Built your own speakers ?

I'm not sure how getting the most for your money is cheating; guess it is a New England concept. I found a site off of the sub dyi that lists the drivers found in many quality speakers. Some of these drivers are included in kits. It takes a leap of faith to go from a pile of parts to speaker, but in my price range you can get a very good speaker.

My opinion is still if I was given the drivers and crossovers of a speaker I like, I'd still be hard pressed to duplicate the sound because of the cabinets. Its not just a woodworking exercise. The sound deadening, diffraction limiting, time alignment issues of the cabinet, not to mention the finish, are not trivial issues.

We know those issues aren't trivial (especially finish), but it is you who is trivializing the speaker building hobby, it seems to me. As far as specialized baffles go, the only commercial manufacturer that does that in a way that would be essentially impossible for an individual to do, is Revel (they're part of a multi billion dollar company, afterall). However, with a few other innovations, you don't need to have an 8 inch radius to achieve ideal diffraction limiting. And anyone can time align a baffle...

I have built several systems with great success. Currently my system consists of two NHT 12" drivers for the subwoofers, two Dynaudio 5" (mid) and two Dynaudio 1" silk dome drivers. I use a 3 way electronic cross-over at 100 Hz and 4000 Hz. I am extremely pleased. The system compares favourably to anything I have heard thus far including Watt Puppys, Vandersteens, B&W 801's etc. Cross-over design can drive you nuts but Leap designed cross-overs work well but I believe better sound comes from the the electronic cross-over route. Total cost was less than $1500 not including amps and electonic cross-over. If you must use passive cross-over then I suggest you find a kit or already published design. The "Black Dahlia" design by Dick Olsher (a superb speaker) when built is a good example. Zalytron has many kits designed by Joe D'Appolitto (sp?). The magazine Speaker Builder is a good place to start should you want to go this route. One caveat--home made speakers don't have any re-sale value and the snobs who spend $5000 and up per speaker will dismiss your efforts as pure idiocy but if you want champagne sound on a root beer budget, its the only way to go.

I have built speaker kits from Madisound and even though they are very neat when you first complete building them, they never seem to sound quite right. This is the impression I've had about every kit built speaker I have heard. I had Source Technologies out of Conneticut build my last speakers ( Dynaudio satellites in an MTM configuration using all esotec drivers ). They did a great job of getting the crossover right and also did a fine job constructing the cabinets - proper internal bracing, sand filled bottoms, and thick cherry veneer. However, they were 5 months late on completion and the owner/designer was a horrible communicator. Needless to say I will never have speakers built for me by Source or anyone else for that matter. It simply is too much hassle and nobody seems to get the crossovers designed to perform like the designers and engineers do on a professional level. With all of the fantasic sounding speakers available today at reasonable prices, one should be able to be choose a make and model that will perform well, look great, and be reliable enough to last for some time; also, factory built speakers have better resale value. ( By the way, I spent about $2600.00 on mine. )