I have a pair of the overnight sensations that I built around 10 years ago. Once upon a time there weren't so many $100-$200 commercial options available so they were likely a better option back when they first came out. Commercial speakers have dropped so much in price and kits have gone up so much that it is out of balance now.
The new marketplace is killing the perpetual argument of 'cut out the marketing and retail and you can make a speaker yourself for a fraction of the price'. It is just too cheap to mass produce completed speakers overseas compared to someone in the US piecing kits together. Especially when the kit people are buying the components in smaller quantities. How do you compete when the big guys are selling floor standers for a couple hundred and delivering them for free?
It is still fun doing DIY and they probably beat plenty of options that are out there, just not the best options.
I'd love to see some $500, $1000 and $1500 DIY designs measured to see if things change at the higher dollar amounts. (I'd also like to listen to them).
I've always been interested in the
Solstice, it seems to have really high end drivers.
Mark K's ER18DXT would also be interesting to see. Something really labor intensive and big like the
Elsinore. The youtube infomercials go crazy for CSS Audio's offerings too.