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Pulsars and the Mythical Armchair Speaker Maker

There’s another thread going about Joseph Audio Pulsar speakers which I did not want to derail, but it is showing up some common logical fallacies and dead ends I wanted to talk about.


As anyone who has read my posts knows, I’m a huge proponent of DIY for speakers and cables especially. Not that I think you should only go with DIY but because the more audiophiles who can build their own we have in the community the less snake oil gets spread around as fact and there’s less worshipping of the price tag as the almighty determiner of speaker performance.


The myth I want to talk about is kind of related. It is the idea that we should value speakers based purely on driver cost. JA’s Pulsars suffer from this because they seem to use off the shelf components, in very nice cabinets, with perfectly executed crossovers. The thing that I don’t understand are buyers who look at driver cost, and say "well, these speakers should cost no more than x amount, so I’m not buying them... "


I call hogwash. Speakers are more than a collection of parts. They are curated components brought together by a designer and manufacturer. Those same people who are likely to engage in this behavior:

  • Can’t actually design a speaker themselves
  • Would NEVER build a DIY speaker even as a complete kit because it doesn’t have a brand, nor would they buy an assembled DIY speaker.
  • Would probably go with a speaker with in-house drivers which have an even higher markup
  • May not have very good ears anyway


My point is, knowing the price of the parts does not make you at all qualified to judge what the final price should be. That is, fairly, in the hands of the market, and it doesn’t actually make you a better listener or more informed buyer. I would argue you end up buying speakers for brands with even more of a markup and more likely to have questionable performance.


It’s perfectly reasonable for a manufacturer to charge for parts, and skill. So, yes, talking tech and drivers and crossover components is always fun, but please stop evaluating the price of finished goods until you’ve attempted at least designing one pair yourself.

And again, DIY is a lot of fun, and if you want to go that way, you should, but let’s not denigrate high value, high quality manufacturers and delers by reducing them to part assemblers any more than you'd judge a restaurant based on the cost per pound of chicken.


Thank you,

E
erik_squires
jond's avatar
jond
5,880 posts
 
erik well said indeed great post. A lot of great commentary here as well great thread guys. kenjit assuming you're not a troll, a bit of a leap for now, I don't do DIY  because I can't and am not really inclined at age 49 to learn. Jeff Joseph designs speakers for a living it's his life's work. He's been tremendously successful in a very tough competitive business. That success speaks for itself.


Not always, but often, people who complain about high prices have little actual idea of what it costs to make something. Also they seem to never take into account things like returns, labor, equipment costs, rent, utility bills, and other costs that are more industry specific. In the case of a speaker company perhaps providing samples for reviewers.

It's not just "drivers stuffed in a box" not matter how you slice it.
kenjit
1,771 posts
 
Also they seem to never take into account things like returns, labor, equipment costs, rent, utility bills, and other costs that are more industry specific. In the case of a speaker company perhaps providing samples for reviewers.

It’s not just "drivers stuffed in a box" not matter how you slice it

plenty of hifi companies do cheap speakers. They too have to pay rent, utility bills, marketing and all the rest of it.

So why cant you take a mid priced speaker costing say $500 a pair and instead of using drivers that cost $50 a piece, use state of the art drivers costing $300 a piece? that would still only be $250 more per driver which means $1000 more than the basic cost of $500.
It doesnt come to $10,000 does it?
Many of these high end speakers are nothing more than basic mdf cabinets using higher quality drivers.
Even the ones that dont use mdf, are not demonstrably vastly superior to mdf. A cheap speaker uses no brace whereas a more expensive speaker uses a single brace. So for a tiny bit of mdf youre paying thousands of dollars more. Every speaker should be braced. It costs nothing to add a piece of mdf inside the cabinet during assembling.



meadowman's avatar
meadowman
142 posts
 
Kenjit,  you clearly do not or choose not to understand the intent of my comments or this entire thread.  Please take the time to tell us of your own DIY speakers.  Or, failing that, tell us what cheap speakers that sound better than the over priced Pulsars do you own?   No more platitudes.  Put up or....... well you know.
rlb61
789 posts
 
You know, kenjit's entire theory is analogous to representing yourself in court, or performing a homemade appendectomy ... neither is a good idea, particularly if you either don't know what you're doing or are not inclined to learn. Jeff's speakers, like those of any designer, are not necessarily appropriate for every audiophile or every listening situation ... nobody here ever said they were. As a very satisfied owner of a pair of Pulsars, I suggest that anybody knocking them should hear them first before passing what is nothing more than an uninformed judgment

mesch
3,523 posts
 
All I know is that i am very interested in hearing a pair of the Pulsars. I plan to search out a dealer in the Midwest and have a visit. 
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