Last month, the audio industry was saddened to hear about the passing of author, educator and SynAudCon founder Don Davis (see In Memoriam, click here). Tens of thousands of audio pros were touched by his workshops, seminars and industry-standard texts, including Acoustical Tests & Measurements and Sound System Engineering. But one that changed my life forever was a small, unassuming 1966 paperback entitled How to Build Speaker Enclosures. As a 14-year-old musician and novice sound engineer growing up in Italy in the 1960’s, finding such materials was nearly impossible, and this was a revelation. Light on math and theoretical jargon, the down-to-earth book had basic explanations of horn and enclosure types; cutaways of classic Altec, Bozak and Klipsch designs and more. It also included nomograms for using free-air resonance to predict optimum box volumes; port/duct depth; and component values for passive crossover designs.
Soon after, I was hooked on designing sound systems, which I owe in large part to the late, great Don Davis. Although much of the text is dated, the book is still a worthwhile read; and a search for How to Build Speaker Enclosures on archive.org yields a free pdf download. Thank you, Mr. Davis and rest well, knowing you made a difference in so many lives…
