DIY Speaker Kits, a good idea?

Like anything, there are pros and cons.  You can definitely get better quality parts for the money with a kit, and the designs themselves are excellent.  You completely skip the retail markup, which is a big chunk of the total money you spend on brand name speakers through a dealer. There’s also a huge opportunity to learn the skills involved with building a speaker, plus you can customize them.  Many of the kits are available with flat pack enclosures that you just have to assemble.

The downsides are that kits are more difficult to hear in person, and resale is likely more difficult with a kit.

@nogaps 

say you buy a name-brand speaker for..$10K.  That speaker has..I don't know..$2500 worth of parts in it??  Then one day you need to move on from that $10K speaker and sell them for...$6K?  Well, that $4K hit you just took more than covers the cost of a very good kit.  So, the moral of the story is we all need to pay to play. You can buy a speaker kit for $2-$3K (that'll sound like a $7-$10K set of speakers) and sell it eventually, after enjoying them for years, for.. $1500? Seems like a similar story compared to the buying and selling of a name-brand speaker. 

This is an excellent point, and the number estimates are feasible.  Very few of us profit when reselling our audio gear, but it's certainly possible to cut our losses when we buy right.