DIY Speakers, worth the hassles?

Just returned from the Summer "Chicago Horn Bash" and had the chance to spend many hours talking to Dan Wiggens of Adire Audio. [I kept the conversation on audio/speakers as much as possible through dinner without going off the "you're driving me nuts buddy" meter.] Actually, he is a nice guy and really didn't seem to mind.

But the things he emphasized were that the cost of the drivers is just not the thing to focus on and is not usually going to make or break the sound. It's the total package. Focus on the crossover & enclosure and even the room you have. Account for room (your particular room)gain in your XO. Don't rely on published specs. You have to measure your drivers in the box you are going to use. Also, don't forget the acoustic roll-off of your drivers in your enclosures when deciding on the electrical filter you want to use. He also is not concerned with phase problems of high order filteres. He thinks the problems are overemphasized and that you should go for flat frequency response and dynamics. You have to compromise somewhere in speakers and he thinks you lose a lot if you go to first order so as to minimize phase problems. There are som nice short technicl papers on speaker building at his Adire Audio site if you have't been there.

Had a chance to listen to his $300 Kit HE10.1 speaker for the first time and it is very good. He is changing it to linearize the motor strength (BL). He has a new patient so it should get better. If you are looking for a cheapee you could do lots worse.

Some of this isn't exactly late breaking news but it's fresh on my mind after yesterday and though I'd pass it on.

It was a great time. Bruce Edgar was there too and talked for a couple hours on horns. Try to make it next year of you have a chance.

I remain,

Clueless, I'm glad you had a good time at the Bash. Wish I could have been there, too.
Regarding the comments by Wiggens of Adire, on the driver quality issue, I'd take that with a large grain of salt. Remember this, the drivers are the parts that are radiating the sound for about 90% of the frequency range, with the cabinets being responsible for only the bass response tailoring, and providing rigidity for the driver. If the drivers aren't up to the task, no cabinet in the world will save them. If you have a mediocre cabinet, you will still get the quality of the drivers for most of the spectrum, but may have poor bass response. In this regard, I totally disagree with Mr. Wiggens. I also disagree with his assessment of the different order crossovers. Phase shift is a huge problem, and higher order designs have more of it, and more components to soak up power and obscure detail. The main problem with 1st order is slow roll-off associated with 6db/octave slopes. This contributes to intermod distortion, and wider overlap causes more likelihood of driver matching problems in the overlap area. Tweeters are also subjected to higher power levels than may be desireable. However, the steep filters in high order networks can be much more difficult to seamlessly match and introduce large phase problems which affect many listening parameters negatively. If I were designing a multi-way system, I would use a 2nd order cascaded network which is a good compromise in slope steepness, and remains relatively phase coherent with a 180 degree shift that can be largely overcome with polarity reversal of one driver, while using a minimum of circuitry. I believe that Mr. Wiggens point-of-view is skewed by Adire's product line of drivers that are not in the state-of-the-art category, and I'm not sure why he is of his opinion on high order vs lower order crossover networks. High order can be good for tweeter protection and intermod reductions, but IMO the negatives outweigh the benefits.

I Went to An Audio Store About 10 yrs. ago to look at any ones floor standing speakers (lot of them out there). About 50% of them sounded great to me ,The salesman asked if I had seen or heard any that I liked ,I said yes Ilike this cabnet,and this ones finish ,and I like this ones sound ect. Then I asked what he thought about DIY kits ? His resonse was that he never heard DIY speakers sound worth spit, he said it's not worth the time and effort,because they will never sound as good as the ones he sells...Long story short, Drivers ,Tweeters ,Leap crossover& cabnet plans from Madisound .My Dynaudio Twins SOUND LIKE BUTTER ,not spit

Can anyone tell me which of the speaker kits shops would be best at helping me create a new speaker design, like help design a crossover and the determine the cabinet volume. There is a speaker I recently discovered and liked very much, the bolzanos to be precise, and would like to build one similiar to it, but it is not a conventional design therefore I need professional help. Who would be best to help me?

Pedrillo Madisound does leap designs contact them be sure to have as much info about the design you want to copy. Best for them to know size of cab, port sizes etc, drivers used.