Define "REFERENCE" speaker
What building my own speakers has taught me...
Hi Everyone,
After 8 years or so I have finally finished my "reference" speaker system. I say eight years because what started as a small, high end 2-way has morphed into a 3-way active system. Really happy with the results for myself... but I wanted to step back a little and reflect on the audio industry right now.
First, I’m not here to convince you to DIY your next pair unless you NEED to build something. And I’m not here to rail against the high price of gear, which does have some merit. Mostly what I think about is how difficult it really is to make a business selling audio gear, and that I’m actually SHOCKED at how many companies attempt to do so, and even more when they thrive.
Pricing out all the components in my speakers I come to a total parts cost. Lets say it’s $1,000. It could be $10, the actual amount doesn’t matter, but pretend it’s $1k. If I try to imagine "How would I take this product to market?" I simply can’t get to a selling price under 15 to 20 times manufacturing cost.
At the same time, the cost of the average "reference" speaker over the last 20 years has really skyrocketed, while the audio enthusiast market has dwindled. Then along came HDMI whose ridiculous licensing and technical requirements seems to at least have been partially responsible for Meridian and Theta Digital dwindling from the market.
I can’t imagine how hard it is for anyone besides say Sony or Harman or Samsung to be in the market for audio gear. Increased costs, high competition, dwindling consumers..... are we in a bubble or does every generation think "this is it, this is the end of high end audio?"
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- 72 posts total
@deep_333 - I decline. Infer it from the context or not. :) |
Great stuff, and very nice build quality all around.
Those tweeters are AMT’s, right? I have a pair of used, active speakers soon to be implemented in my setup with a "ribbon" or rather planar magnetic tweeter/midrange driver (if all goes well with the intention of replacing my EV’s), and having heard the same driver over sibling models I find your description to match my impression of these as well; something appears to be missing initially, but over time it becomes clear what’s really lacking is a combination of coloration, smear, strain and other "effects" heard from other types of drivers. There’s also limited vertical dispersion, and so no boundary "help" to speak of from ceiling and floor, which may contribute to their overall imprinting. The 10" Dayton woofer is a cool looking driver. I once considered a 15" version of this driver for a front loaded horn subwoofer, but eventually wound up with a different design and driver. |
Thanks for your kind words, @phusis Yes, as far as I know the only drivers Mundorf makes are AMT’s, including some that are pretty long which could be used in line sources. I like _these_ AMTs but I’ve heard terrible AMTs too. I’m sure there are AMTs as good for a lot less than the Mundorfs now but not an expert. Beyma is a brand that I see recommended often, especially their horn loaded model. The Dayton RSS265HF’s were recommended to me, and they were an excellent choice. About half the price of comparable ScanSpeak 10" aluminum woofers with very similar performance. I have no complaints about their distortion either. I used 2 x 10" because I wanted to keep the overall cabinet size down to just larger than the bookshelves. Also, really wanted to put them as close to the floor as possible. The distance between the top woofer and mid-woofer is negligible at 250 Hz. |
- 72 posts total