What is the easiest speaker kit, for a Novice?

It looks like you survived Katrina! That's very good news! Check these kits. They are all there, but assembled:
http://www.madisound.com/kits.html
Regards!

The Hawthorne Silver Iris can be pretty simple. The driver is a coaxial design and it comes with the crossover. You would simply need to buy a suitable piece of plywood or MDF and have someone cut the appropriate sized hole for the driver. Screw the driver to the baffle "board" and hook up the crossover to the driver and you are set. You could use another piece of wood or a couple of shelf brackets for the anti-tip feet.

The Hawthorne SI is an open baffle speaker. Put simply, its a driver mounted to a board. I don't think it can get much easier than that.

Enjoy,

TIC

THANKS, I saw that Hawthorne offers the SOLOS for $750 built. Is there someplace to buy a preassembleed enclosure??

By the way how do these drivers sound??

I am not trying to sound rude, but what is the point of purchasing a "high end" speaker "kit" that requires almost no woodworking or soldering? Why not just buy the type of speakers you are looking for? The benefits of a kit are saving money on the woodworking, the enjoyment of doing the work, and the pride of having built it yourself. There are enclosures you can purchase that all you will have to do is apply wood stain and finish, and others that would come fully finished. There are several reputable outfits that will design whatever type of speaker you are looking for, including what drivers to use, the cabinet size and the crossovers. Madisound is probably the best known, but I believe you might check out PartsExpress and Speaker City as well as these guys;
http://www.meniscusaudio.com/

And here is a great site, especially if you read french. Go to mes photos and check out the Ventis, looks sort of similar to my Aerial 9's.
http://audioclone.free.fr/index.html

Have fun.

Bbchem,

What you see in the factory assembled Hawthorns is not really an enclosure. It is a baffle (board), but it has a frame over which the grille cloth is stretched. This makes it look a bit more like a conventional speaker.

You could ask on the Hawthorn forum or on the Open Baffle speaker forum at www.Audiocircle.com . You may find someone who will cut a baffle for you or someone that is moving on to a new baffle and may sell their old one to you.

The Hawthorns are a high efficiency open baffle speaker. Depending on your taste and depending on your point of reference, the Hawthorns could be the best speaker you've ever heard. But it is unlikely that the Hawthorns will win any beauty contest. Really, most people simply take a board, cut a hole in it and mount the driver and crossover. The beauty is in the fact that you can get true audiophile sound quality for well under $400 (driver kit, plus wood for baffle).

Enjoy,

TIC