Rodango,
If you plan to use 30 inch stands with speakers on top, then consider a 43" high x 7.5" wide x 7.75 deep Triton MTM mass loaded transmission line (MLTL) design. I adapted Jeff Bagby's Triton MTM bookshelf design to a MLTL enclosure which extends the bass down into the mid 30s Hz for the 3 dB bass roll off point. Essentially, you use the height of a stand to attain significant bass extension for bookshelf speakers.
The Creative Sound Solutions drivers are world class in their low distortion capabilities as measured by several independent testers.
There is a thread here on DIYAudio which details my MLTL version and its linkages back to Jeff's original design. The MLTL is a petite floor stander that offers mid 30's Hz 3 dB down performance. See the thread at:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/226173-triton-mtm-grows-legs-mltl-design.html
This link offers a drawing URL. I recommend the slot port version which is detailed later in the thread. The enclosure design is an easily built straight box.
Several others have built the MLTL version and report exceptional performance.
My design is faithful to Jeff's original (same driver layout and crossover is used) and maintains the magic in Jeff's speakers. The plus is the 15-20 Hz lower bass capability.
Meniscus Audio and CSS both offer the Triton parts kits for about $600 which is a great value for this level of speaker.
Let me hear if you need more detail.
Jim
If you plan to use 30 inch stands with speakers on top, then consider a 43" high x 7.5" wide x 7.75 deep Triton MTM mass loaded transmission line (MLTL) design. I adapted Jeff Bagby's Triton MTM bookshelf design to a MLTL enclosure which extends the bass down into the mid 30s Hz for the 3 dB bass roll off point. Essentially, you use the height of a stand to attain significant bass extension for bookshelf speakers.
The Creative Sound Solutions drivers are world class in their low distortion capabilities as measured by several independent testers.
There is a thread here on DIYAudio which details my MLTL version and its linkages back to Jeff's original design. The MLTL is a petite floor stander that offers mid 30's Hz 3 dB down performance. See the thread at:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/226173-triton-mtm-grows-legs-mltl-design.html
This link offers a drawing URL. I recommend the slot port version which is detailed later in the thread. The enclosure design is an easily built straight box.
Several others have built the MLTL version and report exceptional performance.
My design is faithful to Jeff's original (same driver layout and crossover is used) and maintains the magic in Jeff's speakers. The plus is the 15-20 Hz lower bass capability.
Meniscus Audio and CSS both offer the Triton parts kits for about $600 which is a great value for this level of speaker.
Let me hear if you need more detail.
Jim
Last edited:
ER18DXT is a good design but you can get better drivers with $1000. Speakers should be as good as its driver and its designer. And lets see how $1000 can be easily exceeded with good drivers and proper xover.
With max height of 16" pay attention to 2-way design using 8" or 7". Two way of this size is not easy so only expensive drivers are possible. You can go with Excel or Illuminator or many other not so popular brands.
Audition a $7000 Joseph Audio Pulsar to benchmark the sound of what you can achieve with Excel drivers.
Search the web for projects based on top drivers. For any known designer, find out their best design at around your budget.
Exactly. That and the Summa example is an evidence that $1000 is not that big.
A waveguide speaker was already mentioned that stays within budget and shares alot in common with the Harper - Alpha-8 Minion - Alpha Series - Waveguide Speaker Kits DIY Sound Group. And the other major contenders mentioned here IMO all come up to the level of worth every penny high value speakers. The whole point of this thread is the best $1000 bookshelf speaker. DIY is going to allow that $1000 budget if used wisely to get you what major manufacturers and retailers just can't achieve without at minimum doubling the budget and quadrupling is maybe more like it. And that budget also means ultra expensive drivers don't fit this category. But come on the Satori in the Kairos is being used in Wilson speakers for goodness sake. The fact you can knock on the door of very high end audio for anywhere close to this budget is pretty impressive.
