What building my own speakers has taught me...

Not to take anything from the Speaker Build, eric stated " I did none of the woodworking I'm afraid ".

Producing a DIY Speaker does not have to be absolutely hand on, there are wonderful speakers available to be produced, where the DIY element is that the individual decides on a design that already has the support for it in place.

A Cutting List for Cabinet Parts and an assembly drawing with photo evidence of the methodology used. This allows for a CNC Shop to produce the Board Material cut to a very very accurate dimension.

Assembly can be DIY endeavour, or a experienced Cabinet Maker can be used, who may also Veneer the Cabinet as well. Other methods for finished coatings on the Cabinet can also be considered.

Drivers are already selected through the design where there might also be a option as a upgrade created by the designer as the Speaker evolves through being in service.

Xovers can be similar to Drivers, where the design is in place and can evolve as an upgrade.

The Builders design choice is for an internal or external Xover.

Such a route to building a Speaker is not a cheat and will create a substantial speaker, easily competing with models costing much much more.

Note: Speaker Producing Companies are all exposed to the dame requirements as outlined above, but also have much harder constraints on their budget.

If the DIY BOM for a Speaker is $3K-$4K, certain brands in the commercial sector are most likely using a BOM of $800 - $1200 to retail at such a cost of $3-4K, I would also suspect for some brands at a $1.2K BOM speakers are seen retailing near $8K.

The DIY BOM at $3-4K can create a Speaker that easily falls into the retail world at $12K - $20K.

A Friend has purchased a used item Troels Graveson Speaker, which was built by Troels and imported to the UK. These Speakers have made such an impression, much more expensive commercial sector speakers are superseded.

Following remuneration from the sale of the commercial sector speakers, there was a purchase easily covered by the sale of the other speakers and plenty left to fill the coffer for my friend. My own take on the demo's is that the Speakers are the best heard in the system and maybe the best heard by myself. A few demo's across a few systems would confirm this, but that option is not available.

I am curious how they sound. Are they comparable to anything we might know?

@kennyc 

I don’t actually mean to sell anyone on the idea of DIY, but if you are a closeted would-be builder, there are great kits, all included, at a variety of price and performance points. 

@jsd52756  - You did, you are welcome.  I’m sure you’ll be pleased. 

@mahgister - Thank you, but honestly I’ve gotten lucky and gotten good advice in part selection. 

@parkergetdean - The best I can do is probably tell you what I like to listen to and what I don’t.  At shows, my two consistently favorite rooms are Fritz and Vandersteens.  I also often like the top end Monitor Audio speakers.  If you have heard these you’ll know they are extended and musical and natural but also could be considered too laid back by some.  They do not excel in jump factor either.  Right now they are tuned a little neutrally for movies but I use a little EQ for Roon to make the music a little deeper. 

Above all, they don’t sound like a commercial speaker.  You know the feeling when you listen to an all B&W or Focal or McIntosh speakers and feel like you could recognize them in any room?  You can’t really tell mine.  They lack treble "character."  They sound effortless without the excess air of say some ribbons as well.  Another couple of characteristics which bugged me personally from mega buck speakers is either excess reed sounds or excess throat sounds, which shows up especially with a singer like Diana Krall.  Her piano sounds soft and delicate, but not amplified, it just sounds like it’s in the room, and you can hear her pedal work as well as the notes without either being exaggerated. 

In Patricia Barber’s Cafe Blue (which despite being overused for demos is NOT musically her best album, listen to Live at the Green Mill) there’s a finger snapping at the start of a track, and yes it sounds natural, and present but no it does not bite you. 

With movies, despite only having 5.1 speakers, it’s immersive and things that fly over sound like they fly over! There’s a separate Hsu sub for the Low Frequency Effects, and listening to Battle Los Angeles there’s a scene where our heroes to be are in a hellicopter getting shelled and you FEEL the helicopter drop from underneath you when a nearby shell explodes. 

This is aided in large part by my first active speaker, the center channel kind of sort of inspired by Troels designs.  Mine is physically much smaller, thanks to using a sealed cabinet and active, but his ideas for driver selection got me started. 

One thing  I really liked when I was done was that the 4th order crossover really provided me with superb vertical and horizontal dispersion, making it an excellent experience no matter where I was in the room.  In converting my main speakers I wanted to bring that 24 db/octave goodness over. 

All told, I have about 1,500 watts of power in 3 triamped speakers in my home theater, plus the sub.  That’s a huge amount of power and surface area for my pitiful little living room! 

If i did the math right, I can get about 110 dB of sustained volume from the bass through the mid range at 1 meter.  

Very nice. Thanks for sharing.