Since we moved to this house a year ago, I bought a TV for the first time in 15 years. Didn’t bring over the CRT TV (my younger colleague doesn’t even know what is a CRT TV.)

So finally bought a TV few months back and what it needs is a proper TV cabinet plus proper playback system. What’s good with video when the audio sucks?

But then I don’t want TV cabinet plus 2 speaker boxes and a subwoofer, and all the attendant wires. How about combining the speakers into the TV cabinet?

Thus I set about on my quest for a TV cabinet cum 2.1 sound system. This means… I have to scale the mountains, reach the top and consult speaker guru Gabriel… who then blessed me with a 2.1 system cum TV cabinet. And thus, the coolie starts work…

Very pleased with the sound! Good design Gabriel!

The 2.1 amp allows a lot of adjustment on the cutoff frequency and balancing both volumes, so it’s really easy to adjust and get good sound. I didn’t need to adjust much at all. Hey, even a tone deaf fella like me can do it!

All in all, this 2.1 approach can work very well.

How do you approach your TV setup? Do leave comments. Thanks!

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But with such a huge market out there comes the conundrum – how to separate wheat from the chaff? The golds from the duds?

Here is where a curator’s weight in gold is measured!

Evil advocator of all things horn – the hornmeister himself – Gabriel told me about this manufacturer offering horn speaker kit – CNC cutting MDF pieces to be assembled by the end user. In other words, horn speakers given the Ikea treatment.

Here is another gem, this time recommended by Ew, a devil of a guy who knows way way too much about tube amps and transformers…

OK. So here is where I come in. Reading those pages, and oogling at those photos got me drooling, and so I took the next most logical step…

I bought them.

The speaker kit arrived first, all 30kg of it. Hernia alert!

Time to get horny!

A quick mock up sets the pulse racing…

And off we go!

	The first pieces are always the easiest.
	Then it gets tougher to align. Hey, my neighbours wardrobe isn’t very chic.
	Oh my, more clamps please…
	Slowly but surely, it’s getting in shape.

Almost there…

Done!

Err, from that skeleton stage to finished good, actually went through an awful lot of work. You see, I screwed up along the way (I have a knack for this) and Gabriel saved my ass (again) as he had to undo some of my mistakes before setting them right.

Thanks again bro…

The finished speakers are clad in hard wood timber strips and finished in at least 5 coats of polyurethane. The attendant driver here is a none other than our DCA4, stained to match.

Listening to it…

Hey! What’s the little tube amp there? Which brings me to the next page… [scroll down for page 2 link, dumbo]

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So you need help building your preamp/amp and have no one to turn to? Or is your Significant Other pestering you to build those Ultra Cool stuffs at diyparadise but you don’t even know which end of the soldering iron to hold?

Have no fret! ‘Cause help is here! The PowerPoint files below (with PDF versions as well) has not only helped many a DIYer cooked up their own version of Ultra Cool Audio, they have been extremely educational too. Not to mention just downright entertaining clicking them slide by slide….

Best part is, the info below is free for you to download! The schematics, layout and even wiring diagram are all given FREE! No expensive E-books nonsense! This sure beats some of my competitors asking you $$ to purchase their lousy manuals. And stupid meaningless instructions like “connect point A to point B”. : )

As I spent some hours to build all this, I’ll appreciate your token of appreciation. And also, a note informing me what would you like to see more from diyparadise.

PPT PDF How to build the Simple 5687 preamp

PPT PDF How to build the Simple EL84 amp

PPT PDF How to build the 5842 Grounded Grid Tube Gain Stage

Thanks to all those Really Cool DIYERS for the PDF conversion!

Recommended enclosure plans for Merrill DCA4 and DCA5.5 drivers. Enclosure design courtesy of our resident speaker guru, Gabriel. These are simpler designs, great for DIYers. The horn poses a challenge though… Watch out for more interesting designs in future!

DCA4 Wide Baffle

DCA4 Transmission Line

DCA5.5 Transmission Line

DCA5.5 Double Horn

DCA5.5 Tuned Box

Merrill DCA4 and DCA5.5 driver and TC025 specifications.

Merrill DCA4, DCA5.5 and TC025 specs

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