My DIY Speaker Project

6/2004

So I have been bitten by the audio bug again. I don't remember the exact circumstance, but it had to do something with my previous facination with tube amps. Anyhow this DIY project was completed successfully on Oct 12th, 2002. It started two weeks before and scouring the internet I was looking to either purchase or build a new speaker system for my Home Entertainment Console. I had recalled that Dynaudio a while back produced some speaker kits that were supposidly fabulous but outrageously priced. I was looking for the existance of some possible copy cats when I ran accross some speaker reviews on AudioReview.com under DIY speakers. They pointed out that there were a set of free plans on some great sounding speakers developed by a guy named Ed Frias out of Escondido, California, based on an enclosure by Speaker City, (L6) and some Peerless drivers. The reviews touted the sound quality of this small speaker like it was the holy grail.

After a few email's back and forth with my uncle Amcli of AMC fame asking for some advice, I set out on a new adventure in speaker making.

I decided for my first try into this new DIY field I would purchase the kit whole from Speaker City in Burbank that came with everything I needed, even a prebuilt crossover. All that was required was cutting some wire to size and assembly.

The assembly went flawlessly except for a bad capacitor on one of my crossovers that took quite a while to isolate. A quick swap and everything was great!

It's was hooked up to some solid state amplifiers, the AMC 2445 100watts/channel and the AMC R9 Receiver, but after some tinkering with components the best sound came from my Audio Note tube Pre-amp with the AMC 2445's. The sound is just utterly breath-taking! I've got some >12yr old PSB's and a set of Polk S6's to compare with, each much larger than these DIY speakers, and consistantly the DIY was better. Crisper highs, smoothe mids and well formed lows, though I had a subwoofer supplement what the DIY's couldn''t get to.

For about 300 bucks a pair, its well worth a listen!