Top DIY speaker resources / projects of 2023?

[fineMen]

Thanks! Yeah I kinda half forgot about MiniDSP.

In contrast to your musings I would say frankly that even a ready made speaker, be it studio grade top material or some sluggish high-end rip-off, needs the DSP. At least for room correction in bass. Once one has it, why not use in DIY, mandatory?

The entry point where (knowledgible!!) DIY would superseed commercial product may be seen at, say 5k/pr or so. On the commercial side you'll have the best of the best Genelec, Neuman etc, or KEF R7 for instance and uncountable misses in fancy veneer over smelly fish.

To superseed Genelec in general for instance will be virtually impossible, though LOL, you would be left to build a pair of subs/lowbass as to supplement the next smaller model as to save like 1k.

Special interest, sentimentalities, that's where I see DIY today. Or in the field of superficial 'high-end' as you mentioned it with naming the infamous all so important 'Scan Speak tweeter'. Same performance: Peerless for 24$/pc.

 

[Deleted member 62801]

Measurements for speaker MTG Designs AlTi DIY

www.spinorama.org

MTG Designs - AlTi

Full measurements for the AlTi DIY 2-way Bookshelf Speaker Design Link to the AlTi Design Thread The following measurements were performed on my 10' tall outdoor turntable, measurements taken at 2.83v / 2M on the tweeter axis and scaled 6dB for approximate 1w/1m level. Measurements gated at 14ms

www.mtg-designs.com

MTG Designs AlTi DIY is a great value DIY speaker and people also report that subjective impressions are excellent. Good directivity (though not perfect) for a two-way with no waveguide.

Spinirama measured outside and processed with VituixCAD. Not a Klippel but the measurements are not smoothed.

Especially considering the part prices, budget Directiva, perhaps?

 

[Phranque]

Allow me to add this German souyrce. While I don't see spin-o-rama results, many speakers are measured and a few are reviewed.

Lautsprechershop Daniel Gattig GmbH: Lautsprecher / Loudspeaker / Haut-parleurs / Altavoces / Altoparlanti - do-it-yourself

www.lautsprechershop.de

 

[Head_Unit]

In my experience, DIY by far exceeds retail commercial products for bang for the buck. Which is logical. As the company that makes the speaker needs to profit, the price of the speaker needs to be greater than the cost of its parts. [etc]

- There's truth there, however the scale factor is missing. Production cost for most all products depends heavily on quantity. Thus something produced in big quantity can be cheaper than DIY.
- Note that this doesn't really apply to boutique/niche firms; they don't sell enough to get much savings from scale.
- And this all ignores the CABINET. That is a big factor! Making a production-level finished cabinet is not easy, even emulating an inexpensive one. If one has the skills for veneering or professional-grade painting, great. If not, and you (and others in your household in particular) don't want to have stuff that screams "homemade garage project!" then DIY is maybe not a good idea.
- Personally I feel the pendulum has swung-back in my teens I could not afford huge loud speakers, but I could afford the parts and I had tools to do woodworking. I could build a variety of speakers at a better price than buying, for sure. I got so fascinated I went to engineering school and became a loudspeaker engineer. Then Asian production and better simulation tools came in, and DIY stuff seemed the same cost or even more expensive at least for non-exotic designs. Now some DIY designs that seem quite good are available at low prices, maybe better than mass produced.
- Perhaps this is because the coming of Bluetooth speakers etc have eroded the mass brands' production quantities? (I once visited the Orange County factory which had produced Fisher etc back in the 70s-they had their own railway lines coming into the plant!!)

 

[seefees]

What about this DIY kit?

Satorique S3 – high definition for your ears

Satorique 3, high definition for your ears, High End loudspeakers made by yourself

www.satorique.de

Does it worth on spending 1500 € with the pieces of wood for the cabinets included?

 

[617]

What about this DIY kit?

Satorique S3 – high definition for your ears

Satorique 3, high definition for your ears, High End loudspeakers made by yourself

www.satorique.de

Does it worth on spending 1500 € with the pieces of wood for the cabinets included?

