Discovering MCM Select Pro Speaker Drivers

A Fun Journey & Review Of A Great New Speaker Resource

The primary focus of this little story and review is on the 10” drivers I discovered and how they saved me on a big custom speaker order and system design.

If you’ve read any of my other articles you will understand that I’ve been working with speaker systems and raw drivers all my life. If you haven’t read any of the other articles… then you need to understand I’m a speaker geek and always have been!

First Some Back Story

My family owned a speaker manufacturing company and I grew up thinking that all kids had speaker shops in their garage and basements. Later in my high school years I realized it was a great way to make friends I really didn’t need but a cool resource and great entertainment for my actual friends. It wasn’t such a great way to meet girls, but that is what the guitar was for. Actually I was a guitar geek as well, everything else was just a bonus.

I’ve always been use to having a resource of wholesale speakers and components available to me. This was great for building my own gear, building gear to sell, up-grading current systems, rehabbing older equipment and for experiments and prototyping. I owned my own professional speaker company that was a result of our family audio business, I basically took over the family business and took it in my direction. Being a rock and roller I was more interested in big systems, pro sound, guitar stacks, bass rigs and cool cases. I even worked on big DJ rigs and yes even Karaoke systems. (My karaoke systems rocked!)

My little Uniline shop cranked out tons of fuzzy “Ozite” speaker cabinets and cases in the late 1980’s early 1990’s

I eventually went into the business of video production and started my career in television and film production. We did work on live entertainment productions and documentaries but my speaker building efforts and interests were put on the back shelf. Part of the reason was the unexpected passing of my father which took the wind out of my sails and I needed to do something else. My uncle told me to pursue another passion. So I had thought about it and realized that I had more fun doing our promotional materials and videos for the speaker company than I did working on speakers. Video was a new thing and I had always interested in photography and film, so that is what I started doing and years later I was winning international awards. (If you have an interest in video be sure to check out my other blog series called RigzVideo.com)

But once a guitar player, always a guitar player and once a speaker geek…

An Awesome Speaker Discovery

I started having “Driver Withdrawals” and I needed to start building again and do it for the reasons I originally started building. For The Girls!… No just kidding, I have one of those and she is amazing, beautiful and I don’t deserve her. I originally did it because I love audio, speakers, music, electronics, wood and creating things.

Close up shot of MCM Steel Basket Drivers – Photo by James Gregson

It wasn’t long before I was designing and building speakers and cases again. This time not only did I build for myself and for new friends but I started building systems for the studio.

I also started my new quest for quality drivers. Since I didn’t have a manufacturing company anymore, I didn’t get free stuff from manufacturers to blow up and abuse. I  didn’t have the ability to buy at big discounts and I’ve been on the search for a reliable source with some good products at a decent price.

One great place I discovered a few years ago for name brand drivers that provide quantity discounts is a cool company called Parts Express.

Click On The Image To Check Out Parts Express

I am reviewing Parts Express in another article since they have some very great pricing and a great line of products. They are also a distributor for Eminence as well as other brands. If you have a dealers license and can apply to become a dealer it’s a great resource for pro sound and speaker building, both Pro and Home Audio.

Once you have the proper account setup they will also do drop shipping which is great if you have an online business and don’t have the finances or space to stock product. Also they have the shipping power and get discounts so you can leverage that as well. Parts Express is also a great resource for professional speaker building hardware and supplies. Together with my new discoveries you’ve got a powerhouse of possibilities!

A Focus On The 10” Speaker Discovery

But what I want to focus on here is another company what I discovered after I found and used Parts Express. It’s a company called MCM Electronics.

I was very pleased with my new discovery of MCM Electronics… cause I’m a geek like that

I started looking through their website while I was looking for crossover parts, injection molded cases and cables. I was also looking at video surveillance equipment for our production vehicle, studio and my new home so I was doing a wide level search and discovering some great resources.

While looking through their website I noticed they sold drivers. Most of the time on these electronic supplier type warehouses, you find a few speakers here and there. They were always cheap replacement drivers for small electronic equipment, cheap public address stuff and really cheap car speakers etc. Out of curiosity I did some more searching and started noticing they had some interesting pro speakers that didn’t look too bad.

MCM Audio Select 10″ Woofer with Paper Cone and Cloth Surround 125W RMS 8ohm

I needed some 10” drivers for an upcoming project I was doing for a client in Texas who wanted 16 speaker cabinets, each to be loaded with a 10” Woofer and High Frequency Driver. Those would be teamed up with a couple of 18” subwoofers.

