Building the Buschhorns

Go back

Yes it is possible to build your own horn speakers in a NYC Apartment....Here's How!

Step 1. Get the wood cut and delivered to the apartment. I used Lumberboys on 2nd Avenue. I must say all of their cuts were perfect to 1/2 a mm. The blue tape is to mark all of the pieces according to the plan. Some of the cuts look identical. Note: All of the wood is 1/2 inch plywood. The cheapest stuff they had in stock. I didn't know how the project would turn out so I didn't want to spend the extra cash.

Step 2. Cut the circular holes for the drivers and start gluing. I used basic Elmer's Carpenter glue..a lot of it.  The speakers are held together almost entirely with this stuff. This picture shows that I started with the outside of the cabinet first and then 'built' the horn against the outer cabinet.

Step 3. Build the folded horn. Again a lot of glue and a lot of measuring. One good reason to use the glue is that you can make adjustments to the horn fold so that it is perfect when it dries. These folds spec out to about +-1/2 millimeter to the plan. There are 2 triangular voids in the horn that I filled tightly with polyester fill. I figured that it was antiresonant, would make a better seal and is lightweight.

Step 4. Test it out. Notice the old Klipsch Heresy's next to the Buschhorns. I had originally built these speakers to go in the bedroom system. Even with the Radio Shack 40-1197 that is pictured, they sound almost as good as the Heresy's. I turned to my girlfriend and said "I think I am onto something here!" After some more listening I realized that they were better in my main system than the Klipsch.

Another shot of the right speaker

A shot of the left speaker

Step 5 Adding a better driver. I have read that these horns were originally designed for the Fostex FE103 driver. Having read a lot about Fostex and the relative merits of all of their full-range drivers PLUS all that I have read about Ed Schillings Horn speakers, I decided to opt for the top-o-da-line FE108Sigma. Right out of the box, the Fostex was incredible. The accuracy and imaging abilities of these drivers is amazing.

<