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
Regarding Ascend: I've only found information about a custom build, but no actual prices.

There appear to be threads which misquote the tweeter price ($6,800/pair) as the speaker price. I think this caused a great deal of confusion.


It is  unclear to me whether they were done for a client, or as a proof of concept to evaluate the quality of the performance vs. the Raal ribbons.


Raal makes amazing ribbons and transformers behind them, by the way, so at any price, they are tough to beat.


In any event, the idea that throwing a diamond tweeter in a speaker and therefore it will be better than those with less expensive parts is utter nonsense. Crossover, cabinet design and personal taste matter. I know lots of people who would take a thousand dollar tweeter and make it sound like crap. :)


Best,
E
I know lots of people who would take a thousand dollar tweeter and make it sound like crap. :)

Hey, I could pull that off!!!  I have to say that wildfoxinn tripped my BS meter pretty hard.  Not sure he'll be back.  


yep , a good friend built his Speaker cable to save $3 and they sound like it
 DIY speaker wire is great
just never listen to a manufactured wire.   let's get that right 

@TWOCH

Remember the Masking tape mod, as well as the duct tape speaker stabilizers help with
the coat hanger cable holder trick all play into the magazine rack diffusor .


Every cable made is a DIY that works or does not. When they work the owners do the smart thing and purchase tooling and machines that make production faster and cheaper..


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As for DIY speaker building. The problem with 99% of the group is they don’t build for high end goals and use high end amps and equipment as benchmarks.. they are in the belief Crown amps are the grail .. Quality caps and x over parts cost more than most of these thinkers complete system. Let alone Foil or Litz Inductors

I do think one can build a hell of a pair of DIY speakers but at a damn share more expensive cost than most DIY think. MDF is Garbage as is Baltic birch. Look to resin based products (panzerholz, Tankwood, ) 3/4 inch fiber re inforced . 16 layer Piano tuning board blanks.. All of these are extremely costly $900 a sheet but your cabinet is 50% of the sound . Shitty cabinet and you could use Rolex drivers and get bad sound !


If you use Crown amps you are not using that gear !