Subwoofers could be offered as a flat pack kit perhaps, or as unfinished MDF or plywood. It's fairly simple for a DIY'er to put veneer on a square box ...
Speakerhardware.com offers a plywood subwoofer kit that I designed, but it's much larger than the small units used in the Swarm, so that it's not directly competing against what I do.
They look like the ideal type of speaker to be offered as a parts kit (drivers, ports, horns, elctronics (crossovers) + plans for the box. I'm assuming not just finishing but building the box and not least shipping is a considerable part of the cost.
You could then offer a parts + flat-pack kit, parts plus unfinished box and finally the completely high-end finished speakers ...
I hear what you're saying, but there's relatively little money to be made in home audio loudspeaker kits. If I was the national distributor for the drivers and therefore getting them well below retail, and/or had my own CNC machine to cut the boards, there could be a decent profit margin available. But where I'm positioned in the industry, buying drivers and other parts in small quantities at a small discount and out-sourcing the CNC work, not really. I'm not necessarily saying "never", but "not now".
Nope.
Even that my "fun" room is dedicated I like them to look nice.
I can only offer my personal opinion: I would never spend a lot of money on speakers if they looked cheap. They are de facto furniture in my room that I will be looking at for years. I like something that gives me pride of ownership when I look at it.
I know that plenty of audiophiles seem to think differently “eh, it’s all about the sound, don’t care about the looks.”
Still, most high end companies these days seem to put quite a bit in to the looks and finish of speakers - generally speakers are looking higher quality than ever. So that probably says a lot about actual market demands.
Personally I want my speakers to look nice so it wouldn’t do for me.
I have been impressed by the Genelec and Neumann monitor performance but after considerable consideration decided I wouldn’t give them house room.
In fact the opposite has been the case, I considered ME Geithain monitors because they are available with veneered cabinets…
I appreciate these comments from all three of you! I'll continue to offer speakers with veneers, and may expand into offering automotive paint finishes.
Total armchair comment but I think the trick is to explore how cost-effectiveness and style can go together.
The difficulty I see is in the mantra that cost-effective = cheap = less desirable = worth less. Perhaps try and find a way to make cost-effectiveness worth more. For instance because of the creativity you put in to achieve it.
I think something like mdf w/ thin black ash veneer is about as cheap as you can get? where can you go lower?
i do get the idea that the money spent on finishes is better spent on drivers and crossovers but arent we already at a low point as far as cabinet construction goes?
To clarify, my "utilitarian finish" version(s) would be made of high-quality plywood, Baltic Birch being the current front-runner. I'd save money by doing the assembly myself and applying the utilitarian finish myself. Might even cut some of the boards myself. Right now I don't have a local cabinetmaker, nor are the prospects of me locating one very good (I've been trying for years and all the cabinet shops near me are swamped with cabinet work for new homes). For the past six years almost all of my home audio enclosures have been built out of state, which imposes either another round of shipping costs (if they are shipped to me) or additional final assembly and testing costs (if they are not shipped to me).
Adding a "utilitarian finish" version of at least one model will allow me to offer THAT version at a price which has a much lower assembly cost (my labor) and which does not need to recoup as many additional costs.
Beautifull work, some models seem hard to do in utilitarian finishes? the horns for example
Thank you. The horns would probably be "off the shelf" units, most likely plastic, though there are one or two metal horns I like.
I had thought about asking for some time now.
Really? Wow. Unfortunately I don't have any great ideas for overcoming the shipping expense hurdle imposed by the Atlantic Ocean. Maybe if I knew how to make really good small speakers... but I don't.
(not that the poor jpg quality helps)
