Fixing your cable problems forever.

One major financial benefit to making your own speakers is having direct control over the sound balance.

It is much more effective to change a tweeter or midrange cap, or adjust the level or balance in the crossover than to play the amp/cable/power cord swap game.

I would never trust myself to make my own cables for goodness sake!! And SPEAKERS????

And this is exactly the problem. We rely so much on others that we have no idea what is bs and what is truth or what is worth a certain amount of money. We trade speakers and amps endlessly.

My goal in suggesting you make your own cables or speakers at least once in your life is not because I think you'll save money or stop buying speakers from a retail store but because you'll become an educated consumer.

The more educated consumers we have in this hobby, with first hand experiences, even when they disagree with mine, the better off audiophiles will be as a culture.

Of course, there are some for whom the real part of the hobby is spending money or feeling satisfaction in the accolades of others who also spend money as a hobby. Nothing here stops you all. Go right ahead.
Best,
E

No purchase will ever give you the learning and self improvement building will.

So keep that in mind.

Next, retail markup on speaker drivers is 10:1 or more! So if you spend $200 on drivers,  you would have to sell the speakers for $2k to stay in business.

Best,
E

Lack - I removed it because the phrasing and timing could be misconstrued to be against a particular culture, especially during the holiday season.

No one asked me to. I just realized that the wording, which on it's face was perfectly sound, in a historical context could be less than welcoming.

No one should see a thread of mine and wonder if I might be committing an underhanded slur.

Best,
Erik

Have you checked out Meniscus? They have a broad range of kits, with/without cabinets and they include all the crossover components. It's really not that much soldering. :)

I really don't think that the kits are expensive at all compared to what a retail price might be, but if you are looking for a budget project then yeah, i can see Parts Express and Meniscus being better sources.

Although sometimes Madisound has some pretty cheap kits, like their single driver fostex mini monitors. :)

Here were my other sources related to speaker building:
Parts Express
Madisound
AudioHobby.EU
Meniscus
Solen.CA
Great Plains

Here's an example of what I'm talking about: 
https://www.partsconnexion.com/connex-interconnect-wire-cable.html
BUT!

Some people like to make their IC's nearly naked. They use solid bare copper and wrap it in cotton sleeves. So long as your voltages are low, this is fine, but you won't get the same noise rejection.

It's quite a trend.