Top DYI Speaker Options


Hi, looking for some advice on DYI speakers kits.  One of my best friends has a wood working shop and he and I are thinking about tag teaming building cabinets for a kit. 
 

I currently have Alta Audio Alec’s which are a 2 way, transmission line design with ribbon tweeters. I’ve had Focal 1028BE, Omega DynaTen, Mirage Standard Floor Standers.  I love the Alta Audio, found the Focal’s magical with specific tracks but for the majority of tracks fatiguing.  
 

I’m leaning toward wanting to build a 3 way design, either retro style cabinet or standard floor stander cabinet.  Purpose is to have a really good time building them with my buddy, tapping into his passion for wood working.  I also want to build a speaker that sounds awesome with some high quality components and a design that takes advantage of the quality components. 
 

My gear is a PS Ausio BHK Pre, PS Audio Direct Stream II DAC, Lumin U2 mini with SBooster feeding a Krell 300XD Duo.  I listen to a wide range of music, ranging from Rock, Hard Rock from the 70’s-2000’s.  Eagles, Tom Petty, Chicago, Van Halen, Metallica, Aerosmith, Pearl Jam, U2 and others, Newer Country, Hip Hop from the 80’s to early 2000’s, Pop from 70’s through present.  My space is a finished basement, fairly open space, listening area 18 x 20.  Sit about 14 feet away from speakers.  
 

MadisonSound is a spot I know to go for DYI kits, I don’t have any experience in the this space. 
 

Thanks,

mm1tt77

Showing 1 response by helomech

I recently built the SB Acoustics Satori Helios Textreme (kit available at Madisound). 

They perform better than all three-ways I have encountered short of high end $40K+ speakers like Rockports. 

I don’t recommend purchasing the available flat-packs linked on their site however. That’s what I did, and the resulting joinery required a lot of sanding and filling before I could apply veneer. The speakers are worthy of better cabinetry, something with rounded corners and beefier panels, like the examples Javad Shadzi (the designer) created for himself. 
 

A nice feature of the Helios speaker is it can play very loud with very low distortion. It just requires a beefy amp to do so. You’ll want a speaker with similar dynamic range based on your 14’ listening distance. 

A buddy of mine assembled the SB Sasandu kit, which also uses the Textreme drivers but is a 3-way tower. I haven’t had the opportunity to listen to them yet but he seems satisfied with the results, and he is another who has heard some of what the ultra high-end stuff has to offer. Those are also probably deserving of better, customized cabinets, rather than what you can opt for through Madisound.

In my limited DIY experience, the cabinet and driver quality matters far more than the crossover parts. The latter does matter, just not nearly as much. So if you’re on a budget, go with a kit that offers the best driver value and worry less about going all out on crossover parts. Goertz copper foil inductors, for example, are nice to have but not really a necessity for ultra high performance. I would only spring for those if you want to eke out the absolute last nth degree of capability.