Look nice but finishing and assembly are not trivial.

 

[RickS]

What about this DIY kit?

Satorique S3 – high definition for your ears

Satorique 3, high definition for your ears, High End loudspeakers made by yourself

www.satorique.de

Does it worth on spending 1500 € with the pieces of wood for the cabinets included?

Seems too comparable to SB’s Rinjani from my perspective.

 

[Gahf]

You keep saying you want ‘cheap’, or some kind of price point project. These days I don’t think that is what DIY is all about. If your true objectives are performance and a pretty attractive price point, you are better off buying some ready-made products, eg a JBL 305P and a string of other options at various price points.

Today, IMHO, DIY is the best choice for one of two reasons:-

1. You simply love DIY
2. You want to do something a bit different to the ready-made options

cheers

Allow me to add point 3:
Or you wish to achieve a $40k set of speakers at around $10k. Whether or not it measures truly to the reference system, still it holds similar or higher value to the DIYer.

 

[Gahf]

I think once you've gone active, you would never want a passive crossover again. And if you take it as step further and go DSP, the tuning capabilities become infinite....

Agree. If one can hook up 3/4 amps and even an analogue DBX 234 or similar crossover, it just becomes easier achieving satisfactory performance out of a DIY effort.

 

[Jukka]

Troels still makes new designs. They are closed kits, but you can get ideas.

 

[MrPotatoHead]

I'm about to build a fun little speaker purifi 8 + 34b in 8 inch waveguide going to ripoff kii 3 and cancel freq from (150 to 600ish TBD) using 10 hivi 8'' per l/R winisd is giving me 130db from 30 hz up I get room gain around 20hz so I should be flat to 20 hz in room. Active controlled by motu8a + ao24 2in x 14 out fir for xo and eq above 150hz.

For the boxs I was thinking a 1.5 inch torsion box made with 1/8 inch hdf with 3/4 inch braces filled with lead shot and sand mix line the inside of the box in 2 ''magic eraser foam and natural wool stuffing. Or I'll just be lazy and build it with some Baltic birch I got from pre Russian genocide.

Did you build these? Have more information?

 

[DearSX]

Does anyone make a KH310A style DIY build specially one that gets loud? I really like this form factor.

 

[Wolf]

Troels has a bookshelf model, meant to be in a bookshelf.

My Purveyor were inexpensive and in this vein, but the woofers went NLA.

The Bottleships I built are also in this format, but not for the spatially challenged in terms of assembly. A 3.5ltr 3way is not an easy endeavor.

I plan on another one in the near future, but likely to be a lot of performance in a shoehorn package with a tangent towards artistic direction for aesthetics.

 

[DearSX]

Troels has a bookshelf model, meant to be in a bookshelf.

My Purveyor were inexpensive and in this vein, but the woofers went NLA.

The Bottleships I built are also in this format, but not for the spatially challenged in terms of assembly. A 3.5ltr 3way is not an easy endeavor.

I plan on another one in the near future, but likely to be a lot of performance in a shoehorn package with a tangent towards artistic direction for aesthetics.

those look like cool designs, especially the bigger one.

 

[Wolf]

I really liked the performance of both of them, but the Bottleships have the shock value in tow with being extremely stand-alone capable without a sub in their form factor and size.

For example, I took the 'Ships to CSS gathering last fall. They were up on demo on a short stand, and CSS' towers were still setup a bit behind them. A new attendee arrived and entered, thinking the CSS were playing. His eyes widened and jaw hit the floor when he realized what pair was actually playing. The little Bottleship Destroyers continue to impress, me included. Previously, at PE's SDC, I was asked if sorcery was involved.

The Purveyor could play lower and louder, but were meant to be easier to build with purposely inexpensive but well performing drivers. They were still a tight fit...

 

[MrPotatoHead]

I really liked the performance of both of them, but the Bottleships have the shock value in tow with being extremely stand-alone capable without a sub in their form factor and size.

