Merry Christmas everyone!
I have not experience comparing DIY speakers vs brand name speakers. What I know is many brands don't use quality drivers and don't have a solid construction. When they use top drivers, speakers cost a fortune. Can a DIY design rival a high end speaker ?? I see the market has high end drivers such as Scan Speak, Vifa, Eaton, Audax, etc, that are accessible to many people. I can not aspire to own brand name speakers using those but I can build them by myself. I don't know if building them we can achieve the high end sound those drivers are able to delivery.
Do you think your DIY projects can compete with B&W, Paradigm, Kef, Boston Acoustic, etc ??
Just to have an idea what is the experience of this community. My only hope to own a high quality set of speakers is building them by myself. But, I don't want to expend the money, time, and to live all the process if they aren't able to improve the sound of my entry level speakers. On the other hand, my wish of building them and to be successful is something that I can not negate. Hope to present them to this wonderful community some day not to far from now, and yes, to get better sound than those $500/$600 bookshelf speakers I own now.
Thanks a lot for all your contributions, help, and enjoy the holidays.!
I have not experience comparing DIY speakers vs brand name speakers. What I know is many brands don't use quality drivers and don't have a solid construction. When they use top drivers, speakers cost a fortune. Can a DIY design rival a high end speaker ?? I see the market has high end drivers such as Scan Speak, Vifa, Eaton, Audax, etc, that are accessible to many people. I can not aspire to own brand name speakers using those but I can build them by myself. I don't know if building them we can achieve the high end sound those drivers are able to delivery.
Do you think your DIY projects can compete with B&W, Paradigm, Kef, Boston Acoustic, etc ??
Just to have an idea what is the experience of this community. My only hope to own a high quality set of speakers is building them by myself. But, I don't want to expend the money, time, and to live all the process if they aren't able to improve the sound of my entry level speakers. On the other hand, my wish of building them and to be successful is something that I can not negate. Hope to present them to this wonderful community some day not to far from now, and yes, to get better sound than those $500/$600 bookshelf speakers I own now.
Thanks a lot for all your contributions, help, and enjoy the holidays.!
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Of course they can compete. Salk Sound for instance has many of their speakers designed by people active in the diy community like Dennis Murphy and Jeff Bagby, both pf whom have free designs you can find online. Joachim Gerhard is active here and has his recent Satori monitor build in another thread. Quite a few of the gurus who design top speakers are also active in diy. Etc. etc.
What eats up the cost of expensive speakers is the enclosure. Metal, exotic woods, size, shape, finish, shipping. THAT is where a lot of your money goes. That is the toughest part to compete. The aesthetics. A diy can sound just as good...but won't look as pretty.
However the budget market has become very competitive. Under $500 it will be hard to diy better than retail. If you have the skills and tools to build and a well done crossover then yes definitely.
What eats up the cost of expensive speakers is the enclosure. Metal, exotic woods, size, shape, finish, shipping. THAT is where a lot of your money goes. That is the toughest part to compete. The aesthetics. A diy can sound just as good...but won't look as pretty.
However the budget market has become very competitive. Under $500 it will be hard to diy better than retail. If you have the skills and tools to build and a well done crossover then yes definitely.
Exactly right. I think every audiophile should build at least 1 pair of speakers in their lifetimes, I think they would learn a great deal about speaker value but also their own tastes and their power to change it. The thing about all my speakers is: They pretty much sound exactly how I want them to. I'm not spending all year swapping cables, amplifiers, and preamps to get the sound I want.
Best,
E
Best,
E
Giving a passive speaker the tonality that you want is no easy at all! One must learn a lot of acoustics and electronics to do that, even by trial and error. And secondly many have noticed that they like different speakers for different recordings.
Small two-way speakers are easy to start diy with, but as mentioned, it is really hard to beat commercial products.
With tall multi-way speakers diy-benefit is maximal, but they also require lots of skill, that must be gained first...
There are many free loudspeaker design/simulation programs that are worth learning. We have also many free measuring software. We have some very good dsp-xo boxes that make active multiway speakers possible for those who are poor at mathematics like me!
It's a long and winding road! Wellcome along!
Small two-way speakers are easy to start diy with, but as mentioned, it is really hard to beat commercial products.
With tall multi-way speakers diy-benefit is maximal, but they also require lots of skill, that must be gained first...
