Question to speaker guys on DIY

[lbhkilla]

Am I really going to get more for my money by going DIY? I was looking into spending about $400 on a pair of speakers and wondering if a DIY kit from Madisound or Partsexpress is going to be as good as a comparably priced retail speaker.

[This Guy]

The parts in the kits will most likely cost more and be of higher quality than a pre-built speaker for the same money. But better parts doesn't always mean better sound. Go and listen to some of the pre-built speakers in this price range and if you don't like any of them too much give a kit a shot. If you just want to get started in DIY start with one of these kits and you'll most likely be left with having more knowledge on building speakers and a pair of nice sounding speakers to boot. I personally think they would sound nicer than a pre-built speaker, because these companies really know what they're doing. You could ask some people here (and other forums) that built that BR-1 kit from partsexpress and say it performed better than a speaker doubled its price. It's your money, if you want to take the risk go for it, but if you find something already made and sounds good to you in this price range, I wouldn't pass it up for something I haven't heard before.

-Joey

[lbhkilla]

See I really like building things, and think speakers would be fun. Ideally I would start from scratch, get a book and figure it out myself. But right now I am living in a little apartment so building boxes is pretty much impossible here. I was looking at the ar.com kit and the two on partsexpress that were just above the br-1s price. I'm kinda warry to try something I haven't heard, but I don't seem to have much of a well trained ear and everything I have heard in this pricerange has sounded fine to me accept stuff with horn tweater I dont like the sound of those. If they aren't going to sound worse than most comparably priced retail models I am really going to think about it.

[This Guy]

Oh... well then. These kits sound perfect for you. The kits at PE that only have one woofer are pretty ineficient. If you like them loud go with the AR.com kit because they're a little more efficient. I'mnot sure what madisound.com has though, you might want to check em out.

[lbhkilla]

Does anyone in this forum that have heard the AR.com speakers have a good comparison to what they sound like?