No frills speaker manufacturers

Kit speakers are precisely what you want.  Look up CSS Audio, GR Research, Madisound, & Meniscus.  Some even come with flat pack (wood already cut to size) and/or preassembled crossover boards.  You can not even come CLOSE  to the same parts quality any other way.  Not even close.

Tekton Design to your first question. To your second question, I’d probably buy something from Focal, Sonus Faber, or Wilson. I’ve owned two pairs of Tektons and I likely won’t buy another pair because, to me, looks do matter. I’ve liked the sound of most of the Tekton models I have heard but not the looks.

Vandersteen’s cloth covered models and ATC studio series.

GR Research, absolutely. Danny Richie is an excellent designer, and offers his loudspeakers as kits only. However, as noted above the enclosures are offered as flat packs (and even fully assembled and painted or veneered if so desired) by closely-affiliated woodworkers. Watch his videos on YouTube (easy to find. Just do a search for GR Research) to learn more about what he offers.

Try the CONFIGURATOR 

www.blueprintAcoustic.com

For example:  Buchardt S400 MK II

A direct to consumer speaker, so less profit margin than most other companies.

All the rage on youtube review channels, everybody absolutely LOVES it

Said to have much better crossover parts than any speaker in this price range.

"Best speaker you could possibly buy for $2000"

And yet, when i add up the cost of tweeters, woofers, radiators, it is $600/pair

$600 for parts in a $2000 pair of speakers.  (i know i ignored the Xover cost)

Now, when you buy a KIT you may decide to spend $1800 on parts and $200 on wood, glue, paint, and you will have parts that cost 3X what S400 MK II is using but you didn't spend any more money at all.  And spending 3X will get you pretty close to the best parts in the whole world.  Of course they need to be incorporated into a good design.  You should go with a Kit Designer who is well known and has a lot of good feedback.

My personal experience, jumping back to 1994:

Purchased MTM set of parts mid, tweeter, mid from Dynaudio.

Purchased 12" woofers from Focal.  (these 2 companies no longer sell to hobbyists but a lot of other great companies still do)

Purchased crossover parts from Madisound.  I thought i was pretty clever - i designed the crossover myself using formulas out of books possible from Vance Dickason if my memory serves. Madisound ran my design through their LEAP computer program and made some suggestions to make my design better, so i followed their advice.  I built the cabinets myself.  They were a bit goofy looking, but had all kinds of features that i learned from Speaker Builder Magazine, and from Madisound forum.  They did the job!

SO, in conclusion, the stereo imaging was not perfect - i mean, they are large, and the crossover was built by a rookie, but everything else was, and still is, out of this world!  sound quality over the complete range, power, clarity, Huge bass but only when called for in the music, amazing vocals, mids, highs, no weakness. 

So it can be done, and if you go with a proven designer you will be even better off than i am!!

Why not go for beautiful looks, at least to me, and build quality. Buy a pair of Tannoy Legacy or Prestige speakers. Their speakers look bespoke, will be a heirloom, and you are buying into the history of one of the oldest, if not the oldest speaker manufacturer. Pride of ownership means a lot to me. I feel the same about owning my Sugden class A.

Tyler Accoustics timekeepers if you don’t want to build.

Those $2400 Tyler Acoustics monitors touted by GR Research are employing $30 each midwoofers. Hardly qualifies as a game changer. The Ascend Acoustics Sierra LX is a far better BOM/price ratio. 
 

Ascend Sierra 

Triangle

Monitor Audio

I purchased the Crites Type B.  You can order parts only or completely assembled.  Cost assembled is about $2000.  I think inflation raised that a little.  They are made from Baltic birch.  I clearcoated them.  I have the grills but play them without. used the savings to puchase high quality amp, etc.  These are size of Klipsch Cornwall.  The are good sounding speakers.   Not harsh or beamy with good bass to mid 30s.

+1000 Audioguy85

Bingo. As you’re sitting between ‘em. 

