30 yr. Mea Culpa

Always loving and collecting music, I learned to appreciate hi end audio from high school over 30 yrs ago. Buying what I could in my budget throughout the years, and like many, drooled of what was available out there. But somehow ended up with a low grade speaker, I remember saying to myself I will up grade them soon. A pair of Acutex speakers I bought new long ago, and changed out the components about 8 yrs ago with Morel drivers. I drove them with Onkyo recievers and amps until a few years ago getting a large Denon receiver, 9 x 140W.

And, to this day, know this is not the quality speaker I want. So, I wonder should I build something, or buy it. I`m a carpenter by trade and can do a fine cabinet. Don`t want to reinvent the wheel. Just would hope spending $800 on components with the 3/4" walnut planks I have, could produce a slim tower speaker that could rival buying a $2,000 pair?

I see there are some manufacturer`s like Wharfedale/Focal/Dunaudio in the $1-$2,000 range at Music Direct that seem to have some nice tower`s that might make simply buying them a lot safer than chancing the sound of a self built? I am limited to width and depth dimensions as one of my locations is tight.

Are these 1-$2,000 speakers any good? Where I live, not many options to listen to them, but the online reviews are 90% good.

Any thoughts on direction is of great appreciation.

If cabinetry is your forte', I'd suggest you go to Parts Express and see what kits they have available. They've done the hard work of figuring out what drivers and crossovers work together, all you need to do is match the internal dimensions (and/or port if applicable) of the cabinets

This isn't something you want to try to figure out on your own (except the cabinet part)

BTW, solid wood planks are not usually used for loudspeaker enclosures due to their tendency to change shape over time. Veneered MDF is what's most often used.

Those are all good but they sound different. And as mentioned, crossover design isn't something you just want to wing. In the $100-200 range for just playing around, sure. But if you are going to drop $1,000 - $2000 on a DIY speaker, you'll want to at least start with a known crossover design with a good set of drivers.

Sounds like you are handy, and older (a good thing). Then, how about you consider restoring a great set of vintage speakers? there are many options out there:
JBL, Infinity, Dahlquist, Wharfdale, Vandersteen...

I recently restored a pair of Dahlquist DQ-20's and could not be happier. It brought me back to something no new speaker could replicate (believe me, I shopped around for years).

Just a suggestion, as you'll likely spend much more on new speakers and I've heard few home built speakers that got the crossover and cabinets just right. My philosophy is: Why re-invent the wheel? Get a great, well-loved, well-engineered vintage set and restore them.

IMO for $1000-1200 you can get some amazingly good new speakers and there are many excellent brands available online; Monitor Audio, Rega, Focal, Epos, PSB and so forth. There's no guarantee that a given speaker will satisfy your taste but if returns are allowed I'd give online buying a shot.

Maybe a project such as this would be an alternative - find some classic big speakers with trashed cabinets and construct new ones...

https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/146927-the-rebirth-of-the-university-classics/?hl=+nico%20+boom

There are also OB (open baffle) and other DIY threads here to examine. Running across these drivers referenced in another thread brought out my latent urge to design and build another pair, after a dozen or so 30 years ago.

http://w.mawebcenters.com/midwestspeaker/ecommerce/home-audio/woofers/wood-cone-woofers/mw-audio-wood-cone-woofer.html

BTW, found that reference here

...and thought that the basic design (slanted-front tower two-way transmission line) would be fun to mimic, even w/o the extra imaging circuitry...

Just some thoughts. Have fun.

We can help better if we know a few things: size &shape of room, maybe a picture?
Loud or really loud? Placement, soft or hard furnishings(again a sketch or pic).
Location(maybe you can hear some). Remember, we're all here because we love to listen to music, and we have a lot of experience and expertise on this site.

All good ideas. I guess I am trying to eliminate the experiance of design with 'tried and true' design. Would not restoring old speakers require changing driver and crossover`s, then changing it`s design/sound? Sounds like a good idea if done right.

Boswald, I have a living rm that is 16' front to back of listening area. 20' wide with a vaulted ceiling and back of area is mostly open to a large kitchen area. Left side of living rm is also open to a small entrance area. Hardwood floors, stone fireplace, a lot of glass. My biggest conundrum is the placement of my left channel. I'm left with just under a 14" wide area to place the speaker between my audio cabinet and a drywall closet wall. Another issue is I need to seperate the speakers 15' apart to fit on this wall. Not ideal at all.

I like the bass room treatment on the fireplace.

