Build my own speakers?

Other then the right tools to make the enclosure you also should have at least an RTA. Making a balanced speaker strictly using your ears is more then difficult even for the very experienced.

You should also keep in mind that buying expensive drivers does not mean there freq. resp. will be exactly the same, typically the will not. When I worked for Legacy Audio, we used a very expensive Eton midrange driver and out of a pallet of drivers there was usually 20-25% that we couldn't use because there freq. resp. was too far out. My understanding is that John Dunlavy rejection rate was above 50%.

Also if you are going spend $400 on tweeters you don't want to lash them to a cheap crossover. You can computer model a crossover to get pretty close to the crossover component values you will need but you will need to fine tune the crossover which will mean a selection of component values which mean $$$$ if you use anything of decent quality.

I am not saying that you can’t make something that sounds decent but that does not appear to be what you are going for. Sounding decent IMO is a long way from really good/great which take a lot of time/money/effort. Much more so in my experience then buying something well engineered used ie Revel, Dynaudio, B&W

I've built a set of Edgarhorns in kit form this past year. Even though the cabinets are finished for the most part and I'm using the crossover designed by Bruce Edgar I still find many parameters to tweak, adjust, experiment with. I knew going into this project that there are many things that Bruce knows that I don't know so I'm sure that the performance I'm getting is only about 80-90% of what it would be if I'd just bought an Edgarhorn system from Bruce. But I've saved close to 1/2 the cost.

Some of the kits from GR Research have also caught my eye. Danny has done all of the work with driver selection and component matching so you just supply the sweat and lumber. Many have reported that his open baffle kits rival planars in dynamics. I'd like to have a listen for myself before diving in.

I think you can learn a lot by DIY and a speaker kit may be one of the easier projects in this hobby to take on. This does depend on your skill level and tool chest. However, the quality of sound has little to do with how good the cabinets look. You can still get very good results. There are suppliers that will help you match components, just like buying tubes. I believe it is possible to DIY a speaker that will compete with many speakers costing around $10-12K, maybe more. It may take a good deal of effort, both physical and mental. If you like to tinker this should be a project right up your alley. You will probably make a few mistakes, but you won't be learning much if you don't.

Don't expect to get much of your money back if you build speakers and then want to sell them to buy something else. Even if the cabinets are gorgeous, they may still be a one-off speaker.

You can get an decent RTA for free. Just Google RoomEQ Wizard. It will work with most currently available sound cards. TrueRTA is also a great product but will cost about $100 or so. I would suggest using a good Behringer test mic. Parts Express has an ECM8000 for a decent price. The source for the RoomEq will also have a calibration file for this mic that will be close enough to do what you need. There is also software to help design cabinets if you want to go all out from the ground up.

Visit AudioCircle, DIYaudio, AudioKarma.org, and AudioAsylum. There is tons of info out there on DIY speakers.

Hi Radrog,

I admire your ambition. Most of the topics you should be concerned about have been identified already. I presume you have the knowledge and tools to build the cabinet.

Building properly sized (tuned) cabinets and avoiding interior standing wave frequencies takes some knowledge and experience. Building a crossover that hands the frequency’s off to the proper drivers, controls excess peak energy at specific frequency’s, and manages the ohm load placed on the amplifier, is also a skill requiring a great deal of knowledge and experience.

Tools for this element would include various books, crossover and box software, and output measuring/graphing software.

If you wish to proceed with the learning experience, I would recommend diving in and enjoying it. You will undoubtedly experience many trial and errors as you refine your speakers. If you want the enjoyment of building it yourself, with reasonable chance of success, and cost savings, I would recommend this path:

Complete kit with drivers and crossover, and cabinet plans: http://www.selahaudio.com/id141.html

If you want to do it all with plans for the complete project: http://www.partsexpress.com/projectshowcase/projects.cfm

Here is a site from Seas drivers, with recommended DIY projects: http://www.seas.no/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=38 This project is available from the Madisonsound catalog.

Scanspeak may provide similar help.

These options would put you in charge of building the quality cabinet, and reduce the amount of engineering you would have to do for the crossover and cabinet design elements.

Good luck,

Mark

You have just discovered one of the surprises in high end audio. Typical high end $5000+ speakers that use $50 woofers and tweeters. Most of what you pay for is woodwork, exotic veneer/finish, shipping and packaging and of course some markup (manufacturers need to live!).

If you care only about sound quality then go either DIY (no resale value) or better to go for pro designs in a low cost finish (limited resale value because of low WAF but you got more high quality sound instead of high quality finish).

I would say that the lowest cost option to ultra high end sound is to buy a high quality pro grade two way active second hand monitor of your choice and build your own subwoofer using this LMS 5400 driver. You can probably achieve similar to $50K sound for around $5K. Of course it won't look anything like $50K but if that concerned you then you probably would not be thinking DIY.

Building your own subwoofer is easy but a speaker is tricky...so definitely go for kit/clones if you want to build a speaker - but even DIY is hard to compete with the cheap speaker imports from China. Many boutique high end speakers are now made in China (Quad etc.)

Hi Radrog,

I posted the first link twice. Here is the link I wanted to post secondly. You will find plans for most of these projects.

http://www.partsexpress.com/projectshowcase/projects.cfm

Good luck,

Mark