Stewart Pinkerton

But it's not all about the money - many DIYers are looking to beat
commercial stuff in terms of ultimate performance/specification and are well
aware they would definitely *not* be beating commercial producers on a cost
basis if their own labour was priced into the equation....!!??

Still true in absolute terms. DIY satisfaction has a lot of clout, but
in the real world, home-built full-range speakers can in no way
compete with good commercial equivalents. All else is wishful
thinking.

Now you've gone too far. DIYers may not be able to produce an equivalent speaker
as cheaply as a commercial one, but every commercial speaker can be improved.
DIY for economy is mostly dead everywhere, not just in electronics. Unless you
include kits. DIY now is about quality and style.

The designers of "good commercial" speakers are constrained in part by
commercial considerations peculiar to factory production. For every speaker they
make, some ideals will be sacrificed to those constraints.

It follows that those designers could produce better speakers if the constraints
were removed. They could, given sufficient resources, DIY better than their own
commercial products.

Stupid DIYers with insufficient resources have *never* been able to compete with
commercial products.

But what about kits?

Clever DIYers with sufficient resources will *always* be able to compete in
terms of quality and fit-for-purpose. Eventually.

Time is a problem, I have to admit. In the case of Le Mans, by the time I built
the car that would have won in 1970, it was 2002.

cheers, Ian