Best commercial/kit speakers with affordable drivers?

If I were to pick a couple of my recent designs that are inexpensive and that sounded fantastic; they'd have to be my Zingers and Pangolins. Zingers are more fun, and the Pangolins are definitely more detailed and sensitive.

If we would look at recent designs with a little higher pricing;
Drottnar was great too but really needed a woofer to help the bottom end. Very clean.
Purveyor (I hear the Peerless woofers will again be available soon) was pretty good alone and easy to build.
Bottleships stomp outside their size class. Don't know on the woofers on this one.

We'll see what and how my Hancocks do in the near future, as the drivers are not ubers and should be good.
 
Not entirely true, but it was initially. I was told Harman had SB make the drivers for the Revel lineup initially, then cut out the SB middle man by copying them to their standards and having them made in house. They are similar to SB, but not quite the same any longer.
Yes, I had read they use their own drivers now. I tried to pick an older model that used simple SBA but not 100% sure which ones did and didn't.
 
Have a look at this highly regarded kit.


https://audiofirstdesigns.co.uk/fidelia

1735330057889.png
 
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Here's a MTMMM 830656, "I don't Like Candles" by MattK PE Forum (no graphs, no measurements)
-looks like a small Elsinore
Madisound Peerless 830656 sale $15 usd x8= $120 usd
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/approx-5-woofers/peerless-830656-5.25-woofer/

Interesting, this speaker uses four Peerless 830656 & Dayton ND20FB-4 , simple crossover, you don't need a router.


https://techtalk.parts-express.com/forum/speaker-project-gallery/38135-i-don-t-like-candles

https://techtalk.parts-express.com/...rless-mtmmm-and-mmtmmmm-2-5-way-designs/page2

post#18
mattk, "I used Zaph's ZA5.5tt crossover topology (see http://zaphaudio.com/ZA5/ ) as a starting point in PCD, since he knows what he is doing, and adjusted values to get a reasonably flat response with a good reverse null."

--
diff driver- possible Cabinet 40 litres
http://zaphaudio.com/ZA5/ZA5.5t.pdf
======================
https://techtalk.parts-express.com/...lery/56059-the-armadillo-tm-a-k-a-lil-dillo-s

post#1
The "Armadillo TM" A.K.A. "Lil' Dillo's" 830656
I decided to do the first ones in a 10 liter (.35 cu ft) ported cab, lined and fairly well stuffed, with a tuning around 55hz.
The overall dimensions are 8" W x 12" H x 10.5" D with a 2" dia. x 5" long port (15.707963 in3). The sealed version Would be about 6-7" deep and heavily stuffed. A single dowel brace to tie the sides together seems adequate with 3/4" panels. The woofer and tweeter are 6" and 2" from the top edge of the cabinet, with the tweeter flush mounted and the woofer surface mounted. The port is recessed into the back panel 1/4" and glued in, with a 1/2" round-over on the outside end.
---

Build this with the (4) 830656 & ND20FB
http://www.zaphaudio.com/ZA5/ZA5.5t.pdf
ZA5.5t.gif
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Tetra Speakers 222 & 120u (I've never heard them or heard of them)
Tetra 222
1735925388099.png


from Tetra:
"With our patented single-cap Artet wiring, our innovative air-scoop baffle and our tried and true plane alignment, we have left no sonic stone unturned in the 222 design.

Crossover frequency 3 kHz
Woofer 5" Peerless Glass Fiber Cone, Rubber Surround
Tweeter 1" Morel, Textile Dome Diaphragm

Looks like: 1 cap, Morel ET448 , Peerless GFC 830991, angled cabinet (extend the baffle bottom or put spikes on the front bottom on a regular box)


High End Speakers-High End Studio Monitor Speakers-High End Reference Monitor Speakers-Surround Audio-Surround Sound Audio-Best Sounding

They put this on top of a bass module for the Tetra 333
High End Speakers-High End Studio Monitor Speakers-High End Reference Monitor Speakers-Surround Audio-Surround Sound Audio-Best Sounding

earlier version? Morel MDT12 tweeter
https://positive-feedback.com/Issue62/reader14.htm
PF,
"Now take a speaker with it's four essential ingredients: drivers, housing, cabling and crossover—put them together in varying quantities using various techniques, size of driver, types of crossover, speaker shape, cabling, yada yada… and you get a universe of different speakers that present sound in their own unique fashion.

