Selling diy speakers

michael_w · September 2005

I was curious what you guys thought about selling diy speakers. I really want to get into some more diy and audio design but at the moment I just don't need any more speakers. When I went to the northwest audio meet I had a chance to listen to some diy speakers and they were pretty impressive. I especially liked this certain driver from Creative Sound Solutions. (the css fr125s) So basically I'd like to build a pair of these full range speakers but then sell them. I'm not certain I can make them and recover my costs. To finish them in a nice veneer, the final product would probably cost me around $250 cdn a pair or $210 usd. I understand it's hard to give advice on whether I would be able to make them and sell them while still turning a profit without even hearing them but do you think it is possible? I'd be fully willing to setup a web page (which I can also do for school) and create my own logo and brand name. I was thinking of selling them for around 300 cdn (250 usd), however there is are other brands that could compete at a little over this price range. From what I heard they sound very very good for the price but I'm thinking people will go for brand names before even checking out these.

Any thoughts? I have much to learn and would like to get this diy stuff going. After I build boxes for my little 3" Audax's I might just wing it and buy a pair of those drivers and do a little prototype. (of course do some unibox and winisd planning to go with some autocad box designs)

Thanks,
Michael

michael_w · September 2005

Forgot a couple links...

The CSS FR125S
The CSS WR125S

I'll have to talk to Bob from creative sound solutions and find out the details on which driver would be better. I belive the FR125S is a newer version of the WR one. BTW If I order a whole bunch of these drivers or kits I can get a discount... I think I'll start with one pair and see how that flys.

janmike · September 2005

Michael, if they sound great and LOOK great, I would consider them. For me, the appearance thing would push it over the edge after impressing my ears. My lack of knowledge in this area would ask one question. There has to be a little more than just assembling a few components inside a cube to make a valued speaker. I say go for it.

phoneisbusy · September 2005

michael_w wrote:

Forgot a couple links...

The CSS FR125S
The CSS WR125S

...QUOTE]

The FR125S would be my choice if you're thinking of a full range speaker, the WR if you're going with a 2 way. Checkout www.diyaudio.com, there's quite a bit of disscussion about these two drivers over there.

I think if you go into this with the idea of learning and having fun, you really can't lose. If you're thinking of this as a business venture then check out some of the diy sites to get a feel for the amount of knowledge, work, and time and equipment required to design a really good set of speakers.

I'd like to try the fr125s myself but I have a couple of distractions to deal with at the moment.

regards

Dave

unc2701 · September 2005

I've seen a number of DIY speakers on audiogon... so you can sell them. Search for the driver you have in mind on there for a few weeks- see if they show up & how much the speakers they're in ususally sell for. What kind of enclosure are you looking at?

michael_w · September 2005

Thanks for the ideas and support. I would like to start this for fun and if things go well I might start a small business and get into making larger speakers. As for the enclosure, I havn't quite decided yet. I might go sealed but will decide that after doing some research and playing with unibox and winisd. The FR125S would probably go nicely in a sealed 0.2 cubic foot enclosure that I would wrap in some fancy veneer like cherry stained with cherry. I realize to sell to the public looks are a high priority so I have much to learn

Pablo · September 2005

Cherry is really not that fancy of a veneer. If you really want to go nice, go with something burled, or maybe a nice birdseye. It get's kind of pricey, but some of them look really nice. If it's a small enclosure, you can go real nice. I've been thinking about doing this myself (just for fun), but need alot more info on how to make a quality enclosure before I try it out.

Try www.constantines.com for some ideas.

michael_w · September 2005

I do like the burled stuff. I have a box made out of figured maple and I really like the look. It is almost 3d at certain angles.

Right now I'm trying to find a good cheap place around here that I could buy some veneer from as well as getting some quotes from my friend to do laser etching in plexiglass for a logo that I would attach between the back of the cabinet and the binding posts.

unc2701 · September 2005

Since your going full range, check out:
http://melhuish.org/audio/DIYTQ1.html

michael_w · September 2005

Thanks for the link. I have a lot to read before taking on this project. The voigt pipe design is really cool but I'm not so sure I'd be able to sell them simply because it would take someone truely crazy about audio to buy six foot tall speakers. Small towers like the fostex tqwp ones might work. It sounds like I have a lot to learn and a lot to try. Maybe I will build a few different prototype cabinets and before finishing them test out each one and find out what people like the best.

unc2701 · September 2005

They probably wouldn't have to be 6 feet- 1)You can fold them and 2) your length is going to be roughly 1/4 the wave length of the Fs freq of the speaker.

Rough formula:
(1100/freq)/4=length in feet of the pipe.

So the drivers you're looking at would need more like 4 feet and you could fold it in half to get a ~2 foot enclosure (probably more like 30 inches once you add in the port and width of the wood).

MDF and pillow stuffing are your friends. just do rough, ugly designs until you find something that really works, then work out how to make them pretty.

BTW, you might think about fostex drivers instead- their 4.5 inch driver is pretty close to the one you're looking at, but will only set you back $35 each, so it's good to experiment with.

www.madisound.com has them...

michael_w · September 2005

Shortly after I posted I kept reading and saw the folded design. It looks pretty cool and should work pretty well at around 30 - 35 inches tall. I punched some numbers into winISD and from the graph I got it would run flat ± 0.5 dB down to around 53hz then with a ±3dB point of around 48hz. I'm not sure how it would work in the real world with the folded style throwing new factors into that but it would be awesome if they could go that flat cleanly down that low.

When I was at the audio meet a while back I heard these drivers in a parts express 0.2 cubic foot sealed box and they sounded quite decent. You could tell the bass was there but since it was such a small and sealed design the low end seemed almost soft; evident but boomy any way, although they did lack a little punch.

At $35 usd a piece that does sound good but crossing the border would be costly. I could buy them from solen.ca (in quebec) and avoid that but they want $65 cdn per driver... at that price I'd rather just buy the local creative sound stuff.

I think instead of doing a regular box style design I will try something new like one of these folded designs to put my little 3" audax's in. From what I was told they are quality drivers so I'm hoping I should get a somewhat mini-version of what would come of making them with the fr125s's. Hopefully this will save me time and money before buying some fr125s's so I can come up with a good design or at least have a basis to start from.

Thanks again to everyone as your ideas have helped me learn a lot. I havn't even started building and I'm already having fun

Selling diy speakers

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