit instructions are available directly from Bill.

6, count em’, 6 subwoofers for your home system. The incredibly easy Simplexx subwoofers by Bill Fitzmaurice. The high performance Tuba subwoofers are horn loaded for massive amounts of bass. The THT by Bill will get you a 20hz horn. The Table Tuba a 30hz horn. The newest contender is the Comp Cube, a tuned labyrinth that’s extremely flexible in driver choice, and comes in 3 sizes. An out of the box design, it far outperforms it’s size class, as is the hallmark of all the BigELoudspeaker Designs.

Stay tuned. Much more to come. Oh, and here’s some more train pics.
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When I started SpeakerHardware many years ago I had a vision. I wanted a place where talented amateur designers could bring their speaker designs to the rest of us. To be honest, I kind of lost that focus over time. The success of the Bill Fitzmaurice and greenboy diy speaker cabinets just kind of overwhelmed the original goal.

I have come back to that original goal with this new website. I have been pursuing new designs and designers for a while now, and will continue to do so. A bit of background and introduction to my 2 original designers is warranted.

Bill Fitzmaurice designs specializes in horns. Bill’s original site consisted of just 2 cabs, the DR250 and the Tuba 24 subwoofer. Which I built about 6 months after he first went on line. His designs were the motivation for SpeakerHardware. For which I owe Bill a debt of gratitude. Over the years it’s evolved into a complete line of PA, Bass Guitar, Subwoofers, Monitors and Home Audio. For practically every DIY cab of Bill’s designs we provide parts, flatpacks and support. Many years of audio engineering experience give Bill real world insights into what’s needed and what’s not. The hallmarks of his DIY cabs are affordability, efficiency, yankee ingenuity and tremendous support from his forum billfitzmaurice.info.

Dave greenboy Green was the second designer to come on board. Dave designed a series of bass guitar plans called the fEARfuls and just released them to the world for free. After a couple of builders of fEARful greenboy bass cabs approached me about supplying them parts, I asked Dave for permission to sell kits based on his plans. Extensively tested, tweaked and used by Dave himself before releasing, they represent a true boutique DIY bass guitar cabinet. The user base is quite large, motivated and helpful.  There is also an extended line of cabs called Fearless which are Authorized builder models only, of which we can build those also.

As always, click read more to leave any comments.
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This has been a long road to make this website happen. I started planning and working on it over 2 years ago. The original site grew organically as the business grew. As a result, it was a mess. The average DIY speaker cabinet builder would drop in and have no idea what was going on. The clients coming from the Bill Fitzmaurice Forum, the greenboy fEARful/fearless forum,  and the BigE forum generally got around okay, but it was still confusing.

This is intended to fix all that. Expanded product offerings, better layouts and more information than ever before. It’s also mobile friendly.

I’m restarting my blog here and will be posting regular updates. There will be tips, tricks, videos from my youtube channel, and more. Show off your work. Post it to instagram, Facebook, twitter or any social media with #speakerhardware. I’ll find it and repost links to it here. Maybe your masterwork will get posted to the rotating banner.

Thanks for coming by. This is an amazing business with really excellent customers who are fun. We build fun stuff, and have a good time doing it. Please leave some comments on how you like the site and changes you’d like to see.  Just click the read more button below.

Leland