Is it time in your hobby to build a speaker kit?

There do exist some who can learn through reading rather than the hands-on approach. I think a textbook on speaker design would be far more informative than gluing some knock-down cabinets and soldering a couple coils and capacitors. It could be a fun project but I'm not sure how it makes one a better listener.

Now designing a cabinet and crossover from scratch, determining/performing the appropriate calculations - that's something else. And at the end of the day, if one constructs a loudspeaker that conforms to every textbook ideal, there's no guarantee it'll be enjoyable. 

There do exist some who can learn through reading rather than the hands-on approach. I think a textbook on speaker design would be far more informative than gluing some knock-down cabinets and soldering a couple coils and capacitors. It could be a fun project but I’m not sure how it makes one a better listener.

No one is saying you shouldn’t. I’m saying this could be fun learning experience which gets you out of your head and gives you a hands on feel for what is described. The two are not exclusive, but complementary.

And at the end of the day, if one constructs a loudspeaker that conforms to every textbook ideal, there’s no guarantee it’ll be enjoyable.

No one said that should be a goal either.


The main goal is fun and experience in complementary, not exclusive and not duplicating ways. Sure we can learn all about rocket building in a book but putting your hands on a capsule that has orbited the earth is a whole other way to experience space flight.

or you could just modify an existing speaker by modifying its crossover preferably using an active one. 

I'm intrigued by the idea. Have done a bit of research.

And agree with you, it shouldn't really be about saving money because the good kits are damn expensive.

I'm a DIY sort of guy and would like to do this one day. I'm probably more interested in the cabinet/wood work. I would want the appearance to be something special. Not fancy or odd, just well done.

The thing is, most of my DIY'ing is to meet a need. And I don't need speakers right now.

Its on my list of possible 'to dos'.

Yeah, I have built an amp, transmission line, ESL, turntable, interconnects, equipment rack, and distributed bass array subwoofer system. Each time it was to fill a specific need. Same with mods- speakers, crossovers. I never just built or modded anything for the fun of it or just to be tinkering.

My experience has been so good I would highly recommend DIY. About the only thing I would add is to carefully consider and understand your reasons for DIY. There’s a million reasons, all pretty much equally valid. But there’s great wisdom in the phrase, Know thyself. If your reason is to save money you can do that. Totally. Guaranteed. No problem. If your reason is to make something to fit your particular requirements- whether size, color, shape, or whatever- perfect, go for it. Just be clear and honest and don’t go kidding yourself. Be realistic.

About the only DIY yellow flag I would throw is if you think you’re gonna make something like an interconnect, power cord or speaker cable. For some reason people think this is easy. Well, its easy in terms of assembling and soldering. Getting the signal from A to B is just not that hard. Winding up with something that sounds better than what you could have bought for your parts money, that I’m here to tell you just ain’t happening.

Everything else, go for it. Time well spent. Even if you ignore me and try and build some cables, you will learn something. About how hard it is to beat the pro’s. But still, something.