Mechano23 Open-source DIY Speaker Review

[fredoamigo]

Another great DIY project which shows that with the fantastic free tools and easy accessible knowledge it is nowadays not rocket science to engineer a very good loudspeaker. In that sense and segment we are living in great times.

The "guilty pleasure" of DIY enthusiasts is often to choose very high-end components with superlative performance on paper. However, in this case, a SCAN-SPEAK tweeter at 69.50 USD and a SB Acoustics aˋ30.00 USD woofer were chosen, making the construction performance even more impressive and spectacular. I don't think building such a loudspeaker with such performance is an easy task. In addition to a great deal of knowledge, it also requires a great deal of talent and practical skill.
I am truly in awe.

 

[Chris*42]

Congratulations to Jarek/ @XMechanik for this excellent work. IMO this is a benchmark in price/performance ratio!

And many thanks to Amir for testing this device and taking this contribution to the ASR front page. I think, this is a wonderful opportunity to give DIY-people a constructive feedback about their project with the help of professional tools (who has the opportunity to measure with a Klippel-System?)

By the way, I just ordered a set of these speaker parts...

 

[soundofsilence]

wow thats a shame!

 

[Talisman]

This leaves me shocked. What excuse do large companies have for not designing and selling such a well-made speaker if a single user with limited means, with easily available materials and knowledge available to everyone can design such a well-measured speaker?
At this point even the excuse of not having an nfs klippel disappears. We should be even more demanding and intolerant towards poorly conceived projects by large companies, this project makes it clear that designing good things only requires knowledge and good will

 

[Count Arthur]

The fact that it uses inexpensive components and that the cabinet is kept so simple, should make it so that many more people could actually build it.

Really impressive.

 

[beagleman]

I wanted to say good and simple but turns out it has a crossover circuit more complicated than some $500 speakers. A lot of effort was put in particular using standard values; specific-value crossover parts are a pain to find for repair.

Also how is someone going to convince me this wasn't designed using a Klippel, looking at the DI graph.



IMO this isn't even that bad due to the shape of the curve, adding 10dB of boost can extend the bass to 40Hz. Output will be limited to 70+dB SPL but that's plenty for room use and it's a nice market option versus something with worse FR but higher power that will never be used.

Imagine if a better woofer was used.

My first thought was, "Imagine using an array of 4 of these" in a small tower configuration!

 

[beagleman]

I did not. It is a small speaker so didn't think it was proper to push it to 106 dBSPL.

To me it looks like a great contender for a Wharfedale 12.1 beater!!



I have the 12.1 and it is my new "Standard" for a small, affordable mostly great sounding speaker, and keep wondering what with a 5" woofer or less could beat them, this may be it!
Who rated this "Poor"??

 

[lewdish]

I think it does really well esp for the price of components, only down side seems to be max spl, subwoofer crossover point is very ideal as well

 

[holdingpants01]

This leaves me shocked. What excuse do large companies have for not designing and selling such a well-made speaker if a single user with limited means, with easily available materials and knowledge available to everyone can design such a well-measured speaker?
At this point even the excuse of not having an nfs klippel disappears. We should be even more demanding and intolerant towards poorly conceived projects by large companies, this project makes it clear that designing good things only requires knowledge and good will

If this was commercial product, with nice finish, warranty, distribution, proper assembly, quality check, testing, marketing, cost of operation, development, taxes etc. it would cost at least $1000, like Ascend Acoustics Sierra, Neumann KH80. I'm not sure if more than 20% of street price for materials alone is even possible to maintain in a niche product like this, but let's optimistically assume so

 

[Talisman]

If this was commercial product, with nice finish, warranty, distribution, proper assembly, quality check, testing, marketing, cost of operation, development, taxes etc. it would cost at least $1000, like Ascend Acoustics Sierra, Neumann KH80

Neumann has an active design, so it cannot be compared. It is no coincidence that the Ascend are among the most popular speakers on the site (and they use klippel nfs)
So how is my rating invalid?
Where are the myriad of other speakers between 600 and 1000 euros that are so well-measured?

 

[3125b]

Quite impressive, one of the best DIY speakers I've seen measured.

