[Kornphlake]

I'm thinking about getting a basic stereo system setup as I'm buying a house toward the end of summer and I'll finally be comfortable with something that takes up more space than half of a bookshelf. I'm not thinking about anything too neat-o, just a good reciever that I'll hook up to my computer's audio out for listening to mp3s (can you tell I'm not a real audiophile yet?) and maybe once in a while I'll hook it up to the DVD player for watching movies. I'm not planning on having more than 2 speakers and I'd really like to stay away from subs, unless of course they are built into the towers.

I've been looking at parts-express at the DIY speakers and thinking I could build a pair of speakers pretty easily as long as I follow the reccomendations on box volume, driver selection and crossover construction. I've got all the tools already and I like the challenge of building electronic devices as I don't really understand them as well as mechanical devices; it's a learning experiance for me to DIY electrical stuff, don't get me wrong I have had courses in electronics and I've designed and built industrial equipment using electronics, still I don't consider myself an electrical engineer or even an electrician. I was comparing costs and it looks like I can get Polk R300 for under $50 at Fry's, that's pretty darn cheap for a speaker that gets pretty good ratings from neophyte audiophiles.

What are you all's reccomendation, prefabbed speakers, maybe a step up from the bargain bin polks? Will home built speakers sound better than bought speakers, is there much difference besides price and pride in craftsmanship?

What about recievers, I'm thinking my budget will be around $200 plus or minus a hundred or so, 70-100 watts will be plenty unless someone can convince me otherwise, I only need a handfull of inputs, I don't care about video or anything related to it, I don't want any more than 4 speakers, this will be a stereo, not a home theatre system. I'm willing to buy used equipment, in fact I'd prefer to have something that could be considered premium grade technology from say 10 years ago.

 

[bean]

If you're working from good plans and spending the same amount on materials that you would finished speakers, it seems like the home built ones should sound better since you're not paying for somebody else's labor to put them together. You could also get some decent book shelf speakers from somebody like PSB or Paradigm that won't be terribly expensive, but should sound very good.

For the receiver you might want to take a look at integrated amps. The last time I looked at them, admittedly a few years ago, you could pick one up for around $200, or maybe just a little bit more. You'll probably notice that the watt ratings are much lower, probably around 35 watts or so, but that's because they're measured differently (probably more honestly) and they'll still have plenty of power to drive most speakers. NAD used to have some nice integrated amps.

 

[Quo Fan]

I've built speakers before, and when you build them, you want to use lots of glue and glue everything. That will elimate any kind of rattle, which will be amplified at the box's resonant frequency. You should glue all edges where wood meets wood. If you make the back removable, you need lots of screws to hold the back on.

The design of the speaker will affect it's sound. A tuned port cab sounds different than an un-ported cab which sounds different than a folded horn cab with the same drivers loaded.

 

[Kornphlake]

I've built speakers before, and when you build them, you want to use lots of glue and glue everything. That will elimate any kind of rattle, which will be amplified at the box's resonant frequency. You should glue all edges where wood meets wood. If you make the back removable, you need lots of screws to hold the back on.

The design of the speaker will affect it's sound. A tuned port cab sounds different than an un-ported cab which sounds different than a folded horn cab with the same drivers loaded.

Since you've built speakers before...

Do the speakers you've built sound any better than mass produced speakers you could have bought for the same investment? I'm capable of building nice speakers, I've got a router, router table, table saw, drill, hammer, patience and some experiance in woodworking but I don't want to spend $250 on drivers, crossovers and lumber and find out that I could have bought speakers that sounded better for half the price without lifting a tool.

Obviously if I build my own speakers I won't design my own enclosure or crossover, I'll follow the plans of an experianced builder. Assuming the cabinet and crossover are well designed it should all come down to design philosophy and driver quality, right? Are the seperate drivers you'd find at www.parts-express.com much different than the drivers you'd find in something like a Polk loudspeaker. I had a boss who worked for Polk as a buyer, according to him, they bought cheap drivers from the same factory in China everybody else does. Is there much difference between Polk's drivers and Dayton or Tang-Band?

Are the name brand speaker manufacturers as conscious of sound quality and imaging as some of the geeks, zaphaudio.com for example, honestly, this guy must be retired and has nothing better to do than model the response curve of a neodynium tweeter with a 4th order linkwitz riley something or other and hypothesize that it is better than... There's got to be a few hundred hours of design that were put into some of the simplest speakers that are published on the internet. Do JBL or Polk invest as much time and effort in designing their speakers or are they more interested in a price point like most other big box manufacturers? More importantly, can that difference really be heared?

 

[Quo Fan]

Most of the speakers I built weren't for stereo systems. I built them for hooking up to guitar and bass amps, but the theory is the same. What I got was the sound I was looking for, not what the factory decided I needed. Kind of like building my own mountain bike, as opposed to buying a production bike. My bass rig had a sub cab with an 18"driver, a 2 X 12" mid, and a 4 X10" high cab. That's right, 3 cabs for my bass amp, loud and proud. The sub was a folded horn and you felt your pants move when I played. The other cabs were tuned ports. I have since gotten rid of that gear, (a royal pain to lug around). I was using Cerwin Vega drivers, that to me, sounded great.

If you follow the plans of an experienced builder, then you can build really nice custom cabinets with the drivers that you want. I would spec the higher end drivers if you are going through the trouble of building your own cabs.

In response to your last question, the answer is yes and no. Some people can hear the difference between a really good speaker and a decent one, while most people can't. Test yourself. Go to a high end listening room with a friend and sit in the middle of the room and close your eyes. Have your friend switch between different speaker systems from the same source and decide what sounds best to you, then have your friend tell you where in the price range your speakers fell. My hearing has been deteriorated by many years of loud rock and roll, so I'm not as picky as I used to be.

 

[Kornphlake]

In response to your last question, the answer is yes and no. Some people can hear the difference between a really good speaker and a decent one, while most people can't. Test yourself. Go to a high end listening room with a friend and sit in the middle of the room and close your eyes. Have your friend switch between different speaker systems from the same source and decide what sounds best to you, then have your friend tell you where in the price range your speakers fell. My hearing has been deteriorated by many years of loud rock and roll, so I'm not as picky as I used to be.

I can hear that the Boston Acoustic component speakers and alpine amp I installed in my wife's van are a lot better than the 5 1/4" Blaupunkt speakers I have in my car powered by the headunit. The Blaupunkts sound like tin cans, lack imaging and don't have much midrange oomph, they'd probably sound better with an external amp but it's not really worth it to me for the 15 minutes a week that car is driven.

I can tell a difference between the speakers on our little Aiwa bookshelf system and the Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers on the computer, the Aiwa has better highs and mids but lacks a little bit of the bass the computer speakers have.

Side by side I can hear a difference, but like you suggest I think I need to go to a showroom and audition some speakers and see how many pennies I can hear in each speaker.

I don't think I have the experiance to really customize a speaker, reading through the DIY articles it looks like swapping one driver for another can really hose up a crossover design and destroy the imaging or sound quality of what could have been a great sounding speaker with a lower cost driver. I'll keep researching and post my progress for anyone interested.