To Buy or to DIY, here is my question

If you have no skills are lazy or have no time then off the shelf is what you get. If you have skills an open mind and are craving something unique then DIY is the way to go. Kits are fine but it's not like going your own way. And those who say DIY can not look good are only interested in what the mass market gives them. Anything that's different is perceived as wrong they crave the boring imported rectangles and cubes. A toaster must look like a toaster.

I did this. My Take

1) I wouldn't even consider going down this path without a proved speaker design from a reputable designer.

2) It is more about the integration of the speaker drivers and the voicing of the crossover than just picking drivers you like. The drivers may be the easiest part.

3) The box is a big deal and you do need to have good wood working skills.

4) The crossover soldering is also harder than you think, I had the advantage of having someone at work who does it for a living do it for me.

My story is I used Troels Gravesen's designs. I think most see him as the best. I made 3 different speakers, bookshelves (Scanspek), center(Seas), and the Faital 3C-15. Bookshelves and Center took 3 months each, the Faital more like 5 months. My woodworking joints were impeccable, they need to be. I also spent a lot of time on finishing so they would be acceptable in the home.

I never thought in my life I would have such a good sounding system, honestly. The bookshelf/center is meant for the family room entertainment center, I have them in the garage and I am in there every night for an hour looking for an excuse to stay out there, they now have about 1000 hours on them and they get better and better. The 3wc-15's are absolutely amazing, I just melt into the music and can sit there for 3-4 hours at a time.

If you are committed, have a great attention to detail and it is important to you, do it. If you really do a good job and use good veneers, you can make them look pretty nice, you can also send to a cabinet mater for finishing if WAF is an issue. I built a paint booth in the garage and was able to get a really nice finish.

If you do it, let us know how they come out.

A lot of deep thought coming to the surface-Thanks!

Some excellent experience sharing as well!!

I have some skills and I am lazy by nature.

I am communicating with Madisound to get

some initial advice. 

Jonk- Enjoyed your response. Thanks.

Mendel- Now I'm spinning a little.

I met at a CES show in N.Y. years ago one of the heads of the factory from Proac. He said they used 'stock' Scan speak speakers off the shelf. He said what made their speakers special was all about the cabinet and the extremely beautiful book-matched veneers. So, unless you have excellent woodworking skills and a shop and a finishing booth with spray equipment you won't get the same results.

However, you CAN build your own speakers that sound every bit as good as good as factory built speakers. Danny Richie sells kits that are excellent quality. He is an expert crossover designer also. For fun I recently finished a kit from Swan that are incredibly good 3 way speaker kit. I made crossover changes and set them on 12" subwoofers. They are incredibly good with proper modification.

Whatever kit you choose the biggest challenge will be how to get them to look good. Everyone always tries to duplicate a factory veneer finish and they always look armature.  Here is a method I use to produce beautiful looking speaker and takes minimal table saw skill. NO spray booth, stains or finishing and yields a beautiful high end look. The box is square. I glue a 1/4" rounded wood molding from Home Depot to the outside edge. This gives the speaker a nice rounded edge from the front. Fill and sand so it's a perfect smooth appearance. Then simply spray can a flat black finish to the face. This leaves the remaining sides of the cabinet unfinished. They sell all kinds of beautiful pre-finished veneer at Floor & Decor. I got some  'African Tiger' wood that was amazing. It matches the same 1/4" thickness and mates perfectly to the 1/4" molding. Carefully cut and fit each piece and glue it to the MDF cabinet. The only requirement is a thin sharp table saw blade to cut the 45 degree angles. The pre-finished flooring 'clicks' together for a perfect seem fit. After you cut and fit all the pieces you are done!!  You end up with a professional finish that looks amazing.  A flat black, rounded, front face that flows into a red and black African Tiger wood. This looks far BETTER than most square face,veneer speakers. BTW... the selection of colors of pre-finished wood flooring is HUGE and the finish is as good as it gets.

No painting my subwoofer cabinets either. They are finished in high gloss black granite. I have a tile wet saw and using urethane glue attached the granite to the mdf cabinet. This was not only beautiful but added mass and rigidity to the cabinet like nothing I've ever seen.

I am an experienced cabinet builder with over 50 years experience and I'm always unimpressed with DIY veneer cabinets. The staining and finishing is far more difficult than most people realize. The above method will yield a far better result, faster build time for less money.

You CAN definitely DIY an excellent pair of high end speakers. The 'Factory' doesn't have a magic wand to wave over their finished speakers. If done properly diy can outperform many factory speakers costing thousands more. Do the research and find out what makes a speaker box sound good (or ask Danny Riychie) Then finish it properly so it looks awesome.

Good luck!

currently doing a set of DIY LS3/5a monitors and I am excited to hear how they will sound.

drivers are proven and matched.

had a shop CNC the MDF for the cabinets to my spec including bracing and grille frames.

crossovers were the biggest learning curve. online calculators are worthless.

download the program Xsim and experiment with it. with some online research I came up with a superb crossover design and know what parts to change if the voicing is too rich or too lean.

if they work out i sell my harbeths.