It seems to me as if maybe they are doing this as a kit so as to offer something at a budget price for people who can't afford the BMR, without making it quite so obvious that this is almost a charity or hobby project for Dennis. I'm sure they make a small profit, as they can buy the components at dealer prices, but it can't be much.
I bought and assembled these this week. They sound pretty great. They have a good midrange with perhaps slightly rolled off highs. I may throw up some measurements when my UMIK arrives at the end of the week. They sound much better / less bright than my 20 year old Ascend CBM-170 (non-SE). Bass is respectable, I am running them without a sub now to break them in a little, may try to integrate the sub this week. A sub it isn't needed for anything but electo-music or action movies.
A lot of crossover components go into calming the tweeter. Five components are in the woofer circuit which includes a second-order electric and baffle step. I think that is the minimum you can do and the woofer circuit benefits from the DC160's tame natural roll-off. On the other hand, nine components are filtering the tweeter which I believe is targeting third order electric with a notch and roll-off.
Part of the idea of the kit is that Dennis is able to to source everything externally with assembly by the end user. I liked the project aspect, but I imagine that is also keeps down the cost. I do suspect that Dennis is doing this to get more good speakers out there and not really making a profit. When you order these, larger components come from Parts Express, while Dennis mails you a smaller box with various accessories including the crossovers (sourced from Bennic). I imagine that this way, the kit benefits from the economies of scale of the BR-1 kit and the logistics capabilities of Parts Express.
Part of the appeal for me is not really that I am cheap (although I AM cheap) as I could certainly afford BMRs easily. However, I have a three year old and a newborn child, and these allowed me to upgrade my speakers without having to worry about them getting damaged by little hands. I imagine that somewhere down the line I will need to do repairs,
but at $15 per diaphragm, it will be a learning experience for the kids and not an aneurysm for dad. If a kid broke a Raal...
My one advice for assembly is that I would change the order vs. what is listed in the instructions - I would put the dampening material into the cabinet before installing the tweeters as the sticky silk domes would gladly catch any dust which stirs up as you squeeze the 12" denim dampening sheets into the 6" woofer hole.
www.philharmonicaudio.com
