Design a $60,000 Speaker - Start here


Hi Everyone,

Just thought for interest I'd talk about one of the most expensive woofers in the 10-12" varieties, the Accuton AS250-88-552 CELL, actually an 11" aluminum honeycomb sandwich construction. Retail price at hobbyist volumes: $1,400, each.

In addition to the exotic material, the suspension and motor assembly are also worthy of note, as they leave a very large amount of unobstructed space directly behind the dome, allowing it to behave most ideally like a piston.

So putting this together into say a modest 3 way with all drivers from the same company and of the same level, I estimate around $6k / pair of speakers for the drivers alone. Add the normal markups, and this is a $60k speaker.

Will it sound any good? I have no idea. I just wanted to share with you all where some of these speakers that cost as much as a luxury sedan get their prices from.  Obviously, my estimates are rough, and go up and down. The point of this is just a general expose.

Best,


E

erik_squires

I'm with Sal, above, on the Jensen M-18.  You can actually buy new replicas of that monster at G.I.P. Laboratories.  I know of a system that is being designed to use 4 of those drivers, plus G.I.P. 555 midrange drivers, plus the G.I.P. version of the 597 tweeter.  A custom Tungar power supply with hand-wound transformers will power all three field-coil drivers.  I don't know about the crossover.  The midrange horn is a modern-build 15A replica.  Just the drivers and horn are well past $100k in cost. 

On just a price basis, the likes of Accuton sell bargain drivers compared to companies like G.I.P., ALE, Cogent, Goto and Feastrix.

Vandersteen's cost to build the 7 mk 2 (not even including the aluminum woofers or the carbon fiber/balsa wood cones/driver that are built in-house and sent out to make the drivers to spec):  $1,800 for the mid and $2,400 for the mid-bass.  The open back, non reflective construction we are now seeing in drivers are part of what was originally, the patent for Vandersteen drivers. Eric you are quite aware of drivers, but must be unaware of what does and has gone into Vandersteen drivers.  The mid's of the 5A Carbon is the same as what's found in the 7's.  Quite unusual for speaker at this price. Are you only speaking about driver cost and build or also cabinet?  They also have double cabinets and are wrapped in carbon fiber.  Everything in house for total QC.  

Just thought I'd add, lol.  Interesting question though. 
It's a joke guys, I'm just following Erik in the theme of circling the drain. :)
I wish I knew more about driver manufacturing. I mean, is there a show where I can go and buy a woofer press? :)


Erik
The voice coil annual will take you, eventually..to someone or some group that can make that a reality.

Of course, you are talking about a cone press? Which is pretty basic, actually. You can make one yourself, but accurizing it will be your big issue.

Working with paper will be what makes it easier.

You can buy a smaller injection moulding set up and can have the moulds made for experimentation..for probably..under $20k. This is for plastic based cones, obviously. Since they are so thin, you are not restricted (relatively) due to a thing called shot size (volume of plastic per single injection). You could go from 3" to 12" cones on probably the same set-up.

Designing an effective mould and process for such thin materials is your biggest problem. The other way to do it is much like pressing records with lots of excess materials.

A paper cone cheapo set-up would be similar to a casting variant, or similar to a composite layered design/build set up.

A small CNC set up with good Z capacity (XYZ, maybe even rotation) can have you making your moulds for paper and similar materials..in quite a short time. A few dedicated months could get you there.

In the face of such things that require multiple disciplines be mastered and integrated... it is no wonder that machining of cones has taken off, and touted by some as being the best thing around. One can also machine and use that as a core for composite pressing, and so on.

Many possibilities out there that can each be touted in the given sales literature.

We quickly enter the ’different but possibly not better’ area in potentials, as we still don’t have a commonly known and utilized answer to what *exactly* the ear’s part is - in this equation. Lots of things still up in the air.

Which means argument without clear resolution.
@erik_squires

I've had this idea that the struts that go from the front to the back of the woofer need to be machined aluminum, and formed in a sort of airfoil, so as to minimize turbulence. So far I've yet to see any woofer that uses anything like that.

Do you know about MISCO?