Now, I chose this analogy specifically because Adrian Butts is to me like that mad chef/scientist in pursuit of total perfection (insert Heston Blumenthal here)—he chooses his ingredients very carefully then he tries a multitude of variations: carefully adding a perfectly spiced capacitor, an extra strand of copper wire to the cabling, matching the tolerances of all his drivers then tweaking and seasoning till he has reached total and utter satisfaction.

It takes Adrian up to 3 years to get his designs just right… and one of the things I most admire is that he is not going to release his product then surprise you one year down the road with an 'S.E.' Special Limited Signature Edition that costs and 'delivers twice as much and is a major advance' from the lowly speaker you bought yourself! No, the end product Adrian wants you to buy IS the best version he can make himself… as Adrian wrote to me, "you will be pleased to know that I am actually 'looking out' for your best interest." "​
====
Tetra 120U
1735925130897.png

from Tetra,
"utilizing only a single proprietary capacitor on the tweeter ensures that every musical nuance and explosive detail gets through and provides you, the listener, with a 'Tetra moment.' (Sales Pitch,ooo ahh)

Woofer 5" Peerless Polypropylene Cone, Rubber Surround
Tweeter 1" Morel, Textile Dome Diaphragm
Power handling 200 watts per channel
Weight 8.5 lbs (4 kg)
Dimensions 10.5" H x 9" W x 7.5" D (27 cm x 23 cm x 19 cm)

Looks like: 1 cap, Peerless 830860 poly cone , Morel MDT12

High End Speakers-High End Studio Monitor Speakers-High End Reference Monitor Speakers-Surround Audio-Surround Sound Audio-Best Sounding
===
Buy a bunch of caps and start playing

===
They even quoted Albert Einstein

"Not everything that matters can be measured, and not everything that is measured matters."
Albert Einstein

Funny
 

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Commercial-

Watkins Generation Four
060c13_b461778b258149f2b139b541e02b05dc~mv2_d_7208_2897_s_4_2.jpg

Dimensions: 8.5″ x 14″ x 13.5″ = .61 cu ft or 17 litres (3/4" material)
https://www.watkinsaudio.com/

https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/watkins-stereo-generation-four-loudspeaker/

"Drivers: One carbon-poly 6.5" woofer-midrange, and one 1" magnesium alloy dome tweeter"

"The front baffle is angled backwards to time-align the drivers by placing the acoustic center of the tweeter behind that of the woofer. This also helps to match the sensitivity of the woofer (88dB) with that of the tweeter (91dB) without the use of a resistive pad. The tweeter is crossed over at 3kHz using a single capacitor, and that’s it; there are no other passive components in the signal path."

"the woofer, a modified Peerless by Tymphany 6.5″ unit," <= (830874 ?)
A different dust cap? It looks like a ring of something on the dust cap.

"The tweeter is a SEAS H-1212 1″ aluminum/magnesium alloy dome modified to Watkins’ specs."

Polypropylene Black (PPB) cone material Peerless 830874 sensitivity 88db
https://www.parts-express.com/pedocs/specs/264-1090--tymphany-hds-p830874-spec-sheet.pdf

16 litres vented
https://www.falconacoustics.co.uk/downloads/Peerless/Appnote_830874.pdf

Modified Tweeter
SEAS Prestige 27TBFCG (H1212)
https://josephcrowe.com/blogs/news/2100
 
Have a look at this highly regarded kit.


https://audiofirstdesigns.co.uk/fidelia
I know I may be reading too much into it but even though Erin calls it his "new reference", I don't see him talking about enjoying listening to them the way he has other speakers like the Lintons.

With the Lintons he talks about listening to song after song and that the more he listened to them the more he enjoyed them.

With the Fidelias he says they are 'tonally accurate' and 'linear', he never says they are better to listen to than speakers three times their price he just says they are more tonally accurate than ones three times the price. He does say they 'sound fantastic' and maybe the fact that they can't get that loud is the only thing that rules them out as his speakers for pure listening enjoyment.

Even his subjective praise was mostly about how technically impressive they are, rather than listening pleasure. I guess technical performance should equal enjoyment but I'd like to hear that in the subjective part of the review.
 
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The Overnight Sensations are very good for the $160 that PE asks for them. Pretty good monitor like speakers that are easy to put together. They would make a really nice 7.1 system for not much $.
300-706_ALT_3.jpg

https://www.parts-express.com/Overnight-Sensations-MT-Speaker-Pair-Kit-300-706?quantity=1v

I've heard good things about the C Note kit, but I haven't built or heard them. For both of these kits I would use 3/4" material and bracing, 1/2" ply or MDF are too thin.