The system was for a night club and they needed the 2 Way 10” cabinets to be small, black and solid systems that they could hang throughout the many nooks in their little venue.

I started refining my research and found that MCM had their own brand they call “MCM Select”. I began reviewing the specs on all of their steel frame and cast frame drivers. I was actually impressed and the price was hard to believe. To be honest I thought that these had to be complete crap, but the reviews said otherwise.

MCM Select Drivers – Steel and Cast Frame

I had to check these out so I dropped right around $100 or so and ordered me up some drivers. I purchased a 10”, 12” and 15” along with a few other little things to check out. The shipping was also reasonable and I received my shipment fairly quickly.

Thew New Phone Book Is Here!

Like a kid at Christmas I could not wait to open my boxes. Each driver was individually packed in it’s own box and the driver itself was also wrapped in plastic.

A shot from a later order of 4-10″ but the packing is standard

4 -10″ Steel Frame Drivers In Standard Packaging unwrapped. This is a shot from a later order.

This was a good sign since I have seen some really bad packaging in my day and anyone who knows about drivers knows that one good bump to a speaker magnet or hard impact in the wrong place can completely screw up a driver. It can cause a number of issues so good packing is very important, and this was pretty good packaging.

Shot showing the treated paper cone, surround and dustcap

I investigated each driver carefully and took a close look at the craftsmanship like how neatly the glue for the cone, spider and surround was applied, what the leads look like etc. After a visual inspection and some physical fiddling they all looked and felt solid. The voice coil also seemed to ride smoothly in its “Gap” with no weirdness.

Closeup of the wiring terminals on the 10″

These really look and feel like nice drivers. Decent craftsmanship for a budget driver.

Now I was really curious, how did they sound and respond? I had to know! So the next day I took one of my experimental test cabinets with it’s removable face and routed out a perfect hole for the 10” and mounted it. I wired it with some heavy gauge speaker wire and hooked it up to a new Crown amp I had just received that also needed a quick test.

One of the new Crown XLS1000 amps I wanted to check out. I had purchased several for another project.

I pumped a little juice and it sounded fine, so I cranked it pretty hard and ran it through some basic trials. It performed just fine for what it was. At that price I was very happy and the fact that I could buy these 1 and 2 at a time for a very fair price without having to purchase 100 pieces at a time was even better!

I took a moment and we did a photo session to celebrate this new find

I also played with the 12” and 15” and they were both great, for this price point. They reminded me of some of the weekend warrior PA Speakers you find in the 2 way injection molded systems and in mid priced monitors, PA gear and bass rigs.

A Solo Session With The 15″

I did take another look at the boxes they came in and I knew this when I opened them but it didn’t really hit me. “Made in China” My guess is that MCM has a good factory that they have developed a relationship with and can get these at a good price since they have the buying power, selling power, warehouse and ability to ship etc.

MCM – Made In China Print On Side of The 12″ Driver Box

They have obviously been very careful with selecting their suppliers and have done some great quality control. I wasn’t too keen on the sticker on the magnet since it really looks generic but again at this price and usage… who really cares? Plus I developed a great way to safely and easily remove the stickers on the magnets.

It’s a great way to rebrand if you want to drop your own sticker on or silk screen a logo. I know some little shops that brand their own stuff and they do pretty well with it. Here is a perfect candidate. I know rebranding these work, because I’ve done it and have been able to sell these at twice what I’ve paid.

Here is the 12″ after I quickly and safely removed the sticker from the magnet

The sticker removal techniques will be in another post and video… No hairdryers for removing magnet stickers please!  I had to come up with some way to remove these stickers since I was planning to order a ton of these drivers for upcoming projects, that’s a lot of stickers to remove.

That’s only a few of the speakers that I had to remove the stickers from.

I immediately ordered 20 more of the 10” so I had enough for my 2 way 10 project and a few to play with personally because remember, I am a speaker geek.

The client also wanted a couple of “big subs” so I suggested a couple of 18” cabinets that they could hide in a couple of choice places. I explained to them where the subs could be placed to help provide a nice full rounded sound and that they should put them closer to the dance floor or areas where they wanted the music louder. I know it’s common sense things for audio people but I really enjoyed helping these guys out and they were very excited.

