My first DIY kit...

B3Nut
B3Nut Posts: 76
edited March 2024 in Clubhouse Archives
Got the AudioReview.com Ed Frias-designed 2-way kit from Madisound. This is my fisrt foray into loudspeaker kit building, I think I've caught an incurable disease. :D Got the kit yesterday, finished them this morning though I had to run over to Madisound to remedy an open voice coil on one of the tweeters. They replaced it while I waited (Madisound's shop is 15 minutes from my house). This kit uses a Peerless 850122 6.5" midbass driver and the 812687 1" dome tweeter. The best thing? Only $340 for the whole kit, including cabinets with your choice of 3 finishes, veneered with real oak and solid oak corners! The crossover is impressive...I've never seen a crossover that beefy in any affordable retail bookshelf.

These are pretty amazing speakers...I've never heard anything close to that price point sound as good. Next project...the Vifa Studio kit (5" woof, XT25 ring tweet, 6.5" Seas passive) - un-freaking-believably smooth, perfect home-studio nearfields. Couldn't afford that one this go around ($485), but all good things in time. :) Meanwhile, I'm digging these Peerless-based 2-ways, iin many ways the nicest speakers I've ever owned. Near-perfectly coherent driver integration, too. Me likee. :D

TP
Post edited by Ryan_Soundunited on
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 51,746
    edited December 2004
    Cool, what's the design? Ported or sealed and what's the bottom end limit?
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • PolkThug
    PolkThug Posts: 7,532
    edited December 2004
    I'm jealous. Living next to Madisound would kill my already non-existant budget. I've been eyeing the Vifa kit with the XT tweeter for a year now, if you build your own box, its much more affordable.

    Merry X-mas,
    PolkThug
    Never Forget
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  • B3Nut
    B3Nut Posts: 76
    edited December 2004
    It's a ported design, port's on the rear. I believe it's tuned to 45Hz...I'm getting a solid 40Hz fundamental in my mid-sized living room. Fs on the woof is 38Hz.

    Yeah, that Vifa kit is unreal...there's a reason that tweeter shows up in $30,000 loudspeakers. Excellent treble detail without calling attention to itself, the "there"-ness is amazing. That kit can hang with some $4000 systems I've heard. I'm curious as to how well a design based around that tweet and the Vifa XT 7" midbass with the wood-pulp cone would do, probably would work in the same cabinet as my AR.com's....

    I'd build my own box but I have no woodworking facilities, and am not sure how well I'd do if I did. :D Electronics and putting everything in the box I can do, making the box is a whole 'nuther kettle o' feesh. :D

    TP
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  • rskarvan
    rskarvan Posts: 2,374
    edited December 2004
    Hey B3.... where do you live?
    I just moved to Janesville WI recently.
    E-mail me at ronskarvan@aol.com

    I've got a set of CRS+'s that you might want to see/listen to if you have never experienced SDA before.

    Later,

    Ron
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  • BlueMDPicker
    BlueMDPicker Posts: 7,569
    edited December 2004
    Great looking project! Glad they sound great, too.
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  • B3Nut
    B3Nut Posts: 76
    edited December 2004
    I'm up in Mt Horeb, small town E. of Madison. I get down your way on occasion...I'll email ya my cell #.

    :)

    TP
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  • gatemplin
    gatemplin Posts: 1,595
    edited December 2004
    Looks great and I'm sure it sounds even better. I'm working on my own DIY speakers over the holidays.
    Graham
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  • dkg999
    dkg999 Posts: 5,647
    edited December 2004
    Where's Madisound located? I'm in the Rockford IL area and have a whole shop full of woodworking equipment, and have done woodworking as side job for about 25 years. I've been studying up on speaker building as this looks like it could be fun, and with all the software available, I don't have to learn to be a rocket scientist!
    DKG999
    HT System: LSi9, LSiCx2, LSiFX, LSi7, SVS 20-39 PC+, B&K 507.s2 AVR, B&K Ref 125.2, Tripplite LCR-2400, Cambridge 650BD, Signal Cable PC/SC, BJC IC, Samsung 55" LED

    Music System: Magnepan 1.6QR, SVS SB12+, ARC pre, Parasound HCA1500 vertically bi-amped, Jolida CDP, Pro-Ject RM5.1SE TT, Pro-Ject TubeBox SE phono pre, SBT, PS Audio DLIII DAC
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  • B3Nut
    B3Nut Posts: 76
    edited December 2004
    They're just off University (US 14) in Middleton, their address is on their web site at www.madisound.com .

    Their listening room is a candy store...finished examples of their kits and gorgeous Hovland electronics to drive them. I lost any interest I had had in buying store-bought speakers once I visited there and built this kit...it's one thing to read postings about it, and quite another to do it then sit down and listen to what your hands have made. DIY rocks the block, I'm hooked now!! :D

