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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
teo_audio
2,197 posts
 
Customers generally find they are fighting to buy gear that  gives them detail, transient, and spacial cues (all born of the same considerations).

Down to the point that some end up with what another may call an 'unlistenable system' due to the spacial cues being where they want them, or expect them to be, but the rest of the package tripped up or exaggerated in an uncomplimentary fashion.

When it comes to the speaker part of the equation...ultimately this may be considered to come from the tweeter and it's integration with the given mid to mid bass driver. And a whole plethora of other aspects are at play.

Getting a tweeter to do it right is no small task, and yes, this is where a decent chunk of money is going to be spent.
erik_squires OP
16,200 posts
 
Teo:

The other side of the coin is using tweeters that are deliberately ragged. By emphasizing narrow bands, it can seem like you are getting more details. And you are, but at the cost of other bands.

This is a particularly good way to sell a pair of speakers. Compare to a neutral system, you’ll suddenly discover new notes! Well, it’s artificial. << sigh >>

Compare say Magico on one side and Wilson on the other. Magico is bright (to me), but smooth as glass.

But buy what you want. :)

Best,

E
asvjerry's avatar
asvjerry
4,696 posts
 
Went through the list of driver manufacturers.....*Yawn*

SOS.....MHO....
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,977 posts
 
Isn't the cost of the drivers only 10-15% of the total parts cost of the speakers and the cost of the cabinets more than half? So its fairly simple to consider a $60K pair of speakers using only $8K worth of drivers.
audiolabyrinth's avatar
audiolabyrinth
4,555 posts
 
I have been modifying speaker's for 25 year's,  my next step will be building my own speaker's,  I  do appreciate this thread,  however,  I have been saying for year's that speaker's are the most over priced component in every given system,  next, certainly would be cable's,  How many time's have we all listened to substantially cheaper speaker's outperform costlier speaker's?, This is the reason I never judge anyone's system until I listen to the system,  Believe me,  I have had my fair share of being  laughed at by audiophile's that are ignorant for believing that costlier speaker's are automatically better!, so,  you can understand why I appreciate this thread🥃🍷🍸🍹,, cheers. 
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