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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
erik_squires OP
16,051 posts
 
Hey Teo, that’s kind of a long and meandering post, and makes it hard to respond to. Let me see if I can address two of them:

  • Yes, speakers with one or two 7" woofer’s are in the sweet spot of affordability, credible bass and above most dangerous room modes.
  • The acoustics and improvement of bass in consumer listening rooms is very well understood, but not by most consumers, or even most Hi Fi dealers.

Best,

E

teo_audio
2,197 posts
 
The acoustics and improvement of bass in consumer listening rooms is very well understood,......
On my life, I fundamentally disagree. (in a casual friendly way... but if pushed...) I’m talking about how the ’fix’ of the rooms is, in my direct experience, a fail. Not even close to how much better it may or could be. Meaning, they don't understand the nature of the problem well enough to create a more functional solution than they have.

From my prior post:
" (lots of things I’m not allowed to mention or talk about) "

The written word and the internet combine to make it seem like a ego contest. I’m not projecting that or meaning that. :)

We're starting to explore the question of acoustics a bit better than in the past, but..we're not all the way there, yet. Not as far as I've had the chance to witness, in various installs and locales, that is.
soundsrealaudio's avatar
soundsrealaudio
756 posts
 
Yes. It is nice to eliminate as much crossover as possible. Crossovers are subtractive, they take away from the signal. Pay good money for an amplifier and the the damn speaker sucks out the signal. Not nice. 
ohlala
1,235 posts
 
Pay good money for a speaker and the air sucks out the signal. ;)
teo_audio
2,197 posts
 
One can go entirely active with speakers, yes, but the speakers will still sound notably better if the drivers have passive zobel networks.


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