Opinion - Every audiophile should build at least 1 pair of speakers
I now know it would take me a whole Heap of money and a long time looking to find the next best thing in the speaker market, new or used. This brings up two major reasons to build yourself: 1 - Make exactly what you want 2 - Price performance is unmatched vs. commercial The high end brands charge around 10x the driver cost. Some much more. a few less. My main speakers would be around $12k if I tried purchasing, and they may or may not sound like what I want them to sound, exactly. |
Amen, Erik. From the looks of this thread, and the amount of people who might lament about how much speakers cost and/or how hard it is to get what they’re after, then, among existing audiophiles anyway, this may be the next wave...if it isn’t already. DIY speaker building has been around forever, but everything (increasing costs in the speaker market, less disposable income these days, the overall lack of movement in the global audio market and the wide availability online of affordable, high-quality parts, materials as well as easier, faster testing methods, etc) seems to me to be pointing in this direction more and more. Increasingly I have learned to tweak, modify and now DIY my way forward. Just accepting at face value alone the terms that manufacturers are willing to dictate to everyone has grown to be no longer an option for me. Lots of gains to be realized IMO once you decide and bother to learn how to start to buck that established trend. And yes, I said "buck". What did you think I meant? ;>) |
For vintage horn/high efficiency fans, found these sites specializing in Altec Lansing reproductions: https://vintagespeakerrevival.com/ https://greatplainsaudio.com/ Really nice looking stuff! Best, E |
@erik "I don’t expect every audiophile to build top class speakers, even if purchased as a kit. But I do wish more audiophiles would build something themselves. If even 1% of audiophiles built their own speakers, our hobby and environment would be so much better." In complete agreement here, no argument from me. Just meant to be speaking for myself that that particular door I went through remains as open as ever, really. Like you I’m convinced that even, if not especially, very modest DIY efforts price/performance-wise would have something well more to offer than any typical factory made counterpart. And that's a great learning opportunity. Great thread. |
