RS100 PC Passive Speakers

This speaker set might be the best way to get into HiFi for very cheap. They are designed by Udo Wohlgemuth and loved by the DIY audiophile community for their simple construction and very low price. A pair of those probably won't cost you more than 80$ and you will be amazed by how they perform.

I don't want to take credit for the design or performance, as said, they were designed by someone else and built by countless people. I just want to show you how you can build a pair of very solidly performing speakers for very low cost and enjoy your music on a new level.

Feel free to ask me anything if something is unclear!

• Dayton RS 100 (4 Ohm)
• Damping material (I used sonofil)
• Connection terminal T56/56/D
• 12mm thick medium-density fibre board
• 22uF capacitor
• 2.7 Ohm resistor
• 0.18mH/0.19Ohm coil

Use 12mm thick medium-density fiberboard to cut out the panels bellow:

• 2x Top/bottom panel: 11cm x 21.6cm
• 2x Side panels:27.4cm x 21.6cm
• 1x Back panel: 11cm x 25cm
• 1x Front panel: 11cm x 23.7cm
• 1x Reflex panel: 11cm x 16.2cm

Tipp: Many home-improvement stores have a wood cutting service, this might spare you a lot of time and mess. Most of them do it for free if you buy the wood at their store.

The simplest way to make the cutouts for the terminal and the speaker will be with a hole-saw kit. Since I have access to a CNC mill I went the fancier route, which also allowed me to mill a recess for the speaker. This isn't necessary and doesn't really affect sound quality, but rather the optics.

Measurements are in the step above.

Use a biscuit joiner to mill slots into the areas where you're going to apply glue later.

Wear safety glasses!

Start by joining the top, rear, bottom, front and the reflex panel together with one of the two sides. If you don't have access to enough clamps you can do it one-by-one, but make sure that they are perfectly perpendicular.

Apply glue to all the parts, you want this box to be as air-tight as possible.

The three electronics parts are connected in parallel like in the circuit above. You can simply twist them together and fix them with solder.

Place the crossover on the back side or on top of the reflex panel. I used hot glue to keep them in place.

Line the inside of the speaker cabinet with sound damping material. This doesn't have to be pretty...

I've used hot glue to keep it in place.

With the same method used before you can now glue the last side panel in place. Again, use enough glue, it doesn't matter if some of it drips inside or smears on the outside.

After letting the glue dry you can solder the speaker and terminal panel in place and you're done!