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 1 response by larryi

I'm with Sal, above, on the Jensen M-18.  You can actually buy new replicas of that monster at G.I.P. Laboratories.  I know of a system that is being designed to use 4 of those drivers, plus G.I.P. 555 midrange drivers, plus the G.I.P. version of the 597 tweeter.  A custom Tungar power supply with hand-wound transformers will power all three field-coil drivers.  I don't know about the crossover.  The midrange horn is a modern-build 15A replica.  Just the drivers and horn are well past $100k in cost. 

On just a price basis, the likes of Accuton sell bargain drivers compared to companies like G.I.P., ALE, Cogent, Goto and Feastrix.