I needed subs so I decided why not try out a couple of the MCM 18” Loaded Sub Cabinets.

MCM Custom Audio 18” PA DJ Speaker Subwoofer 1000W

I kind of knew what to expect from being in the industry but I really didn’t feel like building 2 big 18” budget boxes and I was really curious about the product. The shipping wasn’t that bad and that is probably because they can get the big shipping discounts since they do so much quantity.

I had ordered my 10” drivers, 18” subs along with some piezo tweeters, terminal cups, and a few other things to make my speaker building project easier. After the order was placed I immediately hit the coffee shop with my specs and did some quick calculations to figure out my cabinet sizes, lumber cuts and figure out the rest of my material list.

Then one of my favorite things to do, hit the hardware store with my cup of coffee!  It’s my thinking place and I often find myself starting conversations with some very interesting people and I’ve been known to help a few people too. At one point I had a store manager offer me a position because I did a better job than his people were doing. But it was fun for me because I can leave whenever I want and only help people of my choosing, I would probably get fired fairly quickly anyway. I’m my own boss and he is sometimes hard to work with.

On to speaker adventures…

Wood and Other Materials

To be completely honest I tend to sway towards Home Depot and it always seems like where I end up. I do like Lowes and they oftentimes have some neat things that I can’t find at Home Depot but I prefer the Orange over the Blue. I do understand that it all depends on the management, the area you are in etc.

I use Home Depot for my lumber since I can personally pick and choose stock

I’ve even been into several stores that had completely different stock, but I also realized that was because one was in an area where they were building new homes, one was in a long established neighborhood and the other was in an industrial area without a lot of manufacturing businesses. But the website seems to be fairly accurate and the customer service is very good. Except of when I lived in New York… but then nobody’s customer service was any good.

So I picked out my lumber, got it back to the shop and started making sawdust. My grandpa would call it “Making little ones out of big ones”.

I got lucky since my girlfriend decided to take a ton of pictures.

It was no time before I have the pieces cut and speaker holes routed and drilled. I say drilled because I use hole saws to quickly cut out terminal cup holes and tweeter holes. These were semi budget speakers and they were hardwiring them in a permanent install so round based terminal cups work just fine and round piezo tweeters are easy to deal with and you can cut holes for both. A good quality adjustable hole saw is a great thing to have in your arsenal.

I already had my test parts and specs for the cutouts and I always suggest, if your making a big run to per-order or keep at least one of everything in stock so you’ve got stock for measurements and testing.

Kind of like Donut Holes.. Only Different

As far as routing for the drivers themselves, I use a circle cutting guide for the router and do several passes each at a different depth.

I’ve made a few of these in my day and I tossed this one together with spare parts.

A good router, sharp quality bit and accurate hole cutting guide is essential. I always keep scrap wood around for testing hole sizes and adjustments. Note these aren’t scraps.

Speaker cutouts. The first go round with the router

A great way to keep from burning up your router and bit is to make several passes at different depths. Do all the boxes at one depth, then adjust and make your next pass. An assembly line process makes it easy to crank out a quantity of product. I always said it was just about as easy to build 20 as it is to build 2 once you have the right tools and process… and space. I didn’t route the baffles  before I assembled because this way they were easier to hold and it didn’t require a routing stand or clamps of any kind.

Another note on the high freq tweeters we used. Piezos can take some serious abuse and are great for this kind of project. They also don’t require a crossover since technically they operate like a capacitor themselves. I do like to drop an 8 ohm ceramic cap to tone them back a bit. It’s a trick I learned from the guys at St. Louis Music and it works great. I would never use a piezo tweeter a critical listening environment but for some loud music in a bar with lots of beer drinking… these would do just fine.

The Moment Of Truth

Once all of my parts showed up safely I did a quick QC check to make sure everything works and there was no damage. As a quick cheat I keep a 9 volt battery with a clip handy, I do a quick touch to the terminals to make sure I get a little movement out of the driver. It’s a bad sign if nothing happens and you can usually guess that it’s a dud driver or if it sounds funky or really scratchy then the voice coil is rubbing in it’s gap which can happen for a number of reasons.

MCM packages the individual boxes in sets of 4, which is also part of the reason you get quantity discounts when you order 4 or more. Obviously it’s a qty discount but I imagine it’s just easier to deal with and saves time that way.

