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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
 
Ake , i'm not sure what you mean about shipping??? Well yes i'm paying the $100 shipping fee. But this 3 way, what price tag can you put on it, if sold in your local "hi-fi" shop??? Something like $10-$15K, maybe. The big commercials may be bigger and weigh more than these Selah3's, but no hype here. BTW, my choice in kits would be a EX High Edition from Germany. Its a 3 way Seas.
ake OP
48 posts
 
Sorry, tweekerman, I meant to say how much more you have to pay for having them assemble the speakers for you?

ake
ake OP
48 posts
 
Tweekerman, I think the one you ordered is not on thier website kit list, right? I am just wondering how much they will charge more for assembling the speakers on the top of the Kit price list.

ake
karl_desch's avatar
karl_desch
426 posts
 
Agree with all the above posts. I am currently in love with my North Creek Rhythm Signatures. I had the cabinets built by their resident master - Lee Taylor. The quality of the the kit components, especially the crossovers, are way high end. To my ears these speakers compete with speakers in the 5k to 12k range (Verity, Dynaudio, Vienna, Audio Physics.)

This was my first "DIY" project. I admit that having someone else do the research into crossovers and driver integration as well as cabinet building made this less DIY. But from the subtext of your post I assume you may be looking more for a break in price than the challenge of design and construction. If that is the case, I would highly recommend the North Creek kits. They are more expensive than most DIY kits, but the advantage gained in time and quality make them a real value.

Have fun. -Karl
unsound
7,329 posts
 
I have never tried building my own. The commercialy made speakers that I seem to enjoy all seem to be designed and built around some pretty sophisticated tesing equipment. I don't have access to a Fast Fourier, quailty microphones, etc. I am under the impression that drivers and parts come with generous tolerences and are still often way out of spec. I haven't the measurement tools or expertise to deal with what appears to be a rather complicated venture.
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