Affordable Audiophile grade DIY Speaker KIT for L/R (50% Music & 50% Movies)

[cmsajith]

I am a novice in electronics and speaker building. Buying a commercial audiophile grade is very expensive, esp. in my country. I am planning to make one set of speaker using an AFFORDABLE Audiophile grade DIY Speaker KIT for Left and Right (50% Music & 50% Movies). This will be used as the front L/R for movies (Center channel will be added later on). What are the best options?

Music : Nakamichi RE-10 2 channel amp
Movies : Onkyo TX SR-606

Please help me.

[evilskillit]

You need to define affordable, there are lots of designs out there. The Statements come to mind weighing in at under $1000 for a pair, or the Natalie Ps for about $550 a pair.

[cmsajith]

evilskillit wrote:

You need to define affordable, there are lots of designs out there. The Statements come to mind weighing in at under $1000 for a pair, or the Natalie Ps for about $550 a pair.

Thanks for your response. Since I dont know the cost involved, I have not yet fixed any budget. What would be the best range to make an audiophile speaker which will not cost a bomb. Please help me.

[evilskillit]

Well DIY really shines in the 500-$1000 range with there still being some incredible values in the 1000-2500 range as well.

I'll throw a few out.

The Statements ~ $850

The SR71 ~ $500 There is a Kit

The Cryolites ~ $300

The Revelator Tower ~ $ 1500 There is a Kit

And many many more, what you build, if anything, will be based on personal taste, budget and a bit of randomness. Here is my first project, the Microbes and I've loved it for under $200 for the pair. Now I'm working on a pair of Zaph Waveguide TMMs, they're supposed to be phenominal and you can build a pair for under $600.

So what do you want your speaker to sound like, do you want lots of bass, nice clear mids, do you want it big, do you want a bookshelf and whats the most you think you could reasonably spend?

[cmsajith]

What could be the difference b/n the 800$ kit and the 1500$ kit? Will there be any significant difference?

I am looking for a full range speaker (other than bookshelf) so that i dont have to use the sub for music, may be around 30 - 35Hz. For the remaining, if required, i can use a sub.

The sound preference could be like "it should reproduce what was there in the recording without any coloring in terms of extra bass\extra treble", it should produce all sounds clean and clear, hope you got my point.

[evilskillit]

Considering I have not built a pair that costs $800 or pair that costs $1500 yet I could not exactly say, both of them should sound great to tell the truth. To get an idea of what the difference would sound like my sugguestion would be to go to a hi-fi shop and listen to a pair of speakers costing around 1200 then listen to a pair that costs 2500.

For something that can be used with out a sub you will probably want a floor standing design with 2 woofers that are at least 7". Both the Statements and the Zaph Revelators meet that criteria, there are probably other designs out there that do as well.

Here is a link to a DIY competition where you can view all the designs that were entered, their approximate cost and how they rated in several categories by the judges. It will give you an idea of what the sound is like and how people like them.

http://home.mchsi.com/~iowadiy2009/Results.htm

Typically when the statements are at a DIY competition they will win the Midrange budget category.

[dyohn]

cmsajith wrote:

I am a novice in electronics and speaker building. Buying a commercial audiophile grade is very expensive, esp. in my country. I am planning to make one set of speaker using an AFFORDABLE Audiophile grade DIY Speaker KIT for Left and Right (50% Music & 50% Movies). This will be used as the front L/R for movies (Center channel will be added later on). What are the best options?

Music : Nakamichi RE-10 2 channel amp
Movies : Onkyo HTR-606

Please help me.

In general, it is possible to build a system that will out-perform a commercial system selling at the same price point. But as was already mentioned, "affordable" varies from person to person, as does the notion of what constitutes an "audiophile" loudspeaker system. So first I need to ask a few questions:
- Where do you live? (you mention "your country.")
- What is your budget?
- What, to you, makes something "audiophile grade"?
- Do you have any loudspeaker biases, such as preferring single driver or high efficiency systems over multi-element systems? Do you have any brand biases?

Let me know more about what you're thinking and I will offer some additional suggestions to the excellent kits already mentioned.

[cmsajith]

dyohn wrote:

In general, it is possible to build a system that will out-perform a commercial system selling at the same price point. But as was already mentioned, "affordable" varies from person to person, as does the notion of what constitutes an "audiophile" loudspeaker system. So first I need to ask a few questions:
- Where do you live? (you mention "your country.")
- What is your budget?
- What, to you, makes something "audiophile grade"?
- Do you have any loudspeaker biases, such as preferring single driver or high efficiency systems over multi-element systems? Do you have any brand biases?

Let me know more about what you're thinking and I will offer some additional suggestions to the excellent kits already mentioned.

Thanks for your response. I am from India. I have my cousins in US and canada. So i thought of procuring some good speaker kits. Frankly speaking, i have not yet decided on the budget, it could be ~500-800$ and if we can get a significant improvement in sound i may stretch for more. Since i dont have any idea how DIY 500/800/1000/1500....$ kit performs. I have no bias towards any particular brands or designs. My preference is always on SQ.
As i had already mentioned: The sound preference could be like "it should reproduce what was there in the recording without any coloring in terms of extra bass\extra treble", it should produce all sounds clean and clear, hope you got my point.

[StereoClarity]

I think the most important thing, besides budget, that we have yet to define is your skill level in terms of building. Do you have some power tools at your disposal? Things like a table saw, sander, and other stuff for wood working? I think that for the price the TriTrix kit that Parts Express offers is hard to beat. Drivers and precut cabinet wood for $199 is a steal.
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=300-702


If you've got some decent wood working skills and are ready to really get into DIY some of the designs on Frugal-horn.com are things you should look at.

[cmsajith]

I have access to some good wood working workshops over here.