Boxes Of 4 Boxes

Individual Boxes of 10″ Drivers. It’s fun to have stacks of new speakers.

After cabinet assembly and a couple coats of thick black paint I was ready to load the components.

Painting black speaker cabinets in a dusty wood shop, it’s an art.

I worked in sets and in groups to avoid overwhelming myself (and getting too bored doing the same thing for too long) Plus I started running out of room with so many projects going on at the same time.

The first round of wiring harnesses and getting ready for more testing.

Always work in an assembly line when possible

But I managed to get the first round wired up for some group testing. I pulled out some amplifiers, wired up the harnesses so the amps saw an 8 ohm load at each channel and fired up the system.

Not bad! So I cranked them up a bit and started doing some EQ work and they were actually starting to sound pretty good. At this point I was very happy with these drivers and was coming up with all kinds of ideas and things I wanted to try.

Then like magic I got a text that my 18” sub cabinets had showed up. They were shipped separately since these were much bigger packages. I said Yay! And closed up the shop to go pick them up.

18” Sub Cabinet Exploratory Surgery

Once I got the 18” cabs back to the shop one of the first things I did was take them apart, because that is who I am. As a kid I’ve always taken things apart and it wasn’t until my later years that I learned it was a good idea to learn how to put them back together again. Actually I think that was my mother’s suggestion.

Back to the present…

When working on speakers like this, be careful not to slip with the screw gun.

I pulled the 18″ speaker out expecting a bigger driver magnet.

So I started digging in to see what the components looked like and how they were built etc. They looked great on the outside, but so do stale christmas cookies.

The grill was kinda flimsy so not a real “road worthy” product. The handles were decent and a little lighter plastic which would be fine for this type of install.

Yum, my favorite… cheap speaker insulation. It’s fiberglass so don’t roll in it or sleep on it.

It did have insulation inside which was actually a nice surprise… not that insulation is expensive, but now I didn’t have to get my arms all itchy from cutting the pieces to size.

The 18” driver itself was a Polypropylene Cone with a smaller magnet and voice coil etc. The cabinet was particle board which I expected, and again this was fine for a budget install and project of this type. But I really wanted more, so I came up with an idea.

I called up the client and let them know I had everything completed and tested. I told them the subs had arrived but I wanted to upgrade the 18” drivers and the cabinets themselves and asked for a few more days before I shipped. I sent them some great pics of everything and they were fine with the idea since they were running behind themselves.

It all worked out because the system would have just set in boxes on site anyway and it was probably less of an urge for job site thieves since there wasn’t anything sitting there to steal.

I quickly jumped onto MCM’s website and ordered 2 of the 18” steel frame basket drivers from the same series as the 10”, 12” and 15” I purchased for my initial test order.

MCM Audio Select 18″ Woofer – Paper Cone – Cloth Surround – 300W RMS – 8ohm

I called MCM and told them why I needed the additional 18” drivers and the shipment went right out the door. I was again impressed by how fast I received my products. That warehouse must really be a polished and well oiled machine.

A New Pair Of 18” Drivers To Replace The Originals

When I received the 18” I was extremely excited, it’s always fun to play with other people’s money. They looked great and were just what I expected and they had these awesome 125 oz. magnets and a 4” voice coil!

My concern was now that I might blow these sub cabinets to pieces. So following the “Gregson Over-Build-It” tradition I pulled out some 2”x3” lumber, wood glue, drywall screws and liquid nail and went to town on the inside of the sub cabinets. Sure I added some weight to the boxes and probably ate up a little bit of the cubic airspace inside the cabinets but something told me at this price that they weren’t “that” engineered in the first place.

And these were going to rely on raw power and EQ for response anyway. I put everything back together after a little bracing of the faceplates to hold these 18” drivers and I dropped the grills back in place and they looked great. So much easier than building a budget cabinet!

Did I mention these were black “Ratfur” cabs? Ratfur is what we call the audio carpet these days. Back in the day when it was the thing, the carpet product was manufactured by a company in Chicago called “Ozite”. I use to drive up there every 2 weeks to hang with friends and pick up several 6’ rolls of Ozite in both black and gray and drive theme back to St Louis personally. We were building a lot of fuzzy boxes back then.

Many long nights were spent making fuzzy speaker cabinets and cases – Unline Late 1980’s

On with our story…

Now for the big test, let’s see if we can get someone to call the police to complain about the loud music. Actually that was a regular occurrence no matter where I was back in the day, it just came with the territory I guess. At the time of this build I was in a fairly private industrial area and with machinery running all over the complex it was no big deal.

