Building the GR-Research A/V-2 Speakers

Another of my many hobbies is home theater. When it came time to get some real speakers, of course I wanted to build them myself. Enter Dannie Ritchie of GR-Research.

Danny offers kits for many different types of speakers. I chose to go with the A/V-2 speakers for front mains and center channel. Since I have a large subwoofer, I don't need full-range front speakers. For around $500, I was able to purchase all three speaker kits. These speakers have been compared favorably against speakers in the $2000 range, so I'm pretty excited to hear them.

Construction:

I started by making a cut-list for the 3/4" and 1/2" MDF pieces. The cut list is designed to allow me to change the saw's fence only once for each dimension, thereby making my cuts as accurate as possible. I was able to get all 3 speakers' parts cut out from less than 1 full sheet of MDF, less than $20.

The next step was to cut everything out. I put a freshly sharpened blade on my tablesaw and went to town.

Then, for one speaker only, I laid out all of the circles that needed to be cut out. Notice the piece of 1/4" hardboard. That's going to be a template for cutting the half-circles out of the brace pieces. Since there'll be no MDF to support the pin of my circle jig, I'll make the template and just use a pattern bit to rout to it.

Off to the drill press, I drilled 1/16" holes at all of the centers I had marked. I then used those pieces as templates to transfer the center marks to the other 2 speakers. Saves a ton of time measuring this way.

Here's my circle jig and the cutting setup I use. The jig is adjustable from about 2 1/2" diameter to over 16". I use 1 1/2" rigid foam insulation to work on, that way I can cut all the way through without harming anything. It also acts as a bit of a non-skid surface when I'm spinning the circle jig around.

Switched to a 1/2" straight bit and cut the recesses for the tweeter and the speaker cup. Note the 1/2" holes for the tweeter's wires were cut at the drill press with a Forstner bit.

Test fit of the speaker cup. Like a glove!

Uh-oh, trouble. The tweeter's flange is not concentric with its body, so it doesn't fit in the hole. A little coercion with a drum sander should remedy the situation nicely.

Ah, I love playing with my MiniMax. Rough cut the pieces close to the line. I considered stacking them up and cutting all 6 pieces at once, but decided that fell under the "Bad Idea" heading.

A little carpet tape to stick the template to the workpiece, and a flush-cut router bit makes quick work of cleaning up the curves.

After applying some acoustic foam to the back and sides, it's gluing time! I'm always nervous during glue-up...it's so permanent! I also need more clamps! I only have enough to clamp up one box at a time.

It finally looks like a real speaker! The electronics are in and soldered up. I'm going to test it before gluing the final side in place.

The test sounded great! Here is the fiberglass insulation I put in according to the directions.

Putting the final panel in place! Have I mentioned that I need more clamps?

I rounded the corners with a 3/4" roundover bit in my router table. The speaker cup and speakers were soldered in. Two down, one to go!