"Don Pearce" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 22 May 2006 14:28:25 +0100, "Keith G"
wrote:


"Don Pearce" wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 22 May 2006 11:58:24 GMT, "Ian Iveson"
wrote:

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.

No, commercial speakers *have* been improved. That is the point They
are the product of careful initial design, then redesign and tweaking
both in anechoic chambers and real listening rooms. That is a luxury
most don't have for diy. They build one set, then live with the
result. The chances of a happy result of being better than the
commercial equivalent are vanishingly close to zero.


Absolutely not the case.

DIY speaker builders almost invariably build more than one pair of
speakers - I know diddley doo about it all, but even I'm on my fifth pair!
(Two of which are/have been for other people!) Also, I believe many DIYers
will spend quite a bit of time tweaking a a pair of speakers after they
have
been built, before they consider them *finished*.

Where DIY speaker builders differ from a commercial enterprise is that
they
tend to tweak (different drivers and other components in the case of
speakers with crossovers) in the actual room they are going to use the
speakers in and using kit they already own. My own speakers already sound
better than a number of commercial pairs I have here, which have never
suited the room! I double-checked this only a day or two ago - my Pinkies
are *consummately* better in my room than a pair of very respectable
JM-Labs
floorstanders (and a pair of even more respectable Ruarks) I have here.

Until you hit the 'sky's the limit' for price (Wilson &c.?) all speakers
are
built to a price and it's common knowledge that 70/80 % of the costs of a
pair of speakers (before marketting and advertising &c. are added in) go
into the cabinet. A DIYer has the option to spend the money on the *sound
quality* - where it counts.

All this proclaiming that DIY can't beat commercial is just so much
dogma -
any DIYer with sufficient skill/talent/expertise/resources and *funds* can
match the commercial sector in just about any field if he chooses to. Most
commercial enterprises had small, domestic beginnings from what I can see
of
it, anyway!!



But your new builds haven't been evolutions, have they. You haven't
assessed a speaker, done some sums and thought "I think the horn may
work better if it is three inches longer", then built and evaluated.
What you have built is several different designs. That isn't
development.


Hmm, I'm not talking about *designing & developing* - I'm really only
talking about *building*.

Most DIYers build an established and proven design - some will tweak, some
won't. Some will go on to design completely new stuff themselves - that's
how it goes and is one of the reasons DIYing is a Good Thing.

Myself, I have constructed the various 'established design' cabinets (quite
accurately) and have experimented with different drivers (Fostex and
Visaton) and played about with stuffing and bits of carpet (as you do), but
I don't have the knowledge (or will or time or money) to get into
*designing* per se!! Having said that, I have *extended* the design on the
last pair (on a 'suck it and see' basis) and appear to be getting away with
it!! :-)

It's too easy to dismiss DIY activity as folly in the face of modern
commercial offerings and I'd be the first to admit that there's some good
stuff at very reasonable prices out there, but consider this analogy - Mr
Kipling makes exceedingly good cakes (says so on the packet) but, if you
are/were lucky, yer auld mum could beat him hands down every time!! (When my
mum signed off steak and kidney pudding vanished *forever* from the face of
the planet, AFAIAC!!)

It's a mistake to think most DIYers are dozy chancers like me - there's a
great deal deal of real experience and expertise out there and which seems
to be freely shared and passed around. Even my numpty efforts attract a post
or three every week - along the lines of this one (received yesterday):


"Hi keith, a really nice friendly website.

Congratulations. I've ordered a pair of tangband 317s with a view to
making some needles myself. However I'm completely new to speaker
building so your descriptions are very welcome. You imply that some
places will cut to size ? Could you literally come away with a kit of
parts ? Failing that it looks like the minimum tools I'd need would be
a circular saw & router."


(OK, I've put him right on the circular saw and router....!! ;-)

Telling people like this 'don't bother, it ain't worth it' does nothing to
further the cause or the quest for Audio Nirvana. *Even if* someone's
speakers were actually crap in reality but they liked and *preferred* them,
then their efforts would have been worthwhile. If my own efforts were/had
been crap, trust me, the 'listeners' I've had round here would have damn
soon told me so!! (You know how it is!! ;-)