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The most fun you can have in audio is DIYing your own speakers

You don't have to make the best speakers on earth, or most expensive, and you don't have to become an expert in the tech, but in all my years in audio, I have to say DIY is the most fun and educational. For me, speaker building was a lot more fun than electronics (amps, pre's etc.) 

Lots of great sources for complete kits as well as paper-only designs. Speaker building is also a great thing to do with your kids. I highly recommend it.

Best,


Erik
erik_squires
erik_squires OP
16,173 posts
 
Troels is a very experienced and accomplished kit designer, far more than I am, however I often catch myself smiling at some of his comments and choices matching so well with mine. If I had a soul-brother in terms of speaker design I'm sure it would be him. 
gochurchgo
923 posts
 
If I had the time I'd like to try it.

johnk's avatar
johnk
1,975 posts
 
10x is very off. Pricing for retail goes more like this manufacturer gets 30-40% over total costs retailer sells for about 33% over what he paid manufacturer. Still some like magico are pricing at what the market will bare.But on average if it costs manufacturer a $1000 they will sell to retailers for about 1300-1400 retail would be about $1800-2k. This cost structure is fairly standard.
enginedr1960
173 posts
 
I have reached about 40 hrs on the Klang & Ton Madisound kit - The Lee Taylor cabinets are works of art with the Koa wood veneer . The sound is the best I have heard in my room . These replaced a pair of Ohm Walsh 2000s . The price to performance ratio is a good reason to take the DIY plunge .
erik_squires OP
16,173 posts
 
@johnk -

I don’t see where we are off except in one thing: I’m talking about the cost for the _drivers_ alone (woofer + tweeter, etc) vs. final retail pricing for the entire _speaker_ (drivers, cabinet, crossover).

Your math goes down the same places I went and then stopped at speaker manufacturing. If you went a little further you would get to where I went to.

Best,

E
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