Which kit should I cut my teeth on?

[madclown99]

Hi, complete newbie here to the world of DIY audio. After much research and reading, I'm going to build my first set of speakers. It'll be 80/20 HT/music. Adire has a lot of backers for their kits, as does GR... I've read reviews/comparisons between GR Research and Adire speaker based kits.

What I haven't read are comparisons/reviews between the Modula MTMs here and the Adire speaker based kits (from Raw Acoustics, DIYCable, etc.). Anyone want to comment or suggest?

[JonMarsh]

Well, it's sort of a different thing- we're not selling anything here, not offering turn-key kits or whatever- maybe you would say we're for the more hardcore DIY crowd? And becasue we're not selling anything or promoting anything commercially, there's no effort to get internet based reviewers to review something...

Most of my personal interest is in larger, more complex systems, but I've done these other designs (and use them myself, too) for those who'd like a moderate cost speaker employing the same thinking and design concepts. Besides the Modula MTM, a few folks have built the Natalie P (lower cost approach to the crossover) and been quite pleased. That and the Elaine Marie grew out of the system design I did for my daughter in 2003.

If you're not feeling adventurous, and want everything delivered in one box, then go with one of the commercial kits. If you want to take a bigger step into DIY, but aren't ready to design for yourself yet, then maybe one of the projects here will interest you.

For more insight into my own design philosophy, the M8a "Unorthodox Eight Inch Two Way" article series in AudioXpress fall of 2003 covers a lot of bases. But much of that is covered in one place or another here on HT Guide, too. It really comes down to finidng drivers with low intrinsic distortion, using them in their pistonic range (which requires low crossover points), and developing practical crossovers to deliver the desired results.

And welcome to DIY and HT Guide!

~Jon

[thylantyr]

There is the brute force method that almost guarantees
success.








Build them all and sell the ones you don't like :twisted:

[jdybnis]

I'd say the most important thing for a first project is to choose one you know you can complete without being completely frustrated. If you've never done any woodworking before you might want to build a kit that offers pre-cut baffles.

[dawaro]

I would definitely recomend the Modula MTM or MT. The fact that they were designed around the pre-fab enclosures at Parts Express really help. In the last two weeks I have completed both versions and absolutely love them.

[JonMarsh]

There is the brute force method that almost guarantees
success.








Build them all and sell the ones you don't like :twisted:

Now there's a man after my own heart...

When the Stryke HE-15 came out, there was a lot of "discussion" (some would say controversy) over what was the best enclosure to use it in. Thomas and I built and tested both the Stryke cube with PR's and the Aerial Stryke design (ported box I came up with) before choosing what we wanted to go with.

True benchmarking, as opposed to bench racing.

~Jon

[madclown99]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys, I think I'm going to wait a little longer to maybe build the 3way project being discussed here. I LOVE the flow of info at this site without the commercial fluff! A big thanks to Jon and the owners/mods from this humble Newbie!