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Author: Mark Wheeler - TNT-Audio UK
Written: Autumn 2025

Every January, your old scribe makes “marmalade”. Italian readers will recognise the Latin roots of this word which in Italian (“marmellata”) is universal for jams and conserves. In Britain, the term “marmalade” exclusively applies to conserves of citrus fruit. Most “marmalade” is made from Seville oranges. Some marmalades are made from grapefruit, some are made from limes, some are made from lemons and some are made from various combinations of the above.

Your Old Scribe has eaten enough marmalade, a Sunday breakfast favourite toast coating, that once a year he likes to make his own. January - February is when the Seville oranges are in season. It is also just after Christmas so will be nicely mature by next Midwinter Solstice season. This year 2kG of organic Seville oranges went into the jamming cauldron, together with 4 lemons and 1 grapefruit, along with the requisite quantity of unrefined Demarrera sugar. Scotch whisky (note no e in Scotch Whisky) is the final touch and this year our local distillery Bladnoch provided the amber nectar.

“Is this Marmalade Makers' Monthly now?” Challenge p*ss*d off Plebs, stage left, desperate to hear some audio relevance

Achieving exactly what we want often requires that we do it ourselves. Despite the promises of the Siren marketing people, our personal most desirable thing may not be what they want to sell. This is why so many of us become DIY loudspeaker builders. First we build and modify kits or published designs because we can see features missing that we desire.

Loudspeaker Building

After building a kit or a published design or two, we might begin to design our own to incorporate the features we most desire. We realise that we want to measure our efforts and buy our first test gear. We realise that juggling the different priorities is addictive. We also discover very quickly that CAD software is very limited in what it can indicate about the ultimate sound. CAD is just like any other tool, results are entirely down to the quality of the tool and the skill of the operator. So we also build endless prototypes. Because this is a weekend hobby it may take 25 years to achieve the level of know-how of a relatively young professional R&D team. AND this knowledge is only in the narrow pursuit of our own priorities, with no constraints of production, reliability, price or consumer panel pleasing aesthetics.

In 2025 it ought to be a lot easier than days gone bye. There is low cost measuring equipment available, access to global OEM parts supply, reams of published research, lower cost power tools, and cheap computing power in abundance. However, the questions posted on DIY loudspeaker groups often indicate that the querant has made no effort at all to research the subject matter. The questions demand instant gratification from fellow users. The answers are often repetitions of opinions someone has read elsewhere with little evidence that they've actually tested the idea themselves. Arguments break out between opposing opinions, both possible correct in other contexts. Because the querant did not know enough to ask a detailed enough question, there's a pile-on of opinions which may or may not be relevant. Whatever happened to the apprenticeship model of learning?

Too often in most fields we now have theoretically educated people of little practical experience. The point of a hobby is for it to be different from our everyday lives. We can redress the theory vs practice gulf by creating our own learning-theory-practice cycle with audio building. This is good for us and will generate real expertise.

Autumn and Winter Hobbies

In the Northern Hemisphere it is now past the Equinox and the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer. In the Southern Hemisphere Summer is approaching when it might be too hot for outdoor hobbies. So now is the time to choose a project from which you will learn much about how audio works under the hood.

This is a call to readers to try building a loudspeaker kit or an amplifier kit and to learn from the process. Because we then know the built object intimately from the inside out, we can also spot opportunities for change from which we can learn what does what.

Prime examples are loudspeaker cabinet shapes and amplifier power supplies. With the same drivers and crossover we can build a bunch of single prototypes from identical materials and establish what works best with these drivers in our own room. Equally, we can change the ratings of amplifier power supply parts and hear the effects on the same circuit. We might then decide to build different versions of the same amplifier for an active loudspeaker system, for example. Nobody else will have anything like that unless they copy our own design.

“Isn't there a danger your house will eventually look like this?” worry anxious Plebs, stage left, familiar with the Old Scribe's lifestyle

Conclusion

Roll your own!

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© Copyright 2025 Mark Wheeler - mark@tnt-audio.com - www.tnt-audio.com

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