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DIY Speakers, worth the hassles?

Are DIY speaker kits as great as they claimed? I mean several places claim that thier products are as good as 5 to 10 times higher-priced brandname products. Are these true or if it's just a hype?

Say will $1500-2K DIY speaker kit are as good as 5-10K speakers? Or will the sub 1K kit be as good as 2-3K speakers?

Are there any real A/B test reports somewhere?

Also any real experiences from the real DIYers in the group would be really appreciated.

thanks,

ake
ake
tweekerman
473 posts
 
HeY Ake, in about 2 weeks i'll have a 3 way designed and built by Rick Craig, Selah Audio, a member over at Madisound. Seas W22+Accuton C79+RT8P. I choose the Seas and Philips ,Rick choose the C79. He's using superior xover parts. So i should have them up and running and will post the review. Yes kits are a good alternative to the commercials, but for lack of time and more importantly the experience, i prefer to have a designer do the work.
ake OP
48 posts
 
Just wondering, Tweekerman, how much they charge more for the shipping??
s7horton
1,077 posts
 
Part of the DIY is the actual building. You want good results in the end, but I believe part of the reason to do DIY is so you can experience what it takes to build a good speaker and learn a lot about the building process.

Markup is what you are avoiding when doing DIY. There is no dealer, no advertising, no shipping fees. Except of course for the parts you need. But over all you aren't going to pay near as much for a DIY as you will a brand name speaker.

What it boils down to for me is, is it fun or not. If not, I wouldn't bother.
martice
103 posts
 
It's going to be hard to beat the GR Research Offerings.

The web site is www.gr-research.com

If you go to Audioasylum and do a search you'll find tons of information and some good reviews.
sean
6,231 posts
 
The Madisound kit that is known as "Thor" and based on Seas drivers in an MTM array loaded into a transmission line and designed by Joe D'Appolito looks to be phenomenally good. There was a review with laboratory test results of this "kit" in Audio Express and the results were phenomenal to say the least. However, some crucial spec's were left out of the test results as far as i am concerned.

I contacted Audio Express about this and asked them what the deal was. I was told that they also thought those specs were important and they don't know how they were initially overlooked. They were working on obtaining the info and told me that they hoped to publish it in the next issue or two.

If those results are anything like the rest of the testing showed, this speaker will be VERY hard to beat for anywhere near the money. I think that the basic kits run about $1500 or so. Sean
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