If you can build enclosures, the DIY parts kit designs allow significant performance levels to be attained vs. their cost. Octavia suggestion in the previous posting is $412 for the parts kit. The Kairos parts kit is $899 and the Triton parts kit is $623 (both from Meniscus Audio) for two of the best designs from Jeff Bagby.
+1 What Jim just said, and you can even find some pretty nice flat pack or pre made enclosures that work and look good too (ok you might need to brush up on your finishing skills). The point is even if you are not a great woodworker, or crossover designer, you still have options for putting it together yourself, doing some little extras on the enclosures to make them perform WAYYY above their price point (constraint mode dampening, rounded edges, etc., and coming out with OMG you did that yourself HIGH END. And I'll say it again (ok last time I promise) what you choose should really reflect where your room placement will be and what kind of listening you will be doing. Most of us have to live in the spaces we listen in and maybe even consider what works for other members of the house but no reason you can't have awesome sounds even if you can't pull them one third out into the room. And if you have big reflective surfaces well then the directivity of the speaker you choose might become a pretty important factor. Probably stuff you already know but thats my 2 cents worth.
It only seems like a few years back that the only option was to buy your hifi from a hifi shop. Your average joe can now build speakers that are at least as good as shop bought ones and not only that, you can tailor them to your exact requirements (adjust BSC and treble etc).
If I were buying from a shop my choice would be severely limited because I much prefer sealed speakers and paper drivers.
That could be a semi-reasonable point, but you kind of spoiled it with your recommendation for NS-10M. Sorry.
Why are we talking about who would want to spend $1000 on bookshelf speakers and when and why anyway? The OP would, now, because they said so. The question was straightforward. If you've got $300 ones better than the best $1000 ones, say so.
from the newest available commercial speakers the ProAc 1SC was one of the best:
ProAc Response One SC loudspeaker | Stereophile.com
Currently available speaker with similar sonic quality are in general very hard to find (mostly cause metall diaphragm/cone instead textil/paper or polypropylene); particularly below 1000 US-$ - so I would try to get vintage models in used condition - here some examples:
1) LS3/5A
BBC LS3/5a loudspeaker | Stereophile.com
Replacement for LS3/5a? | Stereophile.com
2) harbeth P3ESR
Harbeth P3ESR loudspeaker | Stereophile.com
The Harbeth P3ESR | InnerFidelity
3) ProAc Tablette
Proac Tablette loudspeaker | Stereophile.com
4) ATC SCM10 in not powered version (i.e. without Sallen-Key active crossover and without integrated amplifier modules)
WTS Speakers: ATC SCM-10
I have heard all this mentioned models and I guess, one of this models is suited for your requirements and your taste.
In case of the possibility for DIY I would recommend follow transducers:
1) PHL 1290
http://www.phlaudio.com/main.html
http://www.phlaudio.com/parameters/b17_1290.html
or one of this Bass-Mid woofers from ETON/LPG
http://www.etongmbh.de/produkte/home-hifi/mitteltoener-tiefmitteltoener/
2) scan-speak D2905 (without ferrofluid !!!)
http://www.scan-speak.dk/tweeter.htm
Last edited:
Also, how does one actually weight a review from Stereophile? I see reviews from Stereophile linked!!!! How can they be taken seriously by intelligent people. There are +thousand dollar cables reviewed in there!! I also see some great sounding speakers reviewed, and reviewed well but given the obvious dishonesty of the publication it seems like a disservice to the community here to quote them as a source of expertise on audio. I know for a fact that this is a trusted place on the web, just seems inappropriate.
this speaker is a very good low budget speaker for starters similar like Nubert/Germany - go to
nuLine Serie - Klangkultur auf exzellentem Niveau von Nubert
But no of this models is able to blown away the mentioned vintage models mentioned by my post #56
Are there ever a more serious audio magazine ?
(maybe except the follow:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/soli...sen-jikken-yearly-index-1924-2009-wanted.html)
Last edited:
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.