Are you satisfied with your own speaker design build?

[fakeout]

I just searched 300 pages of thread titles to find the same question and couldn't find it. So here it goes, if you haven't followed a plan and designed your own speakers, are you satisfied? I mean if you compare them to some store-bought speakers.

This post interrupted by this musical interlude. lol

I'm just asking in general. I'm the kind of person who can start investigating a project then put it aside several times for several months before I get anything done. I could take forever to do it. But, I'm looking into this to waste time and also to avoid or manage the stresses of life.


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[PeteMcK]

Yes, but I've built lots of speakers & in the process trained my ears what to listen for. Nowadays, any I build are just to try out new ideas or drivers.
If this is a first build (or any number lower than 10 )then you'll be subject to the usual learning curve/human restlessness & suspicion that you might not have the best.... now, if only I could find the perfect guitar...

 

[Zuhl]

Very satisfied with my SEAS L18/22TAFG design. They are well balanced, clear, open dynamic and it's a pleasure to listen to music.

By comparison, my purchase Musical Fidelity MC4s (original version) sound thick, slow, undynamic, veiled, with a lack of treble, a dip in the upper mid, large peaks at 600hz and 100hz, soft flabby bass etc. A pair of KEF iQ5s I have in another room sound even worse.

So, my design is a success. Can I do better? Always, but not without spending more money

 

[StigErik]

Yes - absolutely

B&G RD-75 ribbons and sixteen 21" dipole woofers in my case.

 

[trondskij]

"It has been remarked that if one selects his own components, builds his own enclosure, and is convinced he has made a wise choice of design, then his own loudspeaker sounds better to him than does anyone else's loudspeaker. In this case, the frequency response of the loudspeaker seems to play only a minor part in forming a person's opinion."

- L.L. Beranek

 

[Moondog55]

My first pair of speakers were brilliant and absolutely perfect and I have been going downhill ever since

 

[sideways]

Yes!!

I got some help here with my xover (system7 thank you)and everything turned out splendidly!!

I even bought a set of Reference 3a's for comparison...liked my build better

Had a set of Kef 104.2's in the house last week...waiting for a buddy to pick them up...very closely voice but the Visaton tweeter was clearer...probably why I like the build so much...modern day vintage sound?? LOL!!!

Morel HU621\Visaton KE25SC

 

[mondogenerator]

Yes now, if only I could find the perfect guitar...

haha, finding is easier than acquiring in my case. Still dreaming of that twin neck 6 and 12 string SG

my 1st build was poor but shone in its own way. Sadly stolen and the culprits left the xo...

2nd build far better, superceded by the next, but is still worthy.

3rd build, almost spot on.

Others still in development are shaping up to be at least as good.

The better you get, the more marginal the improvement.

 

[Helmuth]

My current dipole low with kugelwellenhorn is very good (already 2 years), over the hole bandwidth.

It was a long route for me to learn what ideas of mine are wrong and witch turn out good.
Now I have the knowledge and experiences to make successful good sounding and good measuring systems.

 

[balerit]

My last design was the ultimate and I would never change. The biggest compliment was when people brought their speakers for comparison and went away disappointed after spending thousands of bucks on top brand names.

 

[matevana]

Yes Absolutely! Hestia-SL open back active/passive hybrid.

 

[danny_66]

Definitely YES !!!

I have finished my ultimate speakers since a few months and couldn't be happier with the result.
Since they are finished I stopped watching television so I can listen to my speakers, they're so addictive

 

[speakerdoctor]

Definitely yes as well. The "Intimates" speakers are now my reference.

Introducing the "INTIMATES" (high WAF & quality sound)

Build a pair - you won't be dissapointed.

 

[jimbones]

Modest expectations

I set a modest budget at just over $1000. I knew going in it would not get where I wanted to be so I set my expectations to match my budget. I met those. Now it doesn't do what i want it to do which is imaging needs to be improved. That could be a function of my design so I am not saying that money is the answer but I would say that if a designer sets realistic expectations then most likely they will be satisfied. (BTW, my build is the Lambda hybrid OB speaker thread, shameless plug )

 

[thoriated]

I found that the more unique ideas I put in each speaker project, the more satisfied I was with the result, especially starting with the Basement Blasters, Iron Lawbreakers and the most recent HT speakers. I don't know anybody else who has used an air core transformer as a crossover element in a speaker, for instance, and it turned out to do a couple of things very usefully in the Iron Lawbreaker (I can no longer find the pictorial posts for this design or the HT design in DIY Audio, though!).

 

[picowallspeaker]

Today I spent 26 € for a piece of MDF
26€
And the half is waste
And I'm really doubtful about the result
If I was sure, I'd be more happy in spending 260 € on carbon fiber sheet
But that's how it goes
Who says that TLs are more difficult to build than regular boxes ?
They are hugely more

And who said that he had 8 X21" in a room ?

Yes - absolutely

B&G RD-75 ribbons and sixteen 21" dipole woofers in my case.

Oh sorry, they're 16

 

[sreten]

Hi,

You still need to follow a good plan when designing you own speakers.
If you do not the chances of them being any good are pretty dismal.

rgds, sreten.

 

[picowallspeaker]

Hi,
definitively!
My mood is of being just scaramantic...
It's two months that I'm making sketches
I CnCed everything in my mind
The lady in the Email replied that I just had to ask
Thickness and which metrature.
For carbon fiber I think it's 3 digit

I've made 1 expanding TL(Voigt type) and 1 tapered
This one is going to be 'straight'

Both the previous ones work good: they both employ a 2" Monacor in waveguide, after many 'incarnations'

 

[Cal Weldon]

Posts 5 & 6 should win an award from the Truth and Humour judges.

 

[mondogenerator]

Today I spent 26 € for a piece of MDF
26€
And the half is waste
And I'm really doubtful about the result
If I was sure, I'd be more happy in spending 260 € on carbon fiber sheet
But that's how it goes
Who says that TLs are more difficult to build than regular boxes ?
They are hugely more

And who said that he had 8 X21" in a room ?


Oh sorry, they're 16

hahahahahahaha I know the feeling, its a similar price in the uk.