Looking for a sanity check before I start cutting ply.
I want to build a portable-ish speaker (think kitchen/garden/desk, not backpack) around a pair of GRS 4FR-8 full-range drivers and a TPA3116D2 50W Bluetooth board. Only proper enclosure I've built before is an Auratone-style sealed mixcube, so this is a step up.
The thing I'm most unsure about: with two 4.5" full-rangers, am I better off going ported and accepting the low-end will roll off where it rolls off, or is there a cleverer topology (TL, MLTL, small horn-loaded design) that'd actually be worth the extra complexity for these specific drivers? I play a lot of jungle / DnB so I do care about getting some useful low end, but I'm not deluded enough to think a pair of 4.5" drivers will do 40Hz — I just want to get the most out of what they can do.
A few things that might shape suggestions:
- I've got a Bambu A1 Mini, so I'm happy to print ports, flares, waveguides, bracing — anything that benefits from being printed rather than fudged out of MDF offcuts.
- Main box will be ply or MDF.
- Happy to add a small woofer or passive radiator if going two-way actually buys me meaningfully better results, but I'd rather keep it simple if a well-designed full-range box gets me 90% of the way there.
- I've pulled the TS params from the GRS datasheet but haven't done much with them in WinISD beyond plotting a couple of alignments — open to suggestions on what to actually look for.
- I'll be powering the amp direct from an 18V Ryobi power tool battery
Has anyone built something similar with the 4FR-8 (or equivalents)? Any designs worth stealing from?