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DYI Speakers. How good can they be?

Ive been doing alot of research into DYI audio. About 3-4 months ago i was getting kinda sick of my job and realized i dont want to do telecommunications my whole life. So what do i want to do? I love building things and i love Audio gear.

I recently went out and bought "Loudspeaker Cookbook", and "Designing Building & Testing your own Speaker System". I have recently ordered a book on electrostatic speakers and im looking at the local college for some physics, electronics, and mathematics courses. Im considering learning some metalurgy and taking some welding classes as well. It will be a while untill i can get all the tools i need, untill then i need to sharpen my most important tool for this task, my knowledge of speakers.

There is alot of complex stuff involved in these, but then again, my current job is extremly technical and complex. So i dont have any doubts of my ability to learn this stuff. It looks like ALOT of fun as well.

Im hoping that in 15 years or so i will be able to produce my own line of High-End speakers, but first i would like to complete at least 50 different speaker projects including electrostatic as well.I have been scouring the internet getting as many speaker recipes i can find, and i plan to build a speaker of every plan i can over the next 5 years or so. This will get my hands dirty and heelp me learn alot of the do's and dont's of speaker building before i start to design my own line of speakers.

Every now and then i think about Speakers from companys like Wilson, Vienna Accoustics, and such, and wonder if i could ever build something as refined.

Then i realised everyone who designs these things has to start at SOME point, and every line of speakers out there started as a DYI project.

I hope withint the next 10-15 years have a marketable product of my own design (of course) that will definatly have my personal sonic signature, and be something all of you will enjoy.

That being said, What are your experiences with DYI Audio? Have you ever run across a set of home-built speakers that put a good percentage of high-end speakers to shame? Im not looking for recipes, i'm just curious of anybodys experience with really well done homemade speakers.

I cant think of any job out there more satisfying than one that challenges you to think, requires you to use your hands, and shows significant progress or a finished product at the end of the day.
slappy
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
It depends on how good you want speaker to sound.
In general, it's a difficult task and requires professional measurements in echo-free place or using electro acoustic devices that can factor-out the room acoustics and show the real characteristics of the final product.

Today's audio acoustics can be divided onto few categories:
someone mentioned mass serial production speakers such as Kef, Bose, Tannoy, B&W, JBL, Polk...etc... that mainly built-up on very cheap drivers. Repeating such speakers will not bring a desirable result since they've been matched to their best at professionally staffed labs; speakers such as Proac, Totem, JM Lab, Gershman, AudioPhysics, Vandersteen...

What we DIY-ers can do in that case? We can spend equal to Kef monitors and get the rich and full sound of a floorstanding speaker but drivers will cost $200 for woofer and $75 for tweater for each speaker instead of $20 and $5 respectively.

What professional builders can do? They also can get high quality drivers and match them up to their very very best in echo-free or suited and staffed lab for speaker building and in this case I guess homebrews will factor out.

To build speakers for living you need to spend arround $6k for software, measurement devices, microphones and microphone amplifiers.
Carefull measurement and matching not only important to adjust crossover(usually used electronic first to bring-up the values of passive elements), reselect drivers, etc... but also important to be on the specification. Homemade DIY speakers are basically the ones that have no precise specification with exception to the specification placed on DIY kit that in reality can alter in sufficiently large decibells. Marketing skills are also a big plus i.e. you should know what is the best marketed specification and how close your specification to marketed:-)
herman
2,267 posts
 
I wish you luck but the Wright Brothers maybe shouldn't be your role model. They may have been first to fly in 1903, but after an initial burst of business success they fell behind and were struggling 8 years later. In 1912, Wilbur Wright, worn out from legal and business problems, contracted typhoid and died. Orville, his heart no longer in the airplane business, sold the Wright Company in 1916 and went back to inventing.
satch
329 posts
 
Firstly, I believe DIY speakers can be better then commercial designs. But if you want to make a living out of it, they're not DIY anymore....... at least not to the buyers. Then there's the question of the finish of the design. It's a lot of work to make them as good-looking as professional speakerplants make them, you need to invest in a lot of machinery. And if you'll do it all by hand, and want to make some profit on them, your speakers will be extremely expensive due to the time you spend building them.
Hmmm...... When I started writing I onloy wanted to wish you luck and congratulate you with the courage to do something with your dreams, but that's not what it says now I'm almost done. Maybe, if you done your studies and come up with some good designs, you could join an existing, high-end small-capacity speaker brand? Well, whatever you do, good luck!!
ed_sawyer
588 posts
 
It's certainly possible. Some examples:

http://www.magico.net/ - this guy is basically a one-man-band who has taken it to the next (ultimate?) level - he's still on the DIY/BASS speakers list and contributes ideas from time to time. But, he's also doing exotic commissioned speakers for big money. He's done several pairs of very unique speakers - follow through his site to see some of them. The quality of the work surpasses everything I have seen from Wilson, (insert favorite commercial manufacturer here), etc.

http://www.cain-cain.com - Terry Cain & his wife, also a small operation (with a few folks that work for them). He is an accomplished woodworker that has moved into building speakers a few years ago. He's met with commercial success, and most of all his work looks and sounds great, for reasonable money. It fills a niche that is not covered by traditional manufactured speakers.

http://www.electronluv.com/ - while not speakers, Josh has also taken his passion (building tube amps) to a commercial level - his stuff is great, it's not cheap and the wait for it is long, but in the end it's worth it.

Bruce Edgar (Edgarhorns) has also done some great work, as mainly a one-man operation. I think the time is ripe for something similar from other folks (maybe you?) - a compression-driver based 3 way horn system, maybe ? It's a niche without many players.

I'd suggest you would find the best success with something rather exotic, both in design/build and perhaps in appearance, something that no one else is doing or at least not doing well. Go for the small-volume, higher-price market, rather than trying to make and sell 1000 pairs a year. At this level, appearance matters at least as much as sound (not that it should.....)

have fun,
-Ed
clueless
763 posts
 
That is a major aspiration. Good luck! Need to pull together acoustical, mechanical and electrical systems. On top of that you'll need to be a great businessman too.

If you have not already looked, there are several folks at the Madisound speaker board who, I believe, have similar aspirations. If you have not checked it out, take a look at a few of them: John K's, Ellis Audio, etc.. They are all a bit ahead of you down the road. Probably learn something from them.

http://www.ellisaudio.com/
http://www.geocities.com/kreskovs/John1.html
http://murphyblaster.com/content.php?f=main.html
http://www.selahaudio.com/index.html

Remember speakers are part of a system and its good to understand the demands they put on the rest of the system.

Good luck Slappy
I remain
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