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Design a $60,000 Speaker - Start here

Hi Everyone,

Just thought for interest I'd talk about one of the most expensive woofers in the 10-12" varieties, the Accuton AS250-88-552 CELL, actually an 11" aluminum honeycomb sandwich construction. Retail price at hobbyist volumes: $1,400, each.

In addition to the exotic material, the suspension and motor assembly are also worthy of note, as they leave a very large amount of unobstructed space directly behind the dome, allowing it to behave most ideally like a piston.

So putting this together into say a modest 3 way with all drivers from the same company and of the same level, I estimate around $6k / pair of speakers for the drivers alone. Add the normal markups, and this is a $60k speaker.

Will it sound any good? I have no idea. I just wanted to share with you all where some of these speakers that cost as much as a luxury sedan get their prices from.  Obviously, my estimates are rough, and go up and down. The point of this is just a general expose.

Best,


E

erik_squires
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
Easiest way to sell a $100k speaker is to license the Mercedes Benz logo from Daimler and then mount that on the front in 24k gold!  Or maybe Platinum!
clearthink
1,421 posts
 
" Easiest way to sell a $100k speaker is to license the Mercedes Benz logo from Daimler and then mount that on the front in 24k gold! Or maybe Platinum! "

That is silly nonsense you do not know what your talking about if you truly believe this why don't you build such a speaker then you will be rich! The truth is that people who can afford such an item are not as stupid as you want to believe it is all part of the confusion and sillyness here about what wealthy people can afford and how that makes some people here very uncomfortable.
larryi
3,907 posts
 

I'm with Sal, above, on the Jensen M-18.  You can actually buy new replicas of that monster at G.I.P. Laboratories.  I know of a system that is being designed to use 4 of those drivers, plus G.I.P. 555 midrange drivers, plus the G.I.P. version of the 597 tweeter.  A custom Tungar power supply with hand-wound transformers will power all three field-coil drivers.  I don't know about the crossover.  The midrange horn is a modern-build 15A replica.  Just the drivers and horn are well past $100k in cost. 

On just a price basis, the likes of Accuton sell bargain drivers compared to companies like G.I.P., ALE, Cogent, Goto and Feastrix.

ctsooner
2,480 posts
 
Vandersteen's cost to build the 7 mk 2 (not even including the aluminum woofers or the carbon fiber/balsa wood cones/driver that are built in-house and sent out to make the drivers to spec):  $1,800 for the mid and $2,400 for the mid-bass.  The open back, non reflective construction we are now seeing in drivers are part of what was originally, the patent for Vandersteen drivers. Eric you are quite aware of drivers, but must be unaware of what does and has gone into Vandersteen drivers.  The mid's of the 5A Carbon is the same as what's found in the 7's.  Quite unusual for speaker at this price. Are you only speaking about driver cost and build or also cabinet?  They also have double cabinets and are wrapped in carbon fiber.  Everything in house for total QC.  

Just thought I'd add, lol.  Interesting question though. 
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
It's a joke guys, I'm just following Erik in the theme of circling the drain. :)
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