kits are the "best" way to go for a good speaker?

[murphythecat8]

Hi everyone.

Im an ambitious dreamer that hope to have all the answers he need with as low experience one can have .

I have build the fonkens from planet 10 and I want to upgrade for a 3-way speaker.

After MONTHS of reading here and well making a phonostage and modifying a turntable in the process I have yet to find a speaker design that im sure will be amazing.

theres so much variance that I know that:
I dont have enough experience to build from scratch a speaker.
I dont have the time to try all the design by myself and I sure dont have the money to try every drivers and every kits available!


I know that troels make great design and great kits but do kits is really the best I can do?

When I look at the drivers used in different kits the drivers are well not necessarily the best available.
However I know that theres chemistry in between drivers but its hard to believe that the some cheap kits with cheap drivers can compete with good drivers. I do not think that every expensive drivers are good but you get the idea.

What can I do?

Also when I look at different kits and try to find reviews for them; it seems or feels that the people doing the kits are the less experienced diyers and so their opinion is not valuable.

For me, a valuable opinion is a formed opinion.And a formed opinions need to be formed with a experience with a lot of different design and drivers

I would love to hear what you EXPERIENCED diyers can tell me about that and which design you guys have done and which is the best!

cheers

[18Hurts]

It all depends on definition,

Can a person take the "best" drivers available and make a speaker sound decent? Sure! To me, the skills are when you take the less than the best
and make them sound better. You have major skills when a $150 subwoofer (or whatever) sounds better than a $1000 one.

It also depends on what you like, what type of speaker is your thing, how big it can be, how low you want it to operate, how loud it needs to be, how much power you have, how big your room is, music, home theater or both?

The reason I DIY is because I had a bunch of "stuff" laying around and wanted to see what it would do (my wife objected to the space the audio stuff took up in the garage without performing a function) After hours of reading, weeks of planning and a month of building--I had what I wanted (and more) with stuff I had "laying around".

A year goes by and I have a D'Appolito 2.5 way array center channel, full range surround sound speakers, Isobarik sub with 18" passive radiator and a pair of 6 foot tall line arrays in the garage. It is not the pursuit of perfect sound but sound that "matches" what I'm attempting to do. So far, my wife (the BOSS) has enjoyed the fruits of my labor and it is obvious--the lawyer has not called and she hates to admit, it sounds great for it's specific function.

You are on the right track though--prefab speakers always have compromises so a kit allows adjustments to those limitations. Get the drivers and it is up to you if you want 1% poly caps over 5% electrolytic, different inductors or different wiring. 3/4" MDF not good for you? Go for 3/4" baltic birch plywood and go with cabinet grade joining of the pieces. Match up the input connections to match your amplifiers, change the color, the texture or the grills (even the size) of the cabinet to match your needs.

Kits are great, you can be in denial about "saving money" since the amount of time to put it all together, make decisions etc will spread out the total cost. The scam of DIY is to take a month or two to build them, my wife notes the driver cost but the wood, crossover parts, screws, glue, carpentry tools and time goes unnoticed.

So get a kit then dig in and see what type of box, the size, the alignment and changing the crossover filters will adapt to your specific needs. Next thing you know you'll be creating audio problems just to "fix" problems that don't exist.

[AllenB]

I think that some of the more important issues can be seen by looking at a photo of the speaker. Some of the things I tend to prefer are larger baffles and larger tweeters. The primary issue there is controlling where the sound goes.

Cheap drivers can be made to work if chosen sensibly. Poor crossovers can be improved if you have the skill. Poor acoustic design to begin with will only disappoint.