There are many free loudspeaker design/simulation programs that are worth learning. We have also many free measuring software. We have some very good dsp-xo boxes that make active multiway speakers possible for those who are poor at mathematics like me!
It's a long and winding road! Wellcome along!
I would ask the opposite, can a commercial speaker rival a DIY one? In my opinion it isn't the cost, or the quality of the drivers, but the application. This includes size and baffle complexity.
Thanks for your answer! Can you advice some program, books, or website where I can read and learn the first steps.
Sure it can. Look at studio monitors for example (Genelec). It will be very hard to get same quality for the same money (aluminum enclosure, flat freq response, etc).
I have always designed my own cabinets.
Some were built with little or no knowledge.
Bang them in a box and see how they sound.
I built a couple of speaker cabinets for a mobile disco.
I put two Fane 12-50WRMS speakers in each box.
They sounded good and were very loud.
My latest project was a Fane speaker in a folded horn box.
That is my favourite speaker looks wise and sound wise.
Some were built with little or no knowledge.
Bang them in a box and see how they sound.
I built a couple of speaker cabinets for a mobile disco.
I put two Fane 12-50WRMS speakers in each box.
They sounded good and were very loud.
My latest project was a Fane speaker in a folded horn box.
That is my favourite speaker looks wise and sound wise.
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Oh I love the sound of those systems. I've built a set of them. 2*2 watt satellites in over-damped TL going flat down to 200Hz. Assisted by a 60 watt sealed subwoofer to give it enough punch.
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Also, IMHO the feeling of have created something is a must and it gives you a better idea of how universe works, believe it or not!
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Also, IMHO the feeling of have created something is a must and it gives you a better idea of how universe works, believe it or not!
I agree especially nowaday when kids just spend time on computers. Make sure once created not taken away by some other people.
dvjorge@:
If its reasonable to build your own speakers today depends. Building speakers
is a think of knowledge and experience. If you have none it can easily end in
frustration and money thrown out of the window. Its probably better to build
a construction from a well known DIYer like Gravesen example.
For starters the Scan Speak or Seas 3W-Classic`s are nice and not to expensive.
If its reasonable to build your own speakers today depends. Building speakers
is a think of knowledge and experience. If you have none it can easily end in
frustration and money thrown out of the window. Its probably better to build
a construction from a well known DIYer like Gravesen example.
For starters the Scan Speak or Seas 3W-Classic`s are nice and not to expensive.
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@dvjorge: it depends, if you have no tools at home & you are looking at small speakers, I would recommend you buy off-the-shelf speakers. I found that common book-shelf brand speakers are cheap & good.
If you have spare time and tools, building speakers is quite a joyful experience. And depends on your skill, the result can be very satisfying at a fraction of the cost of brand speakers. If you have no experience at all, I would recommend a pair of full range speaker drivers and an appropriate horn cabinet to start with.
If you have spare time and tools, building speakers is quite a joyful experience. And depends on your skill, the result can be very satisfying at a fraction of the cost of brand speakers. If you have no experience at all, I would recommend a pair of full range speaker drivers and an appropriate horn cabinet to start with.
I tried the diy speakers and enclosures too, but I gave up. It's not that easy, cabinets are not cheap to build( of course if you want nice ones), drivers are not cheap , crossovers are not cheap. And my problem was that I was not sure about what I was doing is 100% correct. Measurements are always tricky , walls , rooms , furniture etc .If you really want diy speakers you could try the kits from meniscus, Madisound or parts express, or others.
So I gave up, but I always can improve my retail speakers, better caps and better coils , better resistors, but the best improvement would be the active crossover.
So I gave up, but I always can improve my retail speakers, better caps and better coils , better resistors, but the best improvement would be the active crossover.
I agree somewhat but if you do your research and take it slow it can be fun , I heavily modified some ElectroVoice status 50 's and made my center channel from scratch. Here's a pic . That center is massive weighs about 60 kg is a 3 way crosses with an LR2 @ 450 Hz and 3800 Hz has a Lpad on the mids.
The enclosure is heavily braced lined with felt and stuffing and is a sealed unit.
The enclosure is heavily braced lined with felt and stuffing and is a sealed unit.
If you have access to a CNC machine, it would save you a lot time. I made my first horn speaker in a day (excluding the research time & drawing time).
Two/Three-way system requires expertise that may scare off newcomers.
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