Started build with an Auto Tuba Tall version. This one is 16.5" wide. Powered by an infinity 1060 built with Lowe's Auraco. The TAT allows a taller driver which is perfect for the 1060 since it is around 6" tall. This build was fun, since I did not worry too much about finish and concentrated on air tight only. I wanted to try finishing it with laminate for countertops to make it spill and dust proof in the garage.
I picked up a 5' by 5' sheet of laminate at Habitat for Humanity Builder's Store for $5. Since the entire outside surfaces of the TGT will be covered, there will be very little prep of the outside cabinet is needed. The outside corners need to be square, that is about it, no need to fill nail holes or screw heads, or sand smooth. To finish, it is basically rough cutting 6 laminate panels, applying contact cement to both sides, let dry, install one side, then router with a flush cut bit. I tried a recessed routered access panel and it came out pretty good. Good enough to bring inside the house. You route the cabinet door out and make the door before laminating each of them. I didn't have enough laminate for the throat side in one piece, so I had a seam. The only part that didn't turn out great is the opening by the angled throat, since the router didn't want to follow the angle. The finish looks nice, but the corners are pretty sharp, you wouldn't want to run into one of them in your living room. I rounded the sharp laminate edges with 180 sandpaper so I can manhandle this around without getting cut.
I had enough left over to finish my work bench, and baffles for the other speakers.
My TGT next to my Auto Tuba standard for comparison. I spent 1/2 the time finishing the TGT in laminate as sanding, painting, and finishing the AT with paint. The AT is awaiting its final home in the trunk. I picked up a restocked 200 Yung plate amp for $60 at PE, which I will mount on the workbench wall. This matches well with my $65 driver.
I needed shelf speakers. Some SLAs would work very well, but they not in the $200 budget at this time. I will upgrade someday, but here is my cheapo garage shelf speaker upgrade build. I wanted piezos for the wide dispersion. Wide dispersion is important in the shop when you are moving around a lot and the speakers are overhead. Mids are GRS poly 6-1/2" and tweeters are Goldwood 1005 piezos. I used a 40 ohm resistor across the piezos, a 1.5 uF cap, and a 1.6 ohm pad. I added a 0.40 mH inductor to make a simple 1st order crossover of around 2800 Hz.
Started with the old garage junk shelf speakers and yarded out old components. These did not sound horrible, but not great. They distorted badly at decent volume.
Cut out for the new speakers. These are pretty flimsy 3/8" pressboard, they will need braced. They are around 0.16 cubic foot each, which is small for the mids, but I will pack them with polyfill.
Test fit:
Bracing with scraps
Formica glued down and clamped, I used an adhesive for rubber base since I had some and wanted to fill the holes in the front for the tweeter so the opening was round so I could router out the laminate opening. I filled 1/2 holes easily.
Wire piezos and cross over.
Route out openings. I also stuffed well with polyfill. I used speaker rope caulk on the drivers so they are air tight.
Finished Shelf Speaker
Finished place on the shelf above work bench 7' high.
I also built an amp mounting box that matches:
Mounted to workbench wall for easy access.
Listening Impressions: I have not found a good place for the TGT yet, I will have to some shop organization to make room, and hang some drywall in the corner this will fire into, but I have the plate amp mounted on the wall over the bench. I am using the new shelf speakers and ADS now. It sounds, much better. I did not realize until now, the genius of having a plate mount subwoofer permanently installed in the garage over the workbench. Now I can easily break in all my new subwoofers very easily by just unplugging the TGT and plugging into the new speaker on the bench for checking for baffle clearance or breaking it in.
These shelf speakers are not BFM designs but they sound very good for what they are. The shelf speakers are too bright for near-field next to me on the workbench, but up 7' with a 45 degree off axis, they sound great. I hope to replace these someday with some SLAs. I will do a formica baffle on those also.
