To Buy or to DIY, here is my question

It's fun, it's frustrating, it's time consuming, it's very gratifying.

If your any good at it. The next pair are already in your head. 

If I was going to DIY right now, I'd go with GR just because they have kits, cabinets or you can DIY too. Support is just an Email away and if you run out of gas, you can buy finished cabinets.. Great support. But most of all a great speaker weather you paint it with a roller or take it in for an auto finish or fancy veneers.

They sell a very good speaker.. Their subs are exceptional too. OB Servos.

Regards..

Costs of commercial speakers: typically 10-30% of their price is the materials cost. (Cabinet + drivers + XO + internal cabling). That's the standard business model. When companies push it lower, they play with fire as they are will be unable to support returns and customer support.

I suggest getting a commercial speaker first. Build a DIY speaker second because it’ll tie up considerable time, effort, planning, money, etc. BTW, if you don’t have the proper tools, like table saws, don’t waste your time, unless you’re fine with rough looking cabinets.

The virtues of building speakers is that you can voice the speakers like fine instruments to your liking. Certain MP Caps work well with different cone materials and to a lesser degree coils. For example, Mundorf Supremes work well with paper cones. Topology, drivers, cones, enclosures, porting, damping, etc. all contribute to the sound, and with DIY, you’re in control of these parameters, whereas a commercial speaker, you’re stuck with lowest-cost-to-produce mentality.

Good Luck!

carlsbad,

There are some in this hobby that believe if you spend more it must be better. 

I've been using power tools since I was very young so I have a great appreciation for having the skill set to build your own speakers. 

With what I do for a living,  using power tools is not even an option. It's a different skill set but nonetheless equally satisfying to use a 40 hp router and create parts with such a tight tolerance is very rewarding to experience. 

I'm building speakers cabinets with Panzerholz and making my own footers on CNC lathe. I've never seen a commercial speaker mention or show locking 45 miter joints but building an entire cabinet with this complex joint is a learning curve for sure.

Panzerholz is so dense I tap a thread into the wood to take a machine screw like you would tap metal, I do this for all the drivers instead of screwing a wood screw into MDF as commercial speakers offer. 

All my bits are carbine not carbine tip as this wood will tear them up if not. 

In college I wanted speakers that rocked the campus (off). So I researched and found the perfect sized enclosure (like 5’ tall, 3’ deep an 4’ wide… just small enough to fit through a door. 2” x 4’ reinforced. Designed for Voice of the Theater 15” woofers. 1973 (?). Glued and screwed. I couldn’t lift them. They would have been fantastic… not audiophile… loud with great bass. I ran out of money before I could buy the speakers. Big boxes in 1973 , we’ll not audiophile… but loud. That is the limit my wood working interest.

I couldn’t produce the set of Sonus Fabre Amati Traditional if my life depended on it. Building a set of speakers that sound better than $500 of the shelf… I could do that.