Advice
Posted: July 23rd, 2014, 7:24 am
Didn't think it made any sense to keep adding to my introduction lol, so thought I would start a new thread. As I imagine the questions I will ask would be similar to anyone starting off in this arena would have, it might be nice to have a thread for it.
How has everyone come up with budgets for your components?
No- I am not asking how much money each person can afford to spend. What I am trying to determine is if it is more common for people to:
A: Find a speaker you like in a box store - Speaker A - try to duplicate that as close as possible in diy form - gaining the knowledge you made your own and save a bit of money. (not time)
B. Determine that Speaker A would have cost say 1000.00 - so build a diy speaker that costs 1000.00.
The reason I bring this up, as in numerous forums I keep seeing - "this speaker costs less than 500.00 to make- and rivals speakers 10 times its cost, as well as other similar posts. These are not comments by guys who make a set of speakers every once in a while - but designers in the diy community who consistently do well in showcases etc. It's similar to most reviews of the Maggies- "at 599.00 this speaker is by far one of the best speakers than can be bought for less than 2500.00" I can appreciate the ability to buy or build speakers, which have capabilities far exceeding their cost. No doubt many choose to go down that path for those very reasons.
My concern is, as I find myself starting to go down that path - it becomes very easy to justify that next little upgrade. Ie cap and resistor upgrades that cost nearly as much as the speaker.
Is it the wrong way to go if I say - I would like to spend less than 500.00 on speakers, and not want 1500.00 speakers when I am done?
I went into a B&M shop yesterday on my lunch break - and auditioned some speakers. After looking at so many DIY designs, specs, graphs etc, I wanted to re-realize why I was going down this path. After listening to probably 5 different sets of speakers - I found myself really liking a pair I had never heard before. I always seem drawn to the B&W's. Not the 800's or anything- but the 600 bookshelf's always sound really nice to me. Sure they lacked a bit of bass- but I never really expect much bass from a bookshelf.
Then the guy at the store hooked up the Totems. The Totem Hawks were just amazing. The guy kept suggesting jazz or classical. He didn't have any Alice in Chains unplugged but did end up having Pink Floyd. He cued up Comfortably Numb and I was just blown away. The way the speakers were able to play that bass without any semblance of a boom - you could heard the fingers run across the fret, it truly sounded like I was there. Granted- this was a DVD Audio track, driven by a 20,000.00 McIntosh Amplifier- but still I was amazed.
I definitely cannot afford Totems. Honestly given their size - I was a bit surprised at the price. Now that I have gotten a reminder on what I been doing all the research for, I find myself re-invigorated to build a speaker that can closely resemble the qualities of that Totem Hawk Tower- Slim tower, 2 way or 2.5 if needed, Simple cabinets - nothing extravagant or flamboyant. They had really nice wide dispersion, are 6-8 ohm speakers. The only change I would like to make if possible, would be to go a bit higher with sensitivity. I am not going to be able to drive them with a high current Mcintosh, so if I can figure a way to build a speaker that has higher sensitivity that would great for my power constraints.
Of course being my first build - I would like to find a known design - something tried and true that would get to my goal. I am going through all the sites I have looked at and really looking over each design and review. I think there are speakers I was initially looking at that will not be on the list anymore, as they simply weren't intended for what I am looking for.
Does this seem like a good approach to all of this?
Open to any input, suggestions, scoldings etc.
How has everyone come up with budgets for your components?
No- I am not asking how much money each person can afford to spend. What I am trying to determine is if it is more common for people to:
A: Find a speaker you like in a box store - Speaker A - try to duplicate that as close as possible in diy form - gaining the knowledge you made your own and save a bit of money. (not time)
B. Determine that Speaker A would have cost say 1000.00 - so build a diy speaker that costs 1000.00.
The reason I bring this up, as in numerous forums I keep seeing - "this speaker costs less than 500.00 to make- and rivals speakers 10 times its cost, as well as other similar posts. These are not comments by guys who make a set of speakers every once in a while - but designers in the diy community who consistently do well in showcases etc. It's similar to most reviews of the Maggies- "at 599.00 this speaker is by far one of the best speakers than can be bought for less than 2500.00" I can appreciate the ability to buy or build speakers, which have capabilities far exceeding their cost. No doubt many choose to go down that path for those very reasons.
My concern is, as I find myself starting to go down that path - it becomes very easy to justify that next little upgrade. Ie cap and resistor upgrades that cost nearly as much as the speaker.
Is it the wrong way to go if I say - I would like to spend less than 500.00 on speakers, and not want 1500.00 speakers when I am done?
I went into a B&M shop yesterday on my lunch break - and auditioned some speakers. After looking at so many DIY designs, specs, graphs etc, I wanted to re-realize why I was going down this path. After listening to probably 5 different sets of speakers - I found myself really liking a pair I had never heard before. I always seem drawn to the B&W's. Not the 800's or anything- but the 600 bookshelf's always sound really nice to me. Sure they lacked a bit of bass- but I never really expect much bass from a bookshelf.
Then the guy at the store hooked up the Totems. The Totem Hawks were just amazing. The guy kept suggesting jazz or classical. He didn't have any Alice in Chains unplugged but did end up having Pink Floyd. He cued up Comfortably Numb and I was just blown away. The way the speakers were able to play that bass without any semblance of a boom - you could heard the fingers run across the fret, it truly sounded like I was there. Granted- this was a DVD Audio track, driven by a 20,000.00 McIntosh Amplifier- but still I was amazed.
I definitely cannot afford Totems. Honestly given their size - I was a bit surprised at the price. Now that I have gotten a reminder on what I been doing all the research for, I find myself re-invigorated to build a speaker that can closely resemble the qualities of that Totem Hawk Tower- Slim tower, 2 way or 2.5 if needed, Simple cabinets - nothing extravagant or flamboyant. They had really nice wide dispersion, are 6-8 ohm speakers. The only change I would like to make if possible, would be to go a bit higher with sensitivity. I am not going to be able to drive them with a high current Mcintosh, so if I can figure a way to build a speaker that has higher sensitivity that would great for my power constraints.
Of course being my first build - I would like to find a known design - something tried and true that would get to my goal. I am going through all the sites I have looked at and really looking over each design and review. I think there are speakers I was initially looking at that will not be on the list anymore, as they simply weren't intended for what I am looking for.
Does this seem like a good approach to all of this?
Open to any input, suggestions, scoldings etc.