DIY. Whose speakers would you use?

Most audiophiles are aware of the varying degrees of "good".

While there are excellent parts available, in order to have an "audiophile grade" speaker, you will need an engineer to design the crossover.

If you are going to build a speaker, you should go all the way. You would begin by auditioning top favorite speakers with your favorite CD's in hand, next you would carefully note which speakers you liked best and why.

The place you buy parts for this project may have an engineer on staff. He will aid in getting the best sound for you and your music, after you give him the results you derived from speaker auditions. This speaker should be the same as a custom pair of shoes for your feet only; this speaker should be for your ears only.

I assembled the speakers in my bedroom from a kit. I do not believe there is any kit suitable for the "main room". It's all about "relativity".

If I were to build a speaker, I would use a Heil Air Motion tweeter, a Vifa midrange, and a 12" neodymium woofer. The crossover would be a 3-way, 4th order, T-type. Crossover frequencies would be 400/2500, 94DB efficiency.

Capacitors for the midrange and tweeter would be Jentzen Superior Series Z-caps,and Solen Metallized Polypropelene for the woofer, which would be side firing.

A zebra wood finish and the project is complete.

when I got into the high end, there were many high end emporiums, it was possible to audition the equipment they wrote about in stereophile. The first thing I discovered was the world of difference between "mid fi" and "high end": Koetsu, ARC, CJ, Thiel, Sota and many other brands, are not just names bandied about by audiphiles; but are products that deliver very high quality audio.

Unfortunately, those places no longer exist; consequently, many have never heard sound that you can see. When I could see the points in space where the sound emanated from invisible instruments, I knew this was the "high end".

"Good"...is that "Mid fi" good, or is that "High end" good? Good as compared to what? When I made the assumption that everyone posting was either an audiophile or an aspiring audiophile, I was wrong; there is a third category. I believe it defines it self.

The original premise stated DIY, summing up everything I said; DIY state of the art is impossible, unless you happen to be a "crossover design engineer".

Mitch, there ain't no way I would pay that kind of money for a kit.

Take some relatively cheap speakers like "Polk". I went out to buy computer parts and came home with a pair of Polk speakers because they were so cheap. I'm in the basement listening to them now. They look cheap, they're made out of cheap material, but they are the best sounding cheap speakers I've ever heard. My point is this "The engineers at Polk know something I don't know".

Johnk, that's a good question, and I will elaborate in order to answer it.

A kit for the family room or a bed room is fine, but I do serious listening in "the main room", and serious questions must be answered before I install a new speaker. How does it sound to my ears? A kit has to be assembled, I won't know the answer to any of my questions until after assembly. If the sound does not meet my expectations, was it my fault; or was something wrong with the kit. Too many risks involved for 7K, which was the cost of Mitch's kit. I hope this answers your question.

Edgecreek, after visualizing a room that would have to look like "Wild Animal Kingdom", in order for the "zebra wood" speakers to fit, I put that finish on hold.

Ngjockey,I like many of your ideas; Selah looks especially interesting, they could meet my requirements for the next speaker.

As Timlub pointed out, building speaker cabinets is no fun, and Selah has some beautiful speakers. Having input in regard to the final product is important. I could go there, audition drivers, and speak to the crossover designer in regard to "timbre"; that's important to me.

This takes a stretch of imagination, but if you look at the "music forum" as an "equipment forum", you will realize we all have very different needs and requirements. Since I've built speakers from scratch, I'm acutely aware of mine.

Although I want a speaker to fit my specification, I have no desire to build one; Selah could solve both problems.