For something completely different there is the LX Mini.

lxmini-pair-3.jpg
 
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I know I may be reading too much into it but even though Erin calls it his "new reference", I don't see him talking about enjoying listening to them the way he has other speakers like the Lintons.

With the Lintons he talks about listening to song after song and that the more he listened to them the more he enjoyed them.

With the Fidelias he says they are 'tonally accurate' and 'linear', he never says they are better to listen to than speakers three times their price he just says they are more tonally accurate than ones three times the price. He does say they 'sound fantastic' and maybe the fact that they can't get that loud is the only thing that rules them out as his speakers for pure listening enjoyment.

Even his subjective praise was mostly about how technically impressive they are, rather than listening pleasure. I guess technical performance should equal enjoyment but I'd like to hear that in the subjective part of the review.

How about this:
These speakers are badass.
 
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I didn't catch that line anywhere in his review. And while they may be, I can only compare his praise between his different reviews.

He did say they "sound fantastic" finally at the end, but I still can't get past the fact that whenever he refers to them 'besting' more expensive speakers he always adds "in linearity" or "tonal balance" to it. Not once did he say it without quickly adding the qualifier. Why?

If a literary editor says "bikinpunk writes some of the best posts I've seen online" that is a good compliment. If the same editor says "bikinpunk writes some of the best posts, as far as spelling goes, that I've seen" that is not the same level of a compliment and it would not be assumed that the posts themselves are actually among the best.

If the 'best measuring' and 'best tonal balance' equal the best sounding speaker then I wish he'd once say in the review that they are 'one of the best sounding speakers'?
I know that for some people those two things can't be separated so a well measuring speaker has to be a joy to listen to, but since he usually includes both in his reviews the second is noticeably missing here.

He has gushed about how enjoyable other speakers were but this one it is 99% technical praise. The KEF Q11 got "I would have zero problem setting these up in my living room and calling it a day". These got "they are my new reference for comparing other speakers for tonality" I'm not shopping for speakers to use for that purpose.

I kept hoping for just one "at moderate volume levels, I loved listening to this speaker" and then throw in something about playing song after song like the Linton got, or "at moderate volume levels it bested speakers 3 times the price" instead of "the numbers are better than speakers 3 times the price".
 
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Votes for the Humble Homemade HiFi Calpamos? Or the less costly Asathor? Both solid designs.

 
Sonus Faber Signum, I enjoy them for 20+ years. Great resolution speaker that reaches 40Hz with 8L box. With 2 subwoofers it is just fantastic.

Drivers are "Sonus Faber modified" but this guy discovered exactly what is inside: https://www.mes-enceintes-acoustiques.com/2020/06/sonus-faber-signum-en-cours.html
(sorry, this is in French)

SCANSPEAK D2010/851100 tweeter and Discovery 15w-4424g00 mid woofer. Did not check recent prices but it was less than 300 Euro for all 4 units not so long ago.
The XO is 1st order with perfect response ( I measured too) but design is not re-engineered as far as I know, this could be DIY exercise.
 
The XO is 1st order with perfect response ( I measured too) but design is not re-engineered as far as I know, this could be DIY exercise.
1st order with a ton of additional parts. I am curious whether the entire HP filter was left in place with the replacement tweeter. Also, though 1st order not a time/phase perfect speaker. I would have had a tough time leaving that 1st order due to concerns of stress on the tweeter.
 
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1st order with a ton of additional parts. I am curious whether the entire HP filter was left in place with the replacement tweeter. Also, though 1st order not a time/phase perfect speaker. I would have had a tough time leaving that 1st order due to concerns of stress on the tweeter.
Hi, as I said, I have no clue about XO diagram, it is all sealed in rubber and I don't want to destroy it for curiosity. It does have impedance compensation elaborated, that seems for sure.
What I can say that tweeter did not burn in 25 years of use. As it looks like French guy (on post linked) left complete XO as is with replacement drivers.
What I did last year is replaced midwoofers with scan speak model I mentioned, sound was the same as original, if slight difference that could be attributed to new vs well burned in drivers. I dont have alternative tweeters, so did not try that.
The point of this thread is inexpensive drivers in good speakers, I thing SF Signum is to the point here.