tear down 2k bookshelves or build from scratch?

[Moondog55]

I wouldn't bother too much with getting hung -up on the actual names, we have several pairs of stand-mount speakers on bookshelves as our computer monitors ( they do how-ever sound quite a bit better on stands )

 

[secondo]

Hi,

Paradigm Reference Studio/60 v.3 loudspeaker | Stereophile.com

To build something better than the above you better know your onions.

rgds, sreten.

My Studio 60's are V2 and so those are supposed to be nicer than mine, but yes to be honest I figured if I put in $1500 and lots of labor and followed good advice I'd be lucky to be almost as good, but I would be happy if it was almost as good since I'd have pride in having made them and I do know I can build something that is prettier - the harder thing is building something that sounds better (and that is kind of the point).

Then again this voice in my head says, "but wait a second, why can't I do better since I'm not charging myself for all that labor and they have to charge for labor and also make a profit."

Closer to what I do know about, from a furniture building perspective I can do better building it than I could do buying it if you don't factor in labor, but I would go broke in a hurry if i tried to make a living at it.

 

[Andersonix]

What if you solicited interest from a diyaudio member "patron" who needed a craftsman to make nice cabinets for his speaker project and then also made yourself a pair? Perhaps this would help determine what to make, and you could recoup or share some of the materials cost and set-up time (economy of scale)?

 

[secondo]

a patron is an interesting idea indeed. I'd thought about convincing an audio enthusiast friend to do it with me for the economy of scale, but his skills are more or less the same as mine instead of the crossover design type skills that I'd really need.

I've also started to wonder if $400-$700 is a sweet spot for diy speakers in the sense that you can do better than what is out there more easily at that price and if as you get up in the 1k to 2k range if the competitive advantage doesn't go away a bit? It seems like looking at price lists, a lot of the suggested plans are in the former category. I could be crazy and it may just be there is more demand for that price category.