New high end kits at partsexpress.com

[ciscokid1970]

Hello

I had not built any kind of audio equipment since my poverty stricken highschool days (when I made some boxes out of free particle board and put some 5.25in coax speakers) I still have them in my garage 15 years later.

Anyway I am an engineer and have built many things, ham radios, radio shack computer and robots. But for some reason I stayed away from building audio stuff ... until now. It all started last year when I built a Decware tube amp...nice and gets lots of attention at work. Then I built some of the Dayton BR-1 speaker from partsexpress.com for $140...they sounded good (still no match for my old B&W 601s2). I ended giving them to my nephew (he inherits all my old equip).

Anyway the point of this thread have any of you built the new Higher end kits at partsexpress.com
peerless/morel kit 302-900 for $379
Vifa pl kit 302-910 for $399
Dayton euro series kit 302-920 for $447

I know their are lots more HIGH end kits out there including speaker city and madisound.

The quandry I am having is...build some high end kits...or for 1 steak dinner more buy highly acclaimed, sterophile class B Triangle Titus, and not worry about burning myself with the soldering iron...again.

Comments?
Or anybody done serious comparison between high end kits and high end built speakers?

On a semi related note...I do not think the decware tube amp $600 was a better value than my $400 NAD c-740 receiver.

[Jimmy C]

..by these new kits. I have also built the BR1 and quite happy with it's performance/cost ratio. A bit fat and sloppy in the woofer, but detailed and satisfying. If the new kits are in the same ratio of price to sound, they should be a winner. Higher quality drivers and a better cabinet.

True, for a few more bucks you can have a better-finished, big company speaker. I don't like the concensus for the Triangles, though... a bit lightweight and lean (although fast and detailed). I like the idea of the PE kits being "warm". I would be willing to bet either soft-dome equipped speaker is forgiving with good bass.

As soon as we move (and check leftover funds!) I'll probably do either the Vifa or the Peer/Morel.

If you built it first, lemme know!

[epg]

Like others, I am interested in building some kit speakers. I know that Madisound offers many kits as well does Speakercity. On top of these parts houses, your have all the high end companies that make kits: North Creek, Besl, Gr-Research..... The problem with any of these kits, know one knows how they sound until you build a set. So, with this in mind, I'm asking if any you could submit a review of your speaker projects. Thanks!!!

[BluesDaddy]

I confess that looking at the descriptions in the PE catalot, these look priced about $100 too much. Unless they're just using absolute top of the line crossover parts (which I believe is generally serious overkill), the prices they're asking for these kits just don't add up. Stick with an established kit design that has been built and/or reviewed by a number of people. Lots of those around the web including the AR-DIY right here.