The rebuilt 18″ subwoofer cabinet with the MCM Select logo plate removed.

So I hooked up the full 10” system that was to be shipped along with the 18” cabs, wired it according to how I had drawn up their instructions and schematics and cranked er up. A little power, some EQ and… Wow.

2 Way 10″ Cabinets Ready For Shipping. They didn’t want any grills since these were hidden.

Part of being impressed is not the fact that this was a huge brilliant sound sound system ready for a small concert… It comes from having built this from the ground up and knowing the quality and care I put into the system… and the price. To get this type of quality at retail you would have to pay 2 or even 3 times what was invested here.

A quick shot of the little black boxes. These were going to be hidden so they wanted them painted black.

The MCM drivers were the key. I paid like $13.39 a piece for the 10” drivers. I took the stickers off and sold a few of these to some car audio guys who were desperate for good 10” drivers and I sold them for $40 each and they were happy to pay for them!

I bet you’re wondering about the 18” Polypropylene drivers I pulled form the sub cabinets and replaced. Well if you’re not, here is what happened anyway. I sold them and made some extra cash there too! It was an easy sell because they were new, big, 18” and they weren’t that bad. I sold them at an attractive price to help cover having to purchase the better replacement 18” drivers. Everybody was happy.

Back to the story… again

Individually wrapping each cabinet in thick plastic.

I packed up the cabinets that just happened to fit into standard size Home Depot boxes. Wow what great luck! Not really, it just so happens that they were designed that way. Not having the right packaging can cost you tons of time and money… most of the time when you don’t have either. I wrapped each one in plastic with some padding and they fit nice and safely snug.

Work in an assembly line when your packing too. You can see my blank Home Depot boxes here.

I had already emailed a set of PDF files explaining the wiring schematics which the client seemed to understand and I also included some drawings of safe budget installation tricks for hanging speakers like this. I’ve hung my share of speakers and had plenty to offer them. So everything was good to go for delivery and it was an easy drop off since the clients also paid for shipping.

The customer received their shipment safe and sound… (pun intended) and were happily impressed with my creations. A few weeks later they contacted me after everything was installed and they said the speakers and system sounded great. They were so happy that they wanted a whole other order of the same exact thing for their new nightclub. I cranked out a whole other clone order in record time and shipped them off. So far there have been no complaints, no blown drivers, no blown amps and no reported fires.

This is a shot of the next order of the same cabinets where we put the terminal plates in a different spot.

Some Shipping Box Tips

As a note when you are shipping boxes and want to use Home Depot or Walmart boxes, you can just flip them inside out. I do whole stacks of them at a time, probably my manufacturing background and mentality. When they are new and fresh they are easy to separate at the seams. You just flip them around and reglue them. White glue works great and just restack them flat on the ground with a cinder block or weight to compress the glued seam and help hold it tight while the glue dries. Tada! Instant blank brown box that can be shipped via Fedex, UPS and USPS. They will not ship anything that has a logo or is heavily branded like a Home Depot box. They are cheap and are great boxes, usually always in stock since people buy them in bulk for moving, great resource that I wish was around years ago when I was dumpster diving for clean boxes.

Speaker Project Main Parts List With Links:

Initial Order To Test & Review MCM Drivers

MCM Select 10″ – Steel Frame  – 125 Watt RMS – 40 oz Magnet – $14.69 – Model 55-2951

MCM Select 12″ – Steel Frame  – 175 Watt RMS – 50 oz Magnet – $18.89 – Model 55-2952

MCM Select 15″ – Steel Frame  – 200 Watt RMS – 67 oz Magnet – $29.39 – Model 55-3213

Product Order For Project

MCM Custom Audio – 18″ Subwoofer System – 500 Watt RMS – $99.99 – Model 55-10325

MCM Select 10″ – Steel Frame  – 125 Watt RMS – 40 oz Magnet – $14.69 – Model 55-2951

System Upgrade

MCM Select 18″ – Steel Frame  – 300 Watts RMS – $62.99 – Model 55-2954

Other Gear Used In This Build & Test

Crown Power Amps – I purchased several amps and other equipment for another sound system installation project. I financed the purchase through zZounds since it was fast and east to get approved.

Links To Other Helpful & Related Articles