Mechano23 Open-source DIY Speaker Review

[Andreas007]

I remember a similar DIY project here in Germany (around 2012): The Duo DXT. Also quite impressive, although not as cheap: Duo DXT
They also did a comparison to different speakers, including Neumann KH120: Comparison
And another comparison (although active DXT-MON): vs Neumann KH120

 

[szrot]

I admit that I'm a bit stunned by such a good review.

Great project! I admire. Great job and extensive experience!

 

[doc2c]

Any chance we'll see these being sold as pre-assembled speakers ?

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Look at the crossover - it's complicated, with a fair number of big and expensive parts. Here's a pic from the build thread.

This is the kind of thing that's "easy" for an advanced DIYer to do in small quantities, but adds up quickly in materials and labor costs for a commercial product. It's certainly doable, but probably not at the outlay one would expect for a 5" 2-way.

Regardless, really really nice mini-monitor design that's a great showcase for SOTA in passive designs using well-chosen drive units of reasonable cost.

Where are the boards placed? Are there stand-offs to elevate them? Screwed in? Are they placed before the cabinet is glued? Any damping?

 

[Endibol]

Wonder why there's always some contrarian that votes poor on every decently performing DUT on this site ?

To many sock puppet accounts from the usual suspects ? Mods can probably do some statics on this ? Their must be some "sour puss" in here that's does this all the time .

People with a pathological urge to vote against the mainstream opinion.

 

[Russ_L]

Very nice. Well done.

Russ

 

[kemmler3D]

I know preference scores are misleading and not that useful, but dang, pretty cool to see a passive crossover DIY job score >6. The comparison to Genelec is not even that far off. Very impressive given the low BOM cost.

A further lesson I am taking: in 2024 is there's no longer any excuse for not having a waveguide. Congrats @XMechanik for kicking quite a few butts with one big kick, and thanks for sharing the whole process from design to Klippel.

 

[kemmler3D]

Something like this should be kept relatively obscure

Good thing nobody reads ASR and the industry is unaware of it.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

People with a pathological urge to vote against the mainstream opinion.

Some people falsely believe that the way to appear intelligent is to just take the contrarian approach on everything. They're the folks who tell you the Genelec 8351's sound like shit, but that some guy hand building speakers and tuning them by ear somewhere in Moldavia has them beat by a country mile.

Hard to believe, I know, but sometimes the reason something is popular and nearly universally acclaimed is because it's truly good, and the guy telling you different is just an idiot.

 

[defec1]

It would be great if someone made flat packs that we could purchase for these projects.

 

[Bogda89]

It would be great if someone made flat packs that we could purchase for these projects.

i am a member of shared makerspace in chicago and i have an acces to shopbot cnc and all wood working tools. if someone is from chicago i am willing to help make the boxes (for free) just buy material

 

[kemmler3D]

i am a member of shared makerspace in chicago and i have an acces to shopbot cnc and all wood working tools. if someone is from chicago i am willing to help make the boxes (for free) just buy material

MHub? I used to work out of there years ago. Amazing space, would be top notch if you were going to build boutique speakers.

 

[BlackTalon]

Some people falsely believe that the way to appear intelligent is to just take the contrarian approach on everything. They're the folks who tell you the Genelec 8351's sound like shit, but that some guy hand building speakers and tuning them by ear somewhere in Moldavia has them beat by a country mile.

Please don't mock the Moldy IV.3a SEs. You really need to listen to them. Measurements do not tell the full story.

 

[Bogda89]

MHub? I used to work out of there years ago. Amazing space, would be top notch if you were going to build boutique speakers.

pumping station one.

speaker flat packs are very difficult, labour intensive, expensive to ship, and has relatively big risk of damage during shipping. if there is more people interested i am willing to help. i am not sure how much material and shipping would cost. even parts express discontinued their flatpacks.

they used to sell bigger 0.56 cu ft box if i remember for 43$ per box so it wouldn make sense to cost more than 90$ shipped for a pair.

if there is more people interested probably we can make it work

 

[Mnyb]

People with a pathological urge to vote against the mainstream opinion.

I thinks it someone who has a bone to pick with amir/ASR and just do this out of spite in every review because he is an asshat , not caring about in this case the labour our hobby speaker builder has put into these fine speakers . Using the voting polls for some wretched “revenge” . I think admins can just amend the code and put an offset of -1 in the poor category

 

[Great Sun Jester]

I thinks it someone who has a bone to pick with amir/ASR and just do this out of spite in every review because he is an asshat , not caring about in this case the labour our hobby speaker builder has put into these fine speakers . Using the voting polls for some wretched “revenge” . I think admins can just amend the code and put an offset of -1 in the poor category

The funny thing is...they are completely wrong about this particular one.

 

[levimax]

A further lesson I am taking: in 2024 is there's no longer any excuse for not having a waveguide.

Except that these similar speakers scored even higher without a wave guide https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...sierra-1-v2-speaker-review.53350/post-1929112

It appears to me that the overall design is what matters not so much the individual elements.

 

[pseudoid]

Thank you for finding another diamond in the rough, @amirm, and thank you 'Jarek'.

It would be great to make an active version...

Why complicate a such simple and elegant solution?
Part of its charm is what you get when KISS is at play; an active 'Mechano23' will definitely manage to jack-up the price and make it an oddity. imo

 

[OldManMatt]

Very cool

 

[fcracer]

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!!!

For anyone that has worked in a large company, there won’t be much mystery. I imagine the speaker design process goes like this:

1. Marketing sets a target timeline, price and consumer segment.
2. Finance sets a target cost of goods.
3. Engineering sets a target R&D time and strict deadline.
4. Production sets limitations on what it can/cannot do.
5. A bright engineer or group of engineers develops a flat measuring speaker with great dispersion, and are super proud and excited to demonstrate it to senior management.
6. Upon demonstrating it, a senior management person with power states “Sounds good but not exciting enough. Can we make it more exciting so it grabs people when they hear it?”.
7. The engineers can barely contain their frustration but bite their lips (they have mouths to feed at home) and agree to dial in more “excitement”.
8. Product goes to market with a strong lift in 5kHz+ and some bass boost too.
9. Amir measures it which shows the speaker’s deviation from ideal.
10. ASR users jump in thinking the engineers are idiots because a DIY could have done a better job for 1/10th the price.
11. The speaker go on to sell hundreds of thousands of units and are loved by their owners (B&W comes to mind).

I don’t work in hifi but in my big company, this is often how things go down. What perfectionists like us want and what the consumer wants are often very different things. I do hope that consumers eventually come around and want a nice linear speaker but it takes time to appreciate that sound (look at all the people who complain that Dirac has ruined their bass and sound).