Vandersteen model 1  2  3s

Tekton and Tekton. Much of the criticism they get, while not often stated, comes from their lack of polished hardwood.

Interesting that responses are trying to convince you that even though you stated that aesthetics weren't important to you, they should be.

JBL, Altec and Tannoy.

Fritz

I do really enjoy my Timekeepers.

Of course I would love to have a pair of upper end Tannoy's for several of the reasons listed above. But I had 2k burning a hole in my wallet, not 6 to 9k. 

Thanks for responses. I was very close to pulling the trigger on a madisound speaker kit before my last speaker purchase but I was sure I would mess it up somehow. I do have experience putting flat packs together as I've assembled a few dayton audio DIY subwoofer kits but those are less complex than a speaker. You are guys are convincing me though. 

@blue_collar_audio_guy, just a note of caution on DIY/kits. Not all of them sound good even if they use good drives and show a nice modeled response. I’ve built a number of kits, designed a couple of my own, and heard many more at DIY meets. Sometimes, commercial speakers sounded better even at similar BOM cost vs retail.

If you are going this route, due diligince is recommended. Espically, if your are going with a BOM over a grand. Some designs available as kits that impressed me were Jeff Bagby’s Kairos and the Linkwitz Pluto & LX Mini.

For commerical, another high value brand is Salk but his speakers are not no frills in the finish department. However, even with their nice encolsures they are still very high value in dollars to performance ratio. The Song3 BeAT is a gem as is the SM6 IMHO.

Used and neglected 80s vintage Ohm Walsh talls if you can find them on a fairly local Craigslist, and then buy upgraded speakers to install in the original cabinets.  With luck the cabinets are presentable, and the new speakers come with new grill cloth.

When I first got into audio during high school, I was robbed for all I had, buying a set of speakers. It stung since money came hard to me as a kid. I then discovered a kit that I built in woodshop that turned out to be better than I ever imagined. Point here is, if you have the ability and want to get most out of your hard-earned dollar, the right kit will be unbeatable. Just imagine what a manufacturer has to spend in shipping and labor to design a speaker to a certain price point. Add to that the commission of a dealer and it all gets very expensive for the consumer.

 Way back when I returned to buying a consumer product, I chose a $900/pr set of speakers along with a sub. I had to replace the tweeter in one cabinet because of a mistake that I made and found a $17 driver was used. That lowered my trust back making my own ever since. Absolutely no regrets about it either.

I must second the GR Research suggestion. I have a pair of XLS Encore from GR that are my cheapest speaker set (out of 3 total) and the best sounding of all. 
I am NOT a woodworker, so I had them pre-built for me with the upgraded Xover components. WOW! Such clean, clear sound with surprising bass. 
Worth a look and you don’t have to build them if you don’t want to. 

thegm,

  I'm going back your idea because I built a GR Research sub about a year ago. I just happened to have had a cabinet that I made for passive sub many years ago and used it. My compliment to GR Research was about the quality of the driver and the amp. Plus, it came with many ways to 'tune' the sub to my system. If they build products for active subs this well, then it carries into their speaker line as well. 

If you live in the Washington DC metro area

you may want to explore the Philharmonic BMR Towers

designed by Dennis Murphy.

Outstanding speakers!

+1 @daledeee1 

Crites packages are a great bargain. The Type B I also built for 2k will run with the Cornwall IV all day long. I swapped out the Sonicaps on the crossover board for 40 bucks worth of NOS Russian PIO and couldn't be happier..

Needless to say if you can diy in your spare time it’s the most bang for buck…

Also buying used (someone’s diy) can be much less expensive.

Its true that you need to know what you like the sound of though …for me it was mostly in terms of high sensitivity vs. low sensitivity.

For my first build I did not …and I went ahead and built a pair of speakers (B741SS) from Madisound that I was terribly disappointed in…and even these weren’t inexpensive (in my world).

I then built a different high sensitivity design and was much happier. Live and learn!

Vandersteens 

Best selling High End speakers of all time

Magnepans another great High performer 

Best JohnnyR 

dealer for both