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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
cdc
1,785 posts
 
Corian?
slappy OP
903 posts
 
Nah, not corian, but ive been looking into that as well.
Everything i have found on Corian are already finished products, like countertops etc etc, Im hoping to be able to build a cabinet out of two molded pieces without flat surfaces anywhere except the bottom and face of the speaker

Im getting pretty interested in Fulton MG, that looks right up my ally for what i want. Plus it can be done to look like metal, marble, etc, etc. its as strong if not stronger than marble, and can be finished to look like wood, metal, rock, etc etc.
ed_sawyer
588 posts
 
Check out Norh - they make speakers out of cast synthetic marble. Pretty cool. ADS used a novalith-type ceramic (?) for their CM (compact monitor) series of speakers in the late 80s/90s. I had a pair - interesting. They were 2 pieces, both cast/molded/machined. The head of ADS at the time is now making speakers under the Aerial name (Mike Kelly - great guy), he uses Novalith for the 'head' of the Aerial 10T - also a cast piece. Very expensive, but very dead and dense. He told me one time that fully 1/2 the cost of the 10T was in the 'head', not sure if that included drivers or not, but either way - clearly an expensive proposition for that material.

have fun,
-Ed
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