DIY Speakers

[Billiam62]

Has anyone tried building a DIY speaker kit? I've read you can get a better speaker for the money if you purchase a kit and build it yourself.

I still have not gotten around to buying another pair of speakers yet thanks to spending thousands on car repairs and also losing a lot of money in lost wages due to the downtime from the car repairs. In light of this, I am thinking that spending $200 to $300 on a DIY kit may result in a better listening experience than I can get for the same price in a pair of commercial speakers. They claim that even these basic kits will sound like a commercial pair of speakers costing two to three times the cost of the kit.

Suggestions? Thoughts? Thanks!

[Hyfi]

Not sure who will chime in, but you may get lots of good suggestions over at AudioKarma where there are lots of DIYers, some who left here a while ago.

Bottom line is yes, you can put together some pretty good speakers for the money.

[bfalls]

I've built several kits from Parts Express. I wanted to teach my 3 grandsons about speakers, so helped each build his own pair. It was a simple kit with vinyl covered pre-assembled cabinets, mid/woofer, tweeter, xover components, terminal cup and foam lining material. I taught the boys how to solder, about the components and brief explanation of how to read the xover schematic.

It was an easy build and sounded very good. The boys had the pride and sense of accomplishment.

I also built PA's Overnight Sensations. It included flat pack cabinets speakers and xover components. I had to supply termination and rock wool inside the cabinet. A little more difficult with the cabinet component, but you could finish to your taste. I prefer a nice finished wood over black anytime. The woofer is smaller (4"), but still sounded pretty remarkable. I recommend both kits for first projects. Each pair of speakers was less than $150.

[Billiam62]

Not sure who will chime in, but you may get lots of good suggestions over at AudioKarma where there are lots of DIYers, some who left here a while ago.

Bottom line is yes, you can put together some pretty good speakers for the money.

Thanks. May look into that forum then.

[Billiam62]

I've built several kits from Parts Express. I wanted to teach my 3 grandsons about speakers, so helped each build his own pair. It was a simple kit with vinyl covered pre-assembled cabinets, mid/woofer, tweeter, xover components, terminal cup and foam lining material. I taught the boys how to solder, about the components and brief explanation of how to read the xover schematic.

It was an easy build and sounded very good. The boys had the pride and sense of accomplishment.

I also built PA's Overnight Sensations. It included flat pack cabinets speakers and xover components. I had to supply termination and rock wool inside the cabinet. A little more difficult with the cabinet component, but you could finish to your taste. I prefer a nice finished wood over black anytime. The woofer is smaller (4"), but still sounded pretty remarkable. I recommend both kits for first projects. Each pair of speakers was less than $150.

I've given serious thought to buying the PE 621 bookshelf speakers. I really need a speaker that is either front ported or sealed, not rear ported. I discovered the Overnight Sensation's are rear ported.

At this point trying to find a pair of speakers in the $200 range though since some recent unforeseen expenditures have wiped out my disposable income for the year. But I can scrape up $200 plus to get something that can tide me over for a year or two until I have more money to spend.