Got bored and rebuilt all my speakers

[Huskerduck]

I decided to build a subwoofer and had some extra cherry veneer and some MDF leftovers and before I knew it I had new surrounds and a center as well, which left me with oak 281s and that wouldnt work so $100 later I have all new goodies.........newest HT pics




Mark


Ducks Meager Theater

[ThomasW]

Mark

That system is looking really sweet. Cherry is my all time favorite wood




theAudioWorx
Klone-Audio

[JonMarsh]

Very nice Mark!

Wish I had enough time on my hands to be as productive as you are! Or maybe it's just motivation- nah, got lots of that. Two weeks a month business travel just kills too many other things.

The speakers look great- like ThomasW, Cherry is one of my favorites, too; my Salamander racks are in that wood. I'm debating the finish and technique on a couple of new projects in the works, but now I'm going to have to give them some more thought after seeing your pics.

Congrats!

-Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[Huskerduck]

Thanks guys ,

Means alot coming from a pair like you

I am not sure about the having the time issue, I think I have just become addicted to speaker building and debating electrostatics next, it seems every time you get something built someone wants to buy them




Mark


Ducks Meager Theater

[ThomasW]

Building ELS's is really pretty dfficult, But here's any intersting option.

http://www.metaxas.com/pages/masnewfiles/diyframeset.html

theAudioWorx
Klone-Audio

[Markj]

Mark, you did a great job. You are fortunate to have the time and talent.

[Huskerduck]

$1200,

Yikes on the electrostats

Thomas have you any experiance or feedback on these

http://members.tripod.com/~mdarling/xencat.html

I had another site that sold completed panel , transformer kits for $850 but I cant seem to find it




Mark


Ducks Meager Theater

[ThomasW]

Mark

Sorry I don't know anything about the Jack Sutton's ESL speakers. I do know he also has custom B&G RD-50 system.



I'm leary about homebuilt ESL's. ESL are very tricky to build. That's why I recommend the Metaxas kit's. They have been building ESL's for decades and have a proven technology.

You should understand that ESL's in general are not user friendly speakers. I've had some for 15+ yrs, and love the sound. But they demand a certain placement in the room, and need very stable relatively high power amps capable of handling bizarre loads




theAudioWorx
Klone-Audio

[Huskerduck]

I think your right Thomas ESLs are out for this kid,

I went to town today to play and went speaker auditioning and listened to some Martin Logans starting at $1600 and all the way up to $3400 and I will say I was unimpressed by any of them, maybe it was their gear which was Marantz and Rotel stuff hobbled 6' high because all their speakers actually sounded pretty " dull" for the prices, about the best sounding speakers were Paradigms reference 100s ( I think that was their names) and even those sounded kind of bla after I found out he had a subwoofer running the entire time and asked him to shut it off, and he kept insisting the sub was a must in the purchase and he seemed to be a lil pissy when I said " for $2400 I think the sub , center , rears should be included and when auditioning speakers shouldnt I be listening to 2 channel and not 5.1" I remember specificly asking him to only have on the main monitors of all the speakers and he kept throwing in subs atleast, and at times centers and rears ( I guess he was trying to make me think the speakers had great sound stages but they all sounded pretty bad)

Another store I went to had some B&K stuff that sounded pretty decent but the prices on all this stuff was pretty high for what they sounded like but I will say most of the speakers I listen to today were lite , as in weight........for instance I really have to ommppppffff to pick up my 281s but the Paradigms that were bigger in every dimesion were lighter by quite a bit.............is there some new fangled lightweight material I dont know about out there?

Im going out again in 2 days and go to Portland to see if they have their stuff hooked up right down in Salem because nobody had decent sound at their HT shops

Its no wonder I dont run into alot of audio/HT nuts around with the pricey unimpressive sound theyre selling around here, from what I listen too today I wouldnt trade my 281s for any of it




Mark


Ducks Meager Theater

[ThomasW]

Mark

ESL panels need to be BIG for the speakers to compete with dynamic drivers as far as punch is concerned. That's why mine (the link above) or ones like the larger Sound Lab models, combined with very large amps are what's really necessary to do justice to reference level HT sound.

Martin Logans are OK but there a issues trying to integrate ESL panels with their woofers.

The larger Maggies do a pretty good job with HT. An older pair of 2.7's can be had for $1500. These are very good but big as well.

Also any DIY speaker will be alot less than a store bought one. Typically retail price is mfgr's cost multiplied times 9.

Someday if I can get JonMarsh off his butt, we'll design a line array with a mix of fairly low buck drivers. It will cost approx $1000/pr and smoke speakers costing $5000-$10,000.




theAudioWorx
Klone-Audio

[Huskerduck]

So 30K gets me some nice sounding ESLs, Im pretty sure you have persuaded me into scraping that DIY project,

I have no doubt that you will out perform all with 1K, heck my $420 out performed 2 stores worth , I was truly amazed ....I wanted so bad to ask if I could bring in my crappy ole cheap homebuilts to see if an upgrade to 3K more speaker was worthwhile

what are these places mark-ups? 25%?

For a 1K cost to them do they sell it for $1250 or is it more yet?




Mark


Ducks Meager Theater

[ThomasW]

Actually $30K gets you some world class ESL's

Standard markup on normal speakers (meaning non-high-end)from the retailer is around 40%




theAudioWorx
Klone-Audio