Design a $60,000 Speaker - Start here


Hi Everyone,

Just thought for interest I'd talk about one of the most expensive woofers in the 10-12" varieties, the Accuton AS250-88-552 CELL, actually an 11" aluminum honeycomb sandwich construction. Retail price at hobbyist volumes: $1,400, each.

In addition to the exotic material, the suspension and motor assembly are also worthy of note, as they leave a very large amount of unobstructed space directly behind the dome, allowing it to behave most ideally like a piston.

So putting this together into say a modest 3 way with all drivers from the same company and of the same level, I estimate around $6k / pair of speakers for the drivers alone. Add the normal markups, and this is a $60k speaker.

Will it sound any good? I have no idea. I just wanted to share with you all where some of these speakers that cost as much as a luxury sedan get their prices from.  Obviously, my estimates are rough, and go up and down. The point of this is just a general expose.

Best,


E

erik_squires

Showing 2 responses by atmasphere

^^ other than this thread, there is no context and even then not much. I'm a pilot and I think about aerodynamic issues sometimes. Turbulence around the basket of a woofer seems like a thing that if solved, could reduce distortion.

MISCO is a driver manufacturer in Minneapolis that can make a really wide range of drivers. They make custom stuff for some pretty well known high end speaker manufacturers in the US. 
@erik_squires

I've had this idea that the struts that go from the front to the back of the woofer need to be machined aluminum, and formed in a sort of airfoil, so as to minimize turbulence. So far I've yet to see any woofer that uses anything like that.

Do you know about MISCO?