No frills speaker manufacturers

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.