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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
cedargrover
302 posts
 
Don't the Tidal loudspeakers use that driver?  I think they are more than $60k...

http://www.tidal-audio.com/technology-drivers/
erik_squires OP
16,049 posts
 
Re: Tidal:

They are also using real diamond (not diamond powder) tweeter and midrange. This adds a great deal to the basic part cost.

Now ask me if a diamond midrange and tweeter are better than the best Be or AMT's. Answer is, I have no idea. :) The best AMT and Be tweeters are unbelievably good.

http://www.accuton.com/en/products/speakersystems/diamant-driver/


Best,


E
erik_squires OP
16,049 posts
 
This brings up another kind of interesting / lopsided issue around audio. The cost of tweeters.

Wilson is one of the few companies that keeps this more or less in balance (again, not promoting, not a fan). The cost of high-end tweeters is kind of astronomical, and lopsided especially when you consider how LITTLE sound actually comes out of a tweeter. A tweeter may cover 3-4 octaves at most, but often commands half or more of the driver cost.

In my own speakers, I ended up spending $500/tweeter but only around $240/mid-woofer.

I think that if you slap Be on any speaker you can increase the value perception and retail price of it, regardless of whether it's any good or not. Same for Daimond, and even AMT.

From what I've seen, Wilson loves bass and he spends his money there, getting progressively less expensive as the frequency range goes up. Not a bad approach really.

In the case of the Tidal diamond and midranges though, that's probably 75% of the driver cost.  Astronomical.
cedargrover
302 posts
 
Seems like more should be invested in midranges than tweeters.  In any event, I'd be interested in hearing those Tidal speakers, as website seems to convey that every little thing about them is magic.  (To borrow a turn of phrase....)


shadorne's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
shadorne
7,477 posts
 
@erik_squires


I would agree with Wilson philosophy.

Mid range is most important followed by bass and finally treble.

The fact is that very good tweeters can be made for about $50 and the job they do is fairly easy - so why spend more?

A good mid range and in particular a good bass is where it gets expensive because the diaphragms must move orders of magnitude in greater excursion than a tweeter.

A accurate subwoofer driver is the most expensive to build with high required Xmax, however it barely covers an octave so I would rate the subwoofer last in priority.

My theory is that expensive tweeters are popular with designers because even an expensive tweeter is cheap compared to an expensive woofer and an expensive woofer requires an expensive mid range (to match sensitivity and high SPL capability) but an expensive tweeter can be combined with any old crap and the soeaker marketed as SOTA.
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