Since you are a master carpenter, I would recommend picking up a set of Altec 604 coaxes, and you can build a totally glammed out set of cabs.

I would:

1.) If space permits move 2 of those stacks to the right of the fireplace and center the remainder under the TV.

2.) Pony up the 25 bucks and become a subscriber. It helps keep the site going AND gets you access to BarterTown.

3.) Find a set of Monitor Audio towers which would fit in the space perfectly and look right at home.

Nice place by the way. And nice German Shepard in repose

I agree with sheltidave's post above. With your skill set I would order modern Altec 604E's from GreatPlainsAudio and build the cabs for them. There are available plan sets for the cabs which would be a breeze for you to build. In your size room they should sound absolutely wonderful.

sheltie dave said:

Since you are a master carpenter, I would recommend picking up a set of Altec 604 coaxes, and you can build a totally glammed out set of cabs.

Click to expand...

Or another Altec option, my favorite as far as looks, would be a clone of the Capistrano.

If you want to roll your own, here is a good design by Paul Carmody:

https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/tarkus

Benefits: proven design by a proven designer; works for all types of music at even high volume; simplified expert crossover design; bang for the bucks; cabinet configuration very flexible - build it to look the way YOU want it; the pride of doing it yourself.

GeeDeeEmm

Tom Brennan said:

IMO for $1000-1200 you can get some amazingly good new speakers and there are many excellent brands available online; Monitor Audio, Rega, Focal, Epos, PSB and so forth. There's no guarantee that a given speaker will satisfy your taste but if returns are allowed I'd give online buying a shot.

Click to expand...

+1

what if you build a set and your not happy with the sound?
let the speaker guys do the "heavy lifting"...

CLS500 said:

I agree with sheltidave's post above. With your skill set I would order modern Altec 604E's from GreatPlainsAudio and build the cabs for them. There are available plan sets for the cabs which would be a breeze for you to build. In your size room they should sound absolutely wonderful.

Click to expand...

Another option: Tannoy dual concentrics - lots of proven cabinet designs for them. Along those lines, you can get the parts for Altec Model 19s from Great Plains Audio, build audiokarma's Z19 crossover, and the cabinets for them.

Madisound.com also has some nice high-end speaker kits; the Parts Express stuff is good, but entry to mid-level.

The Econowave thread on AK also has great test, debugged designs in a variety of sizes and budgets. Pispeakers has constant directivity kits, as well.

Don't try to build/develop a crossover on your own, except as a learning experience. (Don't ask me how I know that, please)

moebuster said:

+1

what if you build a set and your not happy with the sound?
let the speaker guys do the "heavy lifting"...

Click to expand...

To me DIY speaker building is kind of a seperate thing from my being an audiophile and in my over 40 years in this hobby I've both bought turnkey speakers and built my own. And those I built were usually according to notions I already had of what I liked, not jumping in blind.

In any event when it comes to cone-dome box speakers I think modern turnkey ones sound so good and for so little money that DIY becomes more about doing it yourself than getting a good or better speaker for less money. This doesn't apply to unusual speakers such as coaxials and large direct radiator-horn hybrids, there being few such turnkey speakers on the market.

Richamor, ............. thanks for the tips. Unfortunately to the right of the fireplace is a door way. I only have room for a narrow speaker. It is a very tough living area to set something up. I even had to build that oak platform to hold up my audio equipment off the floor. There is a large return air duct underneath that was blocking valuable floor space. Note the nickel plated vents at the bottom.

I appreciate the many ideas. Kinda figured the suggestions would be mixed. And, though I don`t have the time now to research the proper designs, I am going to shelve the build idea until I retire, keeping in mind some old school designs. Plus, I just couldn't pass up the MusicDirect sale on Focal speakers. The 826V was half price. Did what I could to research the reviews and just ordered them. They gotta blow away what I have been listening to, and get the monkey off my back finally. (Little bastard was heavy!)

Thanks again for the tips.

kirk57 said:

Or another Altec option, my favorite as far as looks, would be a clone of the Capistrano.

Click to expand...

Those are beyoud gorgeous!:ntwrthy::jawdrop:

A friend just upgraded his Thiel 7.0s to 7.2 which means he has all the factory
drivers and crossovers for sale - all you need is to build a box:
http://www.xtremeplace.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=84675.0

Here is a review of the newer CS7.2 the box is the same:
http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/thiel_cs72.htm

http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/thiel_cs72_followup.htm