diy speakers vs Off the shelf ones

[pdhanwada]

Just thinking about DIY speakers how difficult it is to make how expensive they are to be made etc.

Looking at the cost of some of these speakers in the market it looks like it is well worth going the DIY way. Some of the best speakers available in the market range from 2 to 10 Lakhs. I am sure DIY way will not lead to so much expense may be less than half of the lower end price.

We have three components here

Driver selection
crossover design and implementation
cabinet design and implementation.

If we get above things right then we must be on target.

The drivers available in market do they match drivers used in the branded speakers in quality. Some of the DIY speakers seen online as said by owners are the best they have ever heard. If that is so that the drivers must be of good quality.



With regard to crossover design and implementation, it is all electronics and good parts, lot of experimentation combined with good parts should yield good crossovers.



Cabinet designs Not too bad. We have the web for designs, Fortunately in India we dont need to be a good carpenter to make good speaker cabinets. As long as we get the design right and we do have carpenters who can make it for you at a reasonable price.

I guess we should be able to import Drivers. How is the customs duty on them. Are spare parts also charged with customs duty. When we buy New SPeakers, we pay a customs duty of 35% flat beyond the dealer margin. How is it on the drivers.

Apart from the above we need lot of time to research and design the product. While I was building DIY acoustic panels, I enjoyed everybit of it and it turned out to be a satisfying one with significant saving of the cost.

your thoughts please.

Thanks
pandu
Pandu

 

[Gijo George]

Been thinking along the same lines as you but dont have the technical knowhow to design the crossovers and cabinets. But there are online retailers like Madisound, Parts Express etc who sell speaker kits along with professionally assembled crossovers and they provide cabinet designs as well. Which basically means if you have a good carpenter you're good to go.

Despite this DIY'ers have constantly referred to speaker building as a black art. I'm certainly on my way to make an MTM with the Scanspeak Revelator package from madisound.
https://www.madisound.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=35_470&products_id=8448

But need to save up for the damages and for my new apartment to get ready.
I checked with importing through Borderlinx. I've seen that on average your freight and customs duties amount to 40% of the cost of the product. Of course these may change with difference in Volumetric weight.
Regards

 

[doors666]

speaker design is a different ballgame all together. it requires measurement equipment, a good ear, trying different baffles (read wastage of wood), lots of patience, experience etc. Its much better to stick to a proven design. choose wisely based on your requirements and budget.

Crossover is not an issue, madisound gives you an assembled crossover. Even if you get the parts, the neighbourhood tv repair guy can solder the crossover for you for a very nominal cost.

there are crossover less designs also, using full range drivers. Weigh the pros and cons before going for either fr or 2-3way.

 

[pdhanwada]

There are lot of speaker kits available in the WEB. How did you go about this selection.

It turns out to be around, $2000 without the cabinet. May be you can add around 300 to 500 dollars on the carpentery work for material and labour. My guess is it should sound as good as 4000 to 5000 dollar speaker set.

I agree with you when you say we dont have the crossover design expertise or the cabinet design expertise. But These days we have the WEB which has tons of information and the forums like this and the DIYaudio wherein we have people who can help us.

Thanks
Pandu

 

[Gijo George]

My selection of the above is purely based on reviews from DIYers and enthusiasts in the forum. Yes I guess design for crossovers and cabinets should not be an issue. From what it seems it then boils down to how we get the cabinet built "right".
Beyond that my thoughts were, even if i have to change the cabinets I can always salvage the drivers and crossovers.
Regards

 

[GeorgeO]

Of course you guys conveniently left out a key consideration" BUDGET"

On a more serious note, some thoughts from my end-the choice is also influenced by the room size, existing amp, and some other factors. I think a design done right can be good, or better than a design not done right even if better components are used. It's something like a chef who messes up a dish even if he is given good ingredients.

Check out the Zalytron and Orca Design sites also for some good designs. I have built a couple of systems using their designs, one is the high end AriaR using Focal mods and Raven R1 in an MTM design. Joe D'Appollto's designs are available( or used to be) on the Zalytron site( or used to be)-he is a PhD from MIT, and the guy who came up with the D'Appolito aka MTM design.

Gijo- as Pandu said, a cabinet is not really a serious problem-a good carpenter can easily get it right, so I wouldnt worry too much about that. Most good drivers are heavy- for example SS 18W series midbasses are over 3 kg each, so an MTM will not be light.

Inductor coils should not be less that 14 gauge , and they are also not light.