best diy or used somewhat small speaker 1200

While it would be stretching your budget if you went with the kit from Madisound, the Joseph D'Appolito designed Thor using Seas drivers looks to be pretty phenomenal for the money. If you were tight for cash and have the necessary tools and woodworking skills, you could simply pick up all of the electronics involved and build your own cabinets. While I do have some questions about these speakers that were not answered in their review in Audio Xpress, they would still be VERY high on my list of speakers to check out in that price range. If i didn't already have a million other projects going on, i would probably buy a pair just to check out. They look THAT good on paper.... Sean
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I agree with Sean above you might want to take a look at the May issue of AudioXpress. Kit is $1550 at Madisound.

Or you can take a look at "AVinci One" at $1200 at www.acoustic-reality.com/portal.asp. Their site is not the easiest to navigate.

Dave Ellis has some nice 1801's available < $1,000 at http://home.attbi.com/~ellisaudio/index.htm

Both of these speakers are hard to audition as they are not "household names" and are factory direct. But then you do not pay for the name or the retail floor space either. Both are nice sounding speakers.

Cheers,

Tyler Reference monitors. See www.tyleracoustics.com or look for a used pair on Audiogon.

PSB Stratus mini still ranks high in my books;can't argue with any of the above suggestions either.

Paul Speltz has designed an EXCEPTIONAL sounding loudspeaker that he is willing to share with anyone interested. His contact information is available on his web site www.zeroimpedance.com. A picture of his design is shown at http://www.otlamp.com/pix/ps/speaker.html.

The THOR loudspeaker mentioned above looks very interesting as well.

GR Research is my choice. I am the previous owner of both the PAradigm Ref 100v2's and the PSB Goldi's and I prefer the midrange and highend of the AV1+ bookshelf speaker. I also use a sub to fill out the bottom information crossed over at 60hz and below. I've written a review on this site and all you have to do is search for GR Research and it should come up. Also, go to Audio Asylum and do a search on GR Research and watch how many entries come up. They are also the most reviewed speaker over there as we speak.

Whatever choice you make,(and there are many)good luck and enjoy the music.

Seas Kits, i've heard all good. Madisound > catalogue > Seas > Excel > kits. Thor is very nice. BTW Seas is comming out with their new woofer, Excel W26-001, a 10 incher! She's georgeous! Now i don't have to get the Skaaning's. Seas.com > new. If you were thinking on adding a sub, no need to, this unit should be sufficient. What's unique to the Seas Excel's are the clean and smooth upper bass.

I ended up buying a used pair of Totem Tabus, just a hair under my budget. Looking forward to their arrival.

I'll second Clueless vote , the Dave Ellis 1801's, which is a Seas W17 + Hiquaphon tweeter, a very good tweeter, has a "ribbon-like" sound.

Truthrider, hope the Totem's do everything that you want them to and even more : ) Vince's "little" speakers with "little drivers" are kind of amazing so long as you don't want to raise the roof. Sean
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Any thoughts on a center to compliment the Totems? Currently have a B&W 600 (the bigger of the two offered). I would like to build one in under the TV but I am limited to a box 6" tall. I would just build in the B&W components but they need a box that is 8" tall. My wife would LOVE to see the center get off of the top of our HT cabinent.

Personally, i think that the center should match the timbre of the mains as closely as possible. Given the fact that you have Totem's and Vince typically likes using smaller drivers to begin with, he just might have a slim-line design that could squeeze into the required space. Try dropping him a line or giving him a call. Sean
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I have built a pair of 1801's. They are simply the most musically accurate speaker, bar none. They are better than anything! The big Wilson's and Thiels will put out more bass air, but won't be more musically accurate.
Unless you have a big room, these cannot be beat.
And they are less than $1k no matter how you go about it!
The 1801 is the best kept secret in the audio world!!!!