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by neya 2783 days ago
I have built my own wireless bookshelf speakers using a combination of GE5654 Tubes, TPA3116D2 [0][1] and customized woofers and tweeters (Rosewood finish) [2]. I have to say, it really came out much better than I expected. [3]

Here's how I did it:

Last year, I visited Taiwan and China, I basically went to scout for speaker suppliers. I shortlisted a couple, but I realized, the popular they are, the pricier they are - regardless of the quality. Then, I realized something shocking. Actually, most speaker manufacturing is done in Nanjing (and one more location starting in N, forgot). These factories just stick the brand names on top and license it to these "big brands". And you pay a premium for that. So, I visited one direct supplier in Nanjing. It was a very small shop. I just walked in, placed an order for a pair. The whole set of 4 speakers (2 woofers and 2 mid-ranges) costed me in total of $200 US roughly. I purchased two 6.5" aluminium cone woofers and 2 golden capped full ranges. I like woofers with large Xmax, so I bought these for bass units.

You can purchase from AliExpress too, although it's slightly pricier. But most speakers from China, contrary to popular belief, are very very high quality. In fact, the consumer audio space such as Sony, Samsung, etc. use much lower grades than what's normally found on AliExpress.

As for amplifier, buy a half-decent board. Strip out all the cheap components, spend 3x the price of the board on really good quality components. For the TPA3116D2 board, this place is a good start [4]

Hope this helps. Cheers.

[0] https://www.instagram.com/p/BplhIIqHNhl/

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpl71mUHLbm/

[2] https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm02F4OgAwX/

[3] https://www.instagram.com/p/Bppl-dsHWuW/

[4] http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/diyaudio-com-wiki/252663-tpa3...

1 comments

Can you share some links to aliexpress speakers that have the same internals as yours?
I was able to find the full range I used, looks pretty close. Probably the same: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/NEW-MODEL-Audio-Labs-Top-end...

I am not able to find the woofers, probably need more deeper digging.