My only concern would be that the front baffle is quite hard to make and requires a router.
At that point though it's easy to round over the corners on the front baffle as well.

Spoiler: Minimal tools approach?

A thinner pice of plywood with through-holes drilled with a simple holesaw to fit the driver baskets and then a thinner piece of whatever material with bigger through-holes cut for the recess would be easier, but it would mean that tweeter would have to be shimmed 1mm to make them even. Rounding over the corners of the outer piece with sandpaper would be a fair bit of work but definitely doable.

 

[holdingpants01]

Neumann has an active design, so it cannot be compared. It is no coincidence that the Ascend are among the most popular speakers on the site (and they use klippel nfs)
So how is my rating invalid?
Where are the myriad of other speakers between 600 and 1000 euros that are so well-measured?

There are plenty and even active with better low end, Kali Audio for starters, or some models of Thomann branded Swissonic, for example V7 is right now for sale at 89€, this gives you 7" woofer, ribbon tweeter in a waveguide, active speaker

 

[beagleman]

There are plenty and even active with better low end, Kali Audio for starters, or some models of Thomann branded Swissonic, for example V7 is right now for sale at 89€, this gives you 7" woofer, ribbon tweeter in a waveguide, active speaker

View attachment 366369

Those do seem like a great deal, although a bit too studio looking for many I would imagine.

I do have to wonder at that price, what actual drive components they are using. For MOST speakers, you could not even make a profit at that price, even with quite cheap drivers.

 

[Talisman]

There are plenty and even active with better low end, Kali Audio for starters, or some models of Thomann branded Swissonic, for example V7 is right now for sale at 89€, this gives you 7" woofer, ribbon tweeter in a waveguide, active speaker

View attachment 366369

Ok, I'm afraid I didn't explain myself.
You are mentioning all active designs, which CANNOT BE COMPARED with this speaker which has a passive design with crossover.
Speaking of passive design, I don't see a myriad of speakers with similar performance at all, on the contrary, I have difficulty listing one or two

 

[holdingpants01]

Ok, I'm afraid I didn't explain myself.
You are mentioning all active designs, which CANNOT BE COMPARED with this speaker which has a passive design with crossover.
Speaking of passive design, I don't see a myriad of speakers with similar performance at all, on the contrary, I have difficulty listing one or two

Active are often better and can be less expensive so I'm not really into passive speakers, can't help you with that, but if there are active designs at this price then I'm sure you'll find passive ones, or you can build this one if this low end response is satisfactory. I admire everything that's above 200Hz in this one, but couldn't live with a drop off starting above 100Hz. The problem with it is that it makes subwoofer integration even harder than usual, as two HP slopes (high pass from the speakers and high pass from the crossover) will be at similar frequencies

 

[Shadrach]

What a great find.
I've built a few speakers over the years, some from scratch and some from kits. I've often wondered how they perform compared to the pre built commercial offerings. I suspect there are many home built speakers that give very reasonable measurements.

 

[Ron Texas]

It's always to see a speaker which measures well. Thank you for the measurements and review, @amirm
Too bad I have no woodworking skills.

 

[Mikig]

the great mystery always remains:
many well-known manufacturers, even today, are unable to guarantee the performance available with this speaker with much more renowned products.
This is yet another confirmation that you can design well even without having the study of a product added to the final price.
Thank you Amirm as always for your time and reviews!!!

 

[Ajax]

Hi @Mechano23,

Firstly congratulations on achieving such an excellent performance to price ratio, this is what this site is all about, great gear at reasonable prices.

If you were to add a pair of subs what cross over and slope would you suggest? Please assume a medium size furnished room with a middle of the road sub such as a 12" SVS SB 2000.

I know we should measure but interested at where you would start.

Thanks in advance,

Ajax

 

[Miiksuli]

Very impressive for cheap build like that!

SB Acoustics have nice woofers and tweeters. I can recommend these. I have built Uraltone Helmi Satori speaker. I built it in a birch case. It's very nice clean sounding but need subwoofers to get sub bass. I built two passive subwoofers with crossovers where I also used 10" subwoofers from SB Acoustics.

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