Keynote V1
My first serious speaker build, around 2020. Four full-range drivers per side, tuned port at the back, custom enclosure designed and printed. The part I cared about was the enclosure acoustics — internal curvature, port diameter and depth, standing-wave geometry. I didn’t have measurement equipment, so I was tuning by ear with reference material, but V1 ended up sounding good enough that I started using it daily.
Keynote V2
V2 was a larger two-piece system designed for a proper living-room role. 6” full-range drivers doing the mid/low, dedicated tweeters handling the high end, a proper crossover, tuned rear ports. The two speakers connect to a central amp unit via four-pin industrial connectors — a detail I stole from Marshall after spending too much time re-seating flimsy speaker terminals. The amp runs a Qualcomm Bluetooth chipset with companion-app EQ control, 24V 3A power supply, clean distinct left/right channels.
I did all the cabinet maths up front — port tuning, internal volume, driver Thiele/Small — before touching CAD. The enclosures are completely custom. The whole system has been running in my living room for years and still sounds great.
What I learned
The thing nobody tells you about DIY speakers is that more drivers isn’t automatically better. V1’s four full-range drivers per side sometimes interfered with each other acoustically — cancellations across the overlapping frequency bands. V2’s two-way split (full-range + tweeter) with a real crossover sounded noticeably cleaner with fewer drivers. Counterintuitive if you’re coming from a “more is more” hobbyist instinct; obvious if you stop to think about wave mechanics.