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DIY/Home Brew Taking A Risk

As with many Agonr's I have acquired friends and contacts through this hobby. I decided to take a gamble and had some home brew speakers built by a contact I now call a friend. I'm not a doctor, lawyer.... and do not have deep pockets. Resale value on home brew gear is typically low. I considered all of the pros and cons and decided to take the plunge. I essentially have a pair of Usher 8871 speakers in generic cabinets for a total cost < $3000. The drivers in the main speakers are Usher (1) 8 inch woofers, (1) 7 inch mid, (1) silk dome tweeter with ferrofluid removed. The crossovers are a considerable upgrade versus the stock crossovers. I saved more money and later had an additional 8 inch woofer built as passive woofer/sub in separate cabinets powered by an Emotiva XPA-200 amp versus the Monarchy amps for the main speakers.
I got lucky. The result by far exceeds any expectation I had but this by far was the biggest risk move I've made in audio in 25 years. I put faith in the builder and he delivered.

Any another Agonr's taking risks with home brew purchased (either purchased or built by someone else)???

Was the outcome good or bad???
pdspecl
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,135 posts
 
Please post pictures of your system.
jetrexpro
506 posts
 
I've had good luck with my home brew projects but have not ventured into trying to build box speakers. Too many variables and I don't have wood working skills enough to make beautiful cabinets. Open baffle speakers would be an easy DIY project to take on.
pdspecl OP
254 posts
 
In my case the builder used cabinets from Parts Express. Three cabinets are attached together. Smaller cabinets for the midrange and tweeter and 2 larger,similar cabinets that are stacked for the woofer. He's a good cabinet maker but I did NOT want to spend a lot of money for fancy custom made cabinets. He's is very good at the technical aspect of speaker building - crossover designs, various speaker makes and types..... He spent many an evening listening and analyzing the speakers using a mike and laptop with some ??? software, and his ears of course. He also cross braced, dampened the cabinets, and installed spikes so the speakers are angled back about 10 degrees. He offered to make any additional adjustments or changes if I did not like the sound. I liked them from the get go so no changes needed.

The crossovers also have three resistor options for the tweeter and midrange. I can adjust the tweeter and midrange in +3, 0, -3 db increments via a soldering iron once the midrange is removed from the cabinet. Currently the neutral resistors are in the circuit and sound correct.

As for the passive subs - I repurposed a mint,vintage pair of Optimus speakers. He told me the cabinet volume needed and the Optimus speakers fit the bill so to speak. I replaced the front baffle, painted the cabinets a satin black. I then handed over the cabinets to the builder. He then braced and dampened the cabinets, and installed spikes. I have three positive taps for three cutover points. I also use a passive volume control (attenuator box) between the preamp and Emotiva amp. So now I can adjust gain and frequency cutover. This gives me the all the flexibility I need depending on the music being played.
The builder even created a mockup version of my main speakers at his home so he could calibrate these passive subs to the main speakers as an integrated unit.

The builder bent over backwards to give me a speaker system that just sounds fantastic!!!! I had a woofer starting to chafe - even though I did not over drive or push in the driver. He took my word for it and replaced the woofer for free.

jetrexpro
506 posts
 
I've had good luck with my home brew projects but have not ventured into trying to build box speakers. Too many variables and I don't have wood working skills enough to make beautiful cabinets. Open baffle speakers would be an easy DIY project to take on.
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