    TP
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  • audiobliss
    audiobliss Posts: 12,518
    edited December 2004
    Congrats, B3Nut; they look great! What is that you have them sitting on in the first pic?
    George Grand wrote: »
    Jstas wrote: »
    Simple question. If you had a cool million bucks, what would you do with it?
    Wonder WTF happened to the rest of my money.
    In Use
    PS3, Yamaha CDR-HD1300, Plex, Amazon Fire TV Gen 2
    Pioneer Elite VSX-52, Parasound HCA-1000A
    Klipsch RF-82ii, RC-62ii, RS-42ii, RW-10d
    Epson 8700UB
    In Storage
    [Home Audio]
    Rotel RCD-02, Yamaha KX-W900U, Sony ST-S500ES, Denon DP-7F
    Pro-Ject Phono Box MKII, Parasound P/HP-850, ASL Wave 20 monoblocks
    Klipsch RF-35, RB-51ii
    [Car Audio]
    Pioneer Premier DEH-P860MP, Memphis 16-MCA3004, Boston Acoustic RC520
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  • Demiurge
    Demiurge Posts: 10,874
    edited December 2004
    I live in Milwaukee. The Mustard Museum in Mt. Horeb is great! hahaha
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  • B3Nut
    B3Nut Posts: 76
    edited December 2004
    They're perched atop my 7B's for now until I can buy some proper stands. Much more open in the midrange than the 7B's, something about the midrange on the 7B's started wearing on me after a couple days, like parts of the spectrum are missing and something is peaking at the same time. The DIY's have impressive bass for a ported 6.5" monitor. I'm really happy with the way they turned out...

    TP
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  • Mazeroth
    Mazeroth Posts: 1,585
    edited December 2004
    I, too, caught the DiY bug about 6 months ago and have been 100% into DiY speakers since. I don't think I could ever purchase another pre-made speaker again.

    Take a look at the speakers I'm currently building: 72" tall line arrays! They will utilize 10 Dayton RS 5" drivers, 5 top and 5 bottom, with a single Fountek JP-2.0 ribbon tweeter. This pic is a few days old. I have the back panels glued now and will be adding the internal bracing tomorrow.
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  • audiobliss
    audiobliss Posts: 12,518
    edited December 2004
    wow....those are gonna be some speakers.....looks like nice work on the cabinet....
    George Grand wrote: »
    Jstas wrote: »
    Simple question. If you had a cool million bucks, what would you do with it?
    Wonder WTF happened to the rest of my money.
    In Use
    PS3, Yamaha CDR-HD1300, Plex, Amazon Fire TV Gen 2
    Pioneer Elite VSX-52, Parasound HCA-1000A
    Klipsch RF-82ii, RC-62ii, RS-42ii, RW-10d
    Epson 8700UB
    In Storage
    [Home Audio]
    Rotel RCD-02, Yamaha KX-W900U, Sony ST-S500ES, Denon DP-7F
    Pro-Ject Phono Box MKII, Parasound P/HP-850, ASL Wave 20 monoblocks
    Klipsch RF-35, RB-51ii
    [Car Audio]
    Pioneer Premier DEH-P860MP, Memphis 16-MCA3004, Boston Acoustic RC520
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  • HBombToo
    HBombToo Posts: 5,256
    edited December 2004
    Originally posted by Mazeroth
    I, too, caught the DiY bug about 6 months ago and have been 100% into DiY speakers since.

    Thats a serious BUG you got bit by. Do you have a link for that project? It looks real cool so far.

    HBomb
    ***WAREMTAE***
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  • Mazeroth
    Mazeroth Posts: 1,585
    edited December 2004
    These speakers I'm building I designed myself, with a little help by Dr. Jim Griffin, who is the authority on line array speakers. I met him at the Dayton, Ohio DiY meet in October and he's the nicest guy in the world. Beyond intelligent when it comes to speaker design and the physics behind it. He brought in 3 speakers to demo; 2 bookshelf and his Needles line arrays, which my design is similar to. Every time he would take the front of the room and demo his speakers everyone got a grin from ear to ear in amazement!

    I'm attaching a picture of his Needles arrays that I took at the DiY event at the hotel. He had them set up for the whole day so people could come in and enjoy them for a few minutes, or in my case, a few hours. His utilize 16 3" Tang Band drivers per side, with a single 5" ribbon tweeter. These are designed to be listened to at a certain seating distance, unlike other line arrays that have the ribbons as long as the woofer line. I'll also post some other line array pictures.
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  • Mazeroth
    Mazeroth Posts: 1,585
    edited December 2004
    The two sets of taller speakers are true line arrays, that have the tweeters as long as, or close to as long as, the woofer line.
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  • nadams
    nadams Posts: 5,877
    edited December 2004
    And if you decide not to build them, you have some nice CD racks!
    Ludicrous gibs!
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  • audiobliss
    audiobliss Posts: 12,518
    edited December 2004
    Originally posted by nadams
    And if you decide not to build them, you have some nice CD racks!

    rofl
    George Grand wrote: »
    Jstas wrote: »
    Simple question. If you had a cool million bucks, what would you do with it?
    Wonder WTF happened to the rest of my money.
    In Use
    PS3, Yamaha CDR-HD1300, Plex, Amazon Fire TV Gen 2
    Pioneer Elite VSX-52, Parasound HCA-1000A
    Klipsch RF-82ii, RC-62ii, RS-42ii, RW-10d
    Epson 8700UB
    In Storage
    [Home Audio]
    Rotel RCD-02, Yamaha KX-W900U, Sony ST-S500ES, Denon DP-7F
    Pro-Ject Phono Box MKII, Parasound P/HP-850, ASL Wave 20 monoblocks
    Klipsch RF-35, RB-51ii
    [Car Audio]
    Pioneer Premier DEH-P860MP, Memphis 16-MCA3004, Boston Acoustic RC520
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter