I am new here and have been quite impressed with what I have read here concerning Pi speakers. I would like to build 5 matching speakers for my system and would appreciate any advice as to which direction to proceed. Here is my list of concerns, not in any particular order:

1. Small size (the smaller the better)
2. High SPL's (I like it LOUD and CLEAN)
3. High sensitivity (over 100db/1w/1m would be nice)
4. Low cost (the best bang for the buck)

I will be crossing over to my subwoofer at 80 hz, so deep bass is not necessary. What model of Pi speaker do you recommend to best fill these requirements? And then, how do I get the plans to construct them? Thanks in advance for your help.

1. (5) Professional Series four Pi speakers
2. (3) Pro four Pi for left, center, right and (2) Theater three Pi speakers for surrounds
3. (5) Theater three Pi speakers
4. (3) Theater three Pi speakers for left, center, right and (2) Studio Series one Pi or two Pi speakers
5. (5) Studio Series one Pi or two Pi speakers

for your very thorough and helpful answer! After considering everything you have said, it seems like I would like to build the Professional Series Four Pi's. I have emailed you with my request and eagerly await the plans. Thanks again for all your help!

Here is one option that may work well for you......

Jammin Jerseys has 20 or so 2226H drivers that were used once or twice for $200 ea.
Also Parts Express severely lowered their Eminence prices so today
you can really save a bundle building your Four Pis.

$400 (2) 2226H drivers -Jammin Jerseys
$60 (2) H290 Horn Flares - Parts Express
$122 (2) PSD2002 drivers -Parts Express
$165 All crossover parts and two D-cup heavy duty binding posts from Madisound
$70 Shipping for all this stuff
$50 Build your own boxes with MDF and paint them.

$932 total

If you did'nt care about prices and just bought everything from Parts Express and had a cabinet builder do the cabs......
$1400 for Parts
$600 rough estimate for finished cabs
$2000 total

• http://www.jamminjersey.com/speakers.htm#JBL

I have a couple of questions to start off with, but I'm sure I am going to have more as time goes on.

The plans call for 3/4" stock, and I assume that it should be Baltic Birch plywood, right? Since that stuff is really expensive, would it work just as well to use 1.5" thick MDF (2 layers of 3/4" MDF laminated together? And since I would be making the cabinets 3/4" thicker, I should increase the external dimensions by 3/4" on each side, retaining the internal dimensions as is. Is this correct or do you recommend another way to do this?

When buying parts, I understand sometimes I need to get 2 or 4 parts and wire them together to make a larger equivalent part. Resistors in parallel add the wattage, right? How about the inductors? Madisound sells all kinds in all gauges of wire. What type and gauge inductors should be used? Does the resistance of the inductor matter?

Well, that's enough for now. I will be back with more questions later. I'm just very excited and want to start planning out thiss project. Thanks again, guys!!

You could go 1.5" but it is a pain in the rear to have to laminate all the wood together plus cutting 1.5" of MDF is not fun.
I decided to comprimise and make my cabs out of 1" MDF.
Yes you need to make the boxes larger if you go with thicker stock.

Two of the same resistors in parallel makes half the resistance and twice the power handling.

Go with 16awg inductors......

I've built subwoofers out of 1.5" thick laminated MDF and I have no trouble at all, so that's really not an issue for me. Isn't 1" thick MDF pretty expensive? 3/4" MDF only costs $16.00 for a 49"X97" sheet, but if 1" MDF is pretty cheap, maybe I'll just go with that instead.