The most fun you can have in audio is DIYing your own speakers

@riley804 

I wholeheartedly agree with Erik. Note an easier way to start and learn is to follow designs that have been proven to work well. There are many sites for this. You can look at, for example, www.troelsgravasen.dk (spelling?)
Take a look.
And have fun!

Another source for the pro player and in Canada, is... McBride:

https://mcbrideloudspeaker.com/home.php

As for the 10:1 markup thing, it does not exist. You start putting your true costs on the line for making a speaker and selling it to people, with all, I mean all of the steps required to do so and the imagined ratio quickly collapses.

As a single builder you don’t have to see those, location, infrastructure, labour, transportation, packaging and so on costs. It looks like a high number or ratio --- when it really is not. Not by a long shot.

If it was 10:1 there would be a lot more speaker manufacturers out there.... or world class speakers would cost a lot less to buy. No one leaves such money lying about without taking advantage in some way or another. Market forces have reduced pricing to as low as it will go and below that -- lies financial collapse.

Just like all other ~100 year old evolved markets. These arguments are as old as the audio hills.

In essence, please, build your own speakers and have fun doing it. But don’t falsely create the atmosphere that derides the manufacturers of quality audio speakers --as being some sort of rampaging profiteering takers of advantage. It’s simply not true. :)   The market has adjusted itself to a sharp mean over the past near 100 years of loudspeaker design, manufacturing, and sales.

I don't think speaker makers are "profiteering." I think it's a very difficult business you have to love to be in. But I am comfortable saying that high end speakers have to sell for around 10x the driver costs to be worth making.

10:1 is the minimum I see for using top quality drivers from OEM makers. That is based on retail cost of drivers. My numbers hold up based on analysis I’ve done from a few brands that I know the drivers for. But let’s take this through how retail works instead.

The ratio can be MUCH higher when the drivers are made in house (Monitor, Focal), or the drivers are bought in bulk or speakers are sold direct.

There are a number of reasons. First of course is that if you buy retail you are at least 3-4 layers away from the driver manufacturer.

1. Speaker maker
2. Distributor
3. Retail store owner

The retail markup is 40%. The speaker / electronics maker doesn’t sell speakers for the cost of manufacture, that’s a zero gain situation. They have to build crossovers, pay for those parts, have cabinets made, etc. All this adds up.

So, a $10k speaker pair in the store sold by the manufacturer for $6k. That is $3k/speaker. Figure they want to make 2:1, they must build for no more than$1,500 a pair. That includes cabinets, crossovers, assembly, testing, not to mention normal business overhead.

So, $750 to put a single speaker out the door. Assume 2/3rds of that is drivers, with the rest going to everything else discussed above. We are at $500/speaker in drivers, and there is not a lot of room for decent crossover parts.

This is why, for the same budget, a DIYer can assemble a speaker with much higher value parts than you can from the retail store. However, this is no guarantee at all that it will sound good. If you need validation from the retail marketplace that your speakers are high-end you’ll never get it.

That’s fine, I’m sitting here listening to $3k speakers I’ve not heard the better of in a very long time. :)

Best,

E

I should point out, I don’t wish to attack speaker manufacturers, at all. I just want to interest others in this hobby and help make audiophiles more informed consumers.

I have nothing against speaker makers making money by selling high quality products at fair prices, and 10x the driver cost is about that.