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You can DIY high-end speakers, saving thousands. Sounds weird, but its true. Here is one example that is popular, there are others: http://www.donhighend.de/?pa

You can DIY high-end speakers, saving thousands. Sounds weird, but its true. Here is one example that is popular, there are others: http://www.donhighend.de/?page_id=3212 http://www.donhighend.de/?page_id=3212

JohnBooty 5y ago
This is true. I'm going to make a vast oversimplification here, but a rule of thumb is that a lot of the well-regarded DIY kits on the market compare well with retail speakers that cost 2-3X as much. Some examples: https://www.parts-express.com/speaker-components/speaker-subwoofer-kits https://www.parts-express.com/speaker-components/speaker-sub... https://www.diysoundgroup.com/home-audio-speaker-kits/home-audio-series.html https://www.diysoundgroup.com/home-audio-speaker-kits/home-a... https://meniscusaudio.com/product-category/speaker-kits/ https://meniscusaudio.com/product-category/speaker-kits/ etc.
- MrBuddyCasino 5y ago
  And this is a conservative estimate, its more like 10-20x as much. Huge parts of the budget for high-end gear is marketing.
- KozmoNau7 5y ago
  What kind of bugs me is that there really aren't any kits and very few DIY designs that match the kind of speakers I really miss, at least not ones focused on home audio. Those speakers being the old-school big boxes with 12-15" woofers, sometimes multiple and usually 3-way designs, sometimes 4-way. Large, heavy, imposing and punchy, big speakers for big music. I know modern speaker drivers have come a long way, but you just can't get that from 6" or 8" drivers in the same way. DIY PA speaker designs do provide some of this, but I'll have to tweak the aesthetics more in a "living room-friendly" direction, because nobody seems to want big beefy speakers anymore.
  - MrBuddyCasino 5y ago
    Interesting, I had the impression the DIY scene is not considering the WAF as much as the mainstream market. But I agree on kits, if you don't have a workshop its hard to built most designs. Don Highend has designed a few larger ones too, eg http://www.donhighend.de/?page_id=5291 http://www.donhighend.de/?page_id=5291
    - KozmoNau7 5y ago
      That's still only a 6.5" woofer, my bookshelf speakers have 6.5" woofers :-) I consider a 10" woofer to be the smallest size for a speaker to be considered large, and 12" or 15" is preferred.
      - MrBuddyCasino 5y ago
        Alright, maybe this 4-way with a 12" will interest you: http://www.donhighend.de/?page_id=4005 http://www.donhighend.de/?page_id=4005 But I agree that PA plans are a viable alternative can be Hifi, too.
        KozmoNau7 5y ago
        Now that looks like a speaker for me :-) If my dad was still alive, that would have been a perfect project for us to jump into and spend countless weekends working on. For now I'll have to wait until I have my own workshop to build a set of beasts like that.
  - analog31 5y ago
    This has always seemed interesting. Bill Fitzmaurice has made a career of developing horn-loaded systems, which are tricky to design. https://billfitzmaurice.info/David.html https://billfitzmaurice.info/David.html There's a series of PA cab designs called fEarFul, that incorporate the newer 12" and 15" woofers from Eminence. You might have to dig around to locate the actual design data, but I do know that the designs were carefully tweaked and are stoopid loud. In my own case, I worked out what SPL I actually need for my listening tastes, and chose a suitable woofer by keeping an eye on the close-outs at Parts Express. The drawback is that my designs are irreproducible because the parts are sold out. But they're also not worth publishing. The benefit is that the prices are often pretty compelling. Lower specs also reduce the requirements for the tweeter and any other components such as crossover.

JohnBooty 5y ago

This is true. I'm going to make a vast oversimplification here, but a rule of thumb is that a lot of the well-regarded DIY kits on the market compare well with retail speakers that cost 2-3X as much. Some examples: https://www.parts-express.com/speaker-components/speaker-subwoofer-kits https://www.parts-express.com/speaker-components/speaker-sub... https://www.diysoundgroup.com/home-audio-speaker-kits/home-audio-series.html https://www.diysoundgroup.com/home-audio-speaker-kits/home-a... https://meniscusaudio.com/product-category/speaker-kits/ https://meniscusaudio.com/product-category/speaker-kits/ etc.

MrBuddyCasino 5y ago
And this is a conservative estimate, its more like 10-20x as much. Huge parts of the budget for high-end gear is marketing.
KozmoNau7 5y ago
What kind of bugs me is that there really aren't any kits and very few DIY designs that match the kind of speakers I really miss, at least not ones focused on home audio. Those speakers being the old-school big boxes with 12-15" woofers, sometimes multiple and usually 3-way designs, sometimes 4-way. Large, heavy, imposing and punchy, big speakers for big music. I know modern speaker drivers have come a long way, but you just can't get that from 6" or 8" drivers in the same way. DIY PA speaker designs do provide some of this, but I'll have to tweak the aesthetics more in a "living room-friendly" direction, because nobody seems to want big beefy speakers anymore.
- MrBuddyCasino 5y ago
  Interesting, I had the impression the DIY scene is not considering the WAF as much as the mainstream market. But I agree on kits, if you don't have a workshop its hard to built most designs. Don Highend has designed a few larger ones too, eg http://www.donhighend.de/?page_id=5291 http://www.donhighend.de/?page_id=5291
  - KozmoNau7 5y ago
    That's still only a 6.5" woofer, my bookshelf speakers have 6.5" woofers :-) I consider a 10" woofer to be the smallest size for a speaker to be considered large, and 12" or 15" is preferred.
    - MrBuddyCasino 5y ago
      Alright, maybe this 4-way with a 12" will interest you: http://www.donhighend.de/?page_id=4005 http://www.donhighend.de/?page_id=4005 But I agree that PA plans are a viable alternative can be Hifi, too.
      - KozmoNau7 5y ago
        Now that looks like a speaker for me :-) If my dad was still alive, that would have been a perfect project for us to jump into and spend countless weekends working on. For now I'll have to wait until I have my own workshop to build a set of beasts like that.
- analog31 5y ago
  This has always seemed interesting. Bill Fitzmaurice has made a career of developing horn-loaded systems, which are tricky to design. https://billfitzmaurice.info/David.html https://billfitzmaurice.info/David.html There's a series of PA cab designs called fEarFul, that incorporate the newer 12" and 15" woofers from Eminence. You might have to dig around to locate the actual design data, but I do know that the designs were carefully tweaked and are stoopid loud. In my own case, I worked out what SPL I actually need for my listening tastes, and chose a suitable woofer by keeping an eye on the close-outs at Parts Express. The drawback is that my designs are irreproducible because the parts are sold out. But they're also not worth publishing. The benefit is that the prices are often pretty compelling. Lower specs also reduce the requirements for the tweeter and any other components such as crossover.