This web-page is still under-development. It’s June 2022 and now posting some updates after 6 months of taking a break from website design and update. This web-page is a secondary and part-time endeavor for me and I am not a web-page designer so I’m learning the web-development aspect as I go. In the meantime, I am still offering assembly services using the email on the contact page as the preferred contact method. Thank you for looking
CROSSOVER BUILDING SERVICES AVAILABLE
NEW BUILD FROM DIY KIT
You want a new crossover built from a DIY kit, with components you have purchased. You may ship the components directly to me for assembly or they can be shipped directly from the designer or retailer.
NEW BUILD FROM YOUR SCHEMATIC
You want a new crossover built from a crossover schematic that you will provide. You may provide the crossover components, or I can source those components based upon your preferences and budget.
For schematic based builds, approximately 40% of customers provide components they have purchased and about 60% prefer to have me select and purchase components based upon their price and/or brand preferences. The choice is yours.
Some schematic based builds are new construction DIY. Others are upgrades using redesigned crossovers for retail speakers
NEW BUILD FROM EXISTING CROSSOVER
You already own a speaker that you enjoy. You would like to upgrade that speaker on a limited budget or would like to do so without having new crossover circuits designed. This option replaces the inferior low-budget components in your crossover with components of significantly higher quality and performance.
There are multiple ways to accomplish this task. Some designs may already have their crossover schematic published. An alternative method is to determine layout from the existing crossover. If each part is labeled with values than I can often determine layout by viewing your photos of the components and the traces on the PCB board. As final option, you can ship the crossover to me and I will measure each component and determine the layout at no cost to you.
FUTURE SERVICES
AMPLIFIER BUILDS
At a future time, I may offer assembly services for select amplifier or pre-amplifier kits. I will likely pre-assemble small batches of a few popular and proven designs. Examples could include popular ICEpower modules such as the 200asc/200ac, or modules from the Hypex nCore series of amplifiers. Component prices for those kits could range between $200 and $600 depending upon the modules selected, plus an assembly fee. This idea is currently on hold. I have a couple projects in development, but they are moving slowly and any completion date would be over speculative.
In anticipation of the question, I have no plans to build or offer any of the lower end, sub $150 kits, as I don’t find them to offer significant value or advantages over the many imported amplifiers already offered in that same price range.
CNC CUT FRONT BAFFLES / CABINET BUILDING AND ASSEMBLY
At a future time, I may consider offering CNC services primarily for front baffles Those services would be offered for published cabinet designs or to any custom specifications desired. If you have a special or urgent request, you are welcome to contact me, but this is not a service I am formally offering at this time. If you have a special request for some baffles or the cutout and/or basic assembly of a custom cabinet, you are welcome to ask about that. Currently, I’ve been limiting cabinet projects to 1 or 2 per month.
SERVICES I DO NOT PROVIDE
– I do not provide crossover design services.
There are talented speaker designers who already offer this service. I am not trying to compete in that market.
– I will not violate intellectual property rights of original designers.
I will not build you a DIY kit crossover that you have not purchased or is not publicly available. Occasionally, someone has asked me to build them a crossover for one of the popular DIY kits, that use unpublished crossover designs. I can only offer assembly services for a kit you have purchased, or for a crossover schematic you have provided. I will not provide schematics for a build of someone else’s design without their permission, or unless they have made that design public.
RECOMMENDATIONS
There are many benefits to building a speaker from a DIY kit.
Cost Savings / Value: DIY kits typically have incredibly low mark-up. They are typically sold by their designer or a few select retailers, without distributors, wholesalers, or other middlemen who all add a price increase as they pass it along. There’s no national branding or marketing campaign expenses. You are paying cost for the actual components, with a small and well earned markup to the designer, plus your raw materials and labor for the speaker cabinet.
Premium Components: Most of you reading this, have likely already researched various DIY kits. In comparison, you have seen the insides of retail speakers and have seen examples of the dirt-cheap tiny crossovers, seen the raw woofers out of box, and seen how crude the interior cabinet construction is, despite an often attractive outward appearance. It is amazing how little product cost goes into a retail speaker. $15 worth of crossover components, $40 worth of woofer and tweeter, thin walled and un-braced speaker cabinets, and a $250 price tag. Don’t misunderstand me, some of them can be very enjoyable, may be very well rated, may sound very good even. I own and have owned many retail speakers that I have been pleased with. However, side by side, using objective measurements and/or subjective comparison, they generally don’t perform as well as a professionally designed DIY speaker kit at a similar price. This is the reason why once people go down the path of DIY speakers, they typically never go back to retail.
What kit to build?
There are so many great options. This website is still under development but I will consider adding resources and kit reviews in the future to further assist you towards a great DIY kit or build plan if you haven’t already selected one. In the meantime, my basic recommendations are as follows:
Spend a little more– At the bottom pricing ranges, small cost increases typically do provide very immediate and very noticeable improvements. What that means is: Yes, the $300 pair of speakers will perform better than the the $200 pair. The $200 pair will be better than the $100 pair, particularly if both options have similar design principles, and similar cost mark-ups; Of course there are always some exceptions, and some well renowned designs will perform above their price bracket, even compared against other DIY. However, that general rule applies when comparing reputable kits from reputable designers. The increased cost goes directly into improved components, and generally provides a corresponding benefit, when properly engineered. The $200 increase from a $600 kit to an $800 kit may be more subjective, but a $150 increase from a $100 to $250 kit will bring immediate improvement.
Reputation and experience matter– Choose a kit from named and reputable designers. If you’ve followed any of the many forums dedicated to speaker DIY, the question always presents itself where someone wants to design their own kit, perhaps using software simulation, or is looking for help to design a crossover for their chosen budget woofer. Don’t even think about going this route, unless your goal is to learn a lot through trial and error. Learn you will, but you will not randomly luck into a design that rivals other proven designs. You can’t reasonably expect to end up with a quality similar to what you would get using a proven design from an experienced designer. Software simulation is not enough and can only provide a starting point. Successful design requires lots of trial and error, adaptation, and more trial and error, usually prefaced with lots of experience and education, and aided by appropriate testing hardware and knowledge. More simply put, if your goal is to build the best speaker kit you can for your budget than don’t try to go it alone. Don’t try to replicate any of the one-time builds that you saw someone post on Reddit, Etsy, Facebook, or a Forum. Anyone can post to the web and share their custom build. They may even provide really clear instructions to follow. However, if they aren’t an experienced designer, than I’m confident they didn’t casually stumble onto an award winning design. Please save yourself that learning curve, and pick a design from a reputable designer.