Speaker manufacturers or box manufacturers with off the shelf drivers?

I’ve been wondering this same question lately, since I’ve been looking at buying some speakers from a small company that uses high end drivers.

My questions are how much better is the r&d and testing methods of large companies like kef, dynaudio, etc, come into play in terms of sound quality.  These smaller companies do not have these test facilities.  Also, it seems like the fit and finish of large companies nears perfection, whereas small companies look, hand built shall we say.

And my other question is does the real magic lie in the sum of the whole  of the parts?  Can a speaker built by a master speaker builder, in his shop, tuned by ear, sound better than anything comparable?  I mean, I assume its possible to have speaker “a” with $50 drivers, $100 crossovers designed well, stout enclosure, sound better than speaker “b” with $250 drivers, $25 crossovers and an enclosure with lots of resonance.

And lastly, I’m thinking that its easier to resell large brand name items, Focal, Kef, Klipsch, over small boutique companies.

Kenjit what would you reccomend the OP or anyone else do? Not own speakers of any kind cause they all suck? 

To the OP
certainly a legitimate question. There is a LOT more to speaker design than just catalog shopping drivers or even inventing your own. In a dynamic driver speaker, creating your own from scratch is daunting to say the least and IMO sort of stupid because it completely ignores the law of comparative advantage, however there are areas where it makes sense to collaborate- to wit the magical Vandersteen pistonic carbon and carbon balsa core drivers built on seas and Scanspeak baskets/ magnet assembly. Since 1977

Who who let him on Audiogon, Mr speaker expert.

I'm the expert here when it comes to questions like this

🤭
Yeah, right.
B

I'm the expert here when it comes to questions like this.

Ahahahahahhaa.

Hi whatjd,

I'm the expert here when it comes to questions like this. 

Speaker design is basically a game of trial and error. The speaker designers will deny this because A) some of them really believe they know what theyre doing and B) others will be too embarassed to admit they dont. 

A typical speaker is an mdf box. Some use harder materials like rock. The box is glued together just like a table or chair might be. Drivers are then screwed in. The last part is the crossover. This is automated with the use of 'puter programs. Then comes the finish. This is done by the design department. 

Now speaker designers have been using this method to churn out hundreds of designs over the last few decades and it looks like it will just keep continuing for the foreseeable future. 

Unfortunately if you want the best sound, you will need to use a different method than the one just described. 

Part of the problem is the issue of TRAPPED REAR WAVES. Even Magico has not been able to solve that. 

In conclusion, all speakers on the market are flawed. They are all mass produced using the same method and are not custom tuned to your needs. 

Do not spend any money on these expensive items. That is my recommendation.

If you build your own, your profit margins skyrocket.

If you don't, you have to sell speakers at least 10x your driver cost.

And yes, you can get genuinely world class speakers either way. The panache of exclusivity is harder to maintain when pundits can go to a local source and try to price out your speaker themselves.