To Buy or to DIY, here is my question

@crustycoot 

Indeed, sometimes the main reason to DIY is a creative dissatisfaction with commercial offerings.  It's like making your own dinner.  Yes, it's cheaper to eat at home, but sometimes you want a meal just so and the only way to get it is to make it yourself.

Of course, not everyone can cook, but if you are patient and willing to put in the effort and have good mentors you can definitely make exactly the meal you were looking to make.

For me I wanted to put together two really excellent drivers in a small two way (failed on the "smal" part! 😂) with exactly the capacitors I wanted to try out.  That was my drive.  It was never to undercut any retail product, but of course at a 10x markup, I don't think I would have been able to afford my speakers if found at retail.

BTW, I do encourage you to check out Troel's website, a builder after my own heart, but he has a lot of pictures about construction and assembly that can really help the new builder see what's involved.

http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Diy_Loudspeaker_Projects.htm

Real gratification comes from visualizing a new speaker, designing it, building it and changing it until it sounds as you first imagined it.

I agree, but let's not forget this is a hobby, and learning happens from all sorts of directions, as does the passion to learn more.

The DIYer who buys a complete kit, perhaps to build with their children or grandchildren is starting a journey. 

I personally am always happy to see DIY efforts in Audio for a lot of reasons.  I like builders more than I like spenders and people with hands on experience in building a single speaker already know more than any audiophile who merely reads a magazine. 

Please, please, get your hands dirty.  Encourage your daughter or son to learn about electronics, music, physics and let's all have a great time with it.

1 - Ask in DIYaudio where the best builders hang out

2 - I think you are going about this aaaaaall wrong. 

Trying to compare one specific pair of speakers with a random DIY offering is bullocks10.  I say this as a dedicated DIYer, but that's no way to buy for sound quality or to guess at what the final product would be like.  This is like comparing a Nissan to some random truck based on tire brands.  How on earth do you do that?

If you DIY you should do so for the experience, and if you are just starting and want to use expensive components rely on a pre-made kit.