For example, I took the 'Ships to CSS gathering last fall. They were up on demo on a short stand, and CSS' towers were still setup a bit behind them. A new attendee arrived and entered, thinking the CSS were playing. His eyes widened and jaw hit the floor when he realized what pair was actually playing. The little Bottleship Destroyers continue to impress, me included. Previously, at PE's SDC, I was asked if sorcery was involved.

The Purveyor could play lower and louder, but were meant to be easier to build with purposely inexpensive but well performing drivers. They were still a tight fit...

Where can I read about your Destroyers? I'm still enjoying your Overdrive10 sub.

 

[Wolf]

They are tiny, you've been warned...

"Bottleships"; The smallest DIY 3-ways I've built or seen...

I owe NickS (Ugly Woofer) for the light bulb on the name. He said they 'resemble putting a ship in a bottle'. Mix with Battleship, and voila! So, if you thought the Purveyor were small, these are shoehorned into HALF that volume. You likely now think I've sincerely lost my mind. These are the...

www.diyaudio.com

 

[MrPotatoHead]

Those are wee! I misread your comment about them being a challenge, thinking they must have been large. Thanks for the link.

 

[mikewxyz]

DIY is not primarily a value proposition. As said before by many, if your interest in DIY speakers is to save money, better to buy used commercial speakers. If you are still focused on cost savings, a 2-way DIY is hardly worth the trip because there are many commercial 2-ways that sound good for not a lot of money. Since the best sounding 2-way is actually a 3-way, a DIYer could save money if you have the design and woodworking skills for a 3-way.

Most would agree that good speakers have good on-axis and off-axis measurements but some very expensive speakers have horrible measurements if you look at Stereophile. Excellent measuring speakers like Genelec and Neuman that are widely used in the pro world would not be everyone’s cup of tea for extended home listening. So, it’s a combination of measurement and preference that people seek. In DIY, you can find it in your shop.

I don’t subscribe to the notion that there is no performance difference between SOTA drivers and bargain units. You read on DIYaudio about some guy who MacGyver’s a couple $10 drivers into a repurposed Amazon shipping box, EQ’s it to his favorite 5 figure speaker and declares that it sounds great and why would anyone buy SOTA drivers? This just reinforces the idea that every DIYer thinks their creation sounds better than anything they ever heard.

I agree with Newman’s other two points in post #19 as well.

 

[DearSX]

DIY is not primarily a value proposition. As said before by many, if your interest in DIY speakers is to save money, better to buy used commercial speakers. If you are still focused on cost savings, a 2-way DIY is hardly worth the trip because there are many commercial 2-ways that sound good for not a lot of money. Since the best sounding 2-way is actually a 3-way, a DIYer could save money if you have the design and woodworking skills for a 3-way.

Most would agree that good speakers have good on-axis and off-axis measurements but some very expensive speakers have horrible measurements if you look at Stereophile. Excellent measuring speakers like Genelec and Neuman that are widely used in the pro world would not be everyone’s cup of tea for extended home listening. So, it’s a combination of measurement and preference that people seek. In DIY, you can find it in your shop.

I don’t subscribe to the notion that there is no performance difference between SOTA drivers and bargain units. You read on DIYaudio about some guy who MacGyver’s a couple $10 drivers into a repurposed Amazon shipping box, EQ’s it to his favorite 5 figure speaker and declares that it sounds great and why would anyone buy SOTA drivers? This just reinforces the idea that every DIYer thinks their creation sounds better than anything they ever heard.

I agree with Newman’s other two points in post #19 as well.

I think wide range lists of measurements are a good way to judge both options. Example: The Mechano23, Hi-Vi Swan 3.1 and PE Samba MT DIY all offer very good performance for $400 or less (including cabinets). 5.0+ on the preference scale, 6.4+ with EQ. Then you have commercial offerings like the Jamo S7-15B, Thomann Swissonic A306 and Elac Debut 2.0 B5.2 that seem to match them based on the pref. scores for under $400 also.

I wish we had larger 3-way DIY speakers to test like things from Troels, Parts Express, Jeff Bagby, etc.