Ratio of driver quality vs result ?

[oaristys]

Hello all !

I tried to make high efficiency loudspeakers myself. Two 45$ 7" Thang Band woofer and 60$ 1"TB titanium inverted dome tweeter and i'm not happy with the result when i compare with my actual loudspeakers.

This is my sound system :
Monitor Audio RS8 (i will write "MA")
Shanling STP-80 tube amplifier
Unity Audio Solid Link Cable
Cambridge Audio Dacmagic with computer USB

The new boxes with TB sound something cold and fatiguing. A bit more efficient. Play loud. but the voice is hard. Sound like old paper cone drivers but with more bass. lot of mid ... Bass is ok. The sound stage are big, heigh, width. But not really coherent and deep compared to MA.

I tried to put one of this woofer in different box. Bookshelf setup. Sound a bit different but the same signature.

Now i want to do a mini bookshelf with very high sound quality. The Monitor Audio sound good but something struggle on some frequency range. It make sound a bit small. Like if you put the soundstage in a lot of damping material.

The future project should should sound more open, more height and natural.

I see the page of different ProAc clones but the price of the drivers are very high. My home made speakers use 45$ woofer.

So, my question is
Is the drivers price (quality) is the main factor ? I take a look the Monitor Audio, Proac, lot of DIY designs and all the boxes are very similar. Same material, same collapsing, same port shape etc. The only difference is the volume and the dampering material and the port configuration.

Is that exist truly very good sounding speaker made from drivers than cost less than the price of used guinuine acclaimed speakers ?

Now, if i want to do ProAc bookshelf clone, i will almost equal the price of buying new
genuine ProAc to the store ...

Will i wast my time if i try to do hifi speaker with less than 150$ drivers ?

Thank to all for your advice, time and answer !

[badman]

Since you gave none of the important specifics....
You probably didn't do a very good design. What was your crossover?

Driver quality is important but design quality is more important

[MJK]

I don't know anything about the drivers you are using. But I do see one element of your design that is not mentioned at all ... the crossover. Crossovers make or break more DIY speaker systems then anything else IMO.

At some point you will need to make detailed measurements of the impedance and SPL response to get the most from your drivers. It would seem reasonable that you could get better performance then you have described but it is going to take integrating the crossover, the drivers, and the enclosure to produce an optimized speaker system.

[Undefinition]

A great crossover can take budget Chinese drivers and make them sound incredible.

A poorly-designed crossover can take the most expensive Scandanavian drivers and make them sound absolutely terrible.

[planet10]

Originally posted by MJK
Crossovers make or break more DIY speaker systems then anything else IMO.

The prime reason why i try to avoid them, but if i can't move them way up and/or way low, and if low go active if possible.

dave

[gainphile]

The future project should should sound more open, more height and natural.

You need to try different topology. Small boxed speakers design have been done to death and they will emit smooth, but tiny sound which says "loudspeakers".

How about trying to mount them on an open baffle and go from there

[planet10]

Originally posted by gainphile
Small boxed speakers design have been done to death and they will emit smooth, but tiny sound which says "loudspeakers".

Not if done right.

One of the boxiest speakers i've heard recently is Silver Iris OB.

dave

[ttan98]

Originally posted by Undefinition
A great crossover can take budget Chinese drivers and make them sound incredible.

A poorly-designed crossover can take the most expensive Scandanavian drivers and make them sound absolutely terrible.

Good sounding speakers do not need to be expensive and very low distortion. A careful selection and choice of drivers with good synergy and care design of x-over will give the builder a very satisfying pair of speakers.

[cuibono]

Originally posted by oaristys

Will i wast my time if i try to do hifi speaker with less than 150$ drivers ?

If you do some looking/research, there are plenty of well documented, well designed speakers around the net for not very much money.

If you're not up for doing a good bit of measuring/simulating/trial/error, follow a proven design. Otherwise, you'll end up with something fairly compromised (as it sounds like you've discovered).


PS - I'd guess the law of diminishing returns happens more quickly with drivers than a lot of people would guess, so I don't worry much about raw driver cost.

[planet10]

Originally posted by oaristys
Will i wast my time if i try to do hifi speaker with less than 150$ drivers ?

A pair of Mark Audio CHR70 in a 5-7 litre sealed box would qualify as fine for that budget... also give you some change left over to start bedgeting for an active woofer.

dave