DIY - Two kits using similar tweeter to Tekton

Probably why these type of DIY threads should be in another forum? as you are saying the drivers you are touting are respected but you have not heard the speakers in question. I think for the most part, and with all due respects Eric, I think you are flogging a dead horse here.
I do read the posts though, but can no way entertain any form of DIY.

@gawdbless

I do read the posts though, but can no way entertain any form of DIY.

That’s a real shame, because I think every audiophile needs to at least once in their hobby build their own speaker pair. You’d learn a huge amount viscerally instead of whatever BS you think you can learn from reviews alone.

It will completely alter your perception of value and what things you should be tweaking to get what you want.

That is why a thread or two on DIY in the Speaker forum is important. Of course there are dedicated DIY forums like DIYaudio.com and Parts Express, but if they stopped appearing in Audiogon it would be an intellectual impoverishment of the hobby.

Above all, DIY should not be about saving money but about learning and taking control over what you are listening to away from the manufacturer and review cabal and into your very own hands. 

Building a pair of DIY speakers doesn't mean you won't buy commercial again, it just means you are a much better informed audiophile (by orders of magnitude) than everyone else. 

Best,


E

Hi Eric,

What kind of value/performance do you think the two speakers you list. one at $1400 and the other at $2500 in terms of if one spent those amounts from a commercially made Loudspeaker?, doesn't matter what company. Do you think the value in sound would be greater than the outlay If one did buy a speaker of the same price?
What price do you think those two kits would be priced at if say Kef, B&W, Elac  etc were to sell them?

@gawdbless

There’s too much with your question I object to.

I don’t believe that money = performance in speakers or electronics. However, from a practical perspective, you usually need to spend 10 times the driver cost to make money at the retail level so as I wrote in the first post, it would be around $5k for the small kit.

As I tried to show before, whether you get into DIY or not should be for your own education, or you will never be happy.



Best,


Erik

Hi guys,
I concur with Erik's suggestion to experiment with DIY.  The right kit can produce results that will rival commercial designs costing a whole lot more. Many times in fact

Apart from the unavoidable manufacturing costs which entails rent, staff salaries, R&D, rates and taxes, advertising, shipping etc. DIY affords one the opportunity to do things that manufacturers generally can't.
To explain in detail would take pages, but briefly : The crossover as heart of the speaker is by necessity often done as cheaply as possible. I have seen some surprisingly shoddy examples in expensive speakers. For the DIYer seeing as you will be building only 2 sets it is of small consequence to spend $10 on the series cap to the tweeter, whereas the manufacturer will allow perhaps $1

It is also not too expensive to use quality resistors like Mundorf or Mills to replace those noisy sand cast abominations which are almost standard fare in lots of pricey commercial speakers.
Then there is the opportunity to adjust the kit speakers dimensions to suit yourself so long as the overall volume is kept the same and the width is not significantly changed. By this I mean increasing the height of a standmount design to that of a floor-stander. This generally looks nicer than using stands and to keep volume the same the bottom of the box can be filled with sand.
The sand acts as a sink for resonances and adds stability by sheer mass. It will be obvious to most that a commercial manufacturer would never entertain this adding sand idea even apart from increased transport cost.
Mostly when I build conventional speakers I shape some thin veneer at the back of the box into a semicircle spanning the 2 sides creating a 'U' which I then fiberglass and fill the cavities with sand. This stiffens the box tremendously and the shape breaks up standing waves.
Some of the money saved with DIY can be used as mentioned to improve XO and buy quality binding posts, avoiding anything brass, and replacing internal wire with OCC single strand wire preferably soldered in place.
The kits mentioned by Erik I have not heard but have myself used the outstanding value SB Acoustics drivers and had superb results.
What suggests itself to me here is to build the smaller 2-way as per my idea of stretching the cabinet into a floorstander with sand etc. and augment the bottom end with OB servo subs. Drive the tops with a tube amp filtered to HP at about 80Hz and the port plugged and I bet I would win money on some finding their jaw hit the floor :)