Comment by user_7832 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by user_7832 | Hacker News Reader

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For me, it's DIY audio.

The thing about diy'ing audio (primarily speakers but also amps, DACs etc) is that you can get top of the line performance for a fraction of the market price. A $50,000 speaker setup that would bring tears to your eyes could be made for perhaps $5000. A DIY $500 kit can perform similar to a $2-3000 set of speakers. Open source amps with gerber files on github are amazing.

The biggest reason it's so easy to get amazing value is because that $600 speaker only has $150 of materials. Upgrading its $25 woofer to a $80 one would help a lot, but no company would do that and not sell it now for $1000 if they could.

However the biggest allure for me is not beating commercial systems on cost, but making what I want. A small speaker with deep base? Easy. Speakers with quasi-active noise cancellation behind them? Sure, why not. Speakers that'll make the most overpowered/fancy beach-boombox sound like a crappy toy? Simple.

The only limit is your imagination and time/money.

I'd very much recommend diyaudio.com, but be warned, parts of this field are mature while others are still in effective infancy. Also, being an engineer (electrical/mechanical) helps a lot, there's a ton of signals processing and electrical/mech oscillation.

All that build up and not a link to be seen?!?! Where do I go to spend $ on a new hobby I didn't need?

The easiest "take my money" approach would be to look at some Troels Gravesen speakers on his website and/or find kits being sold on sites like parts express (if in the US). Jeff Bagby and Paul Carmody are two other well known designers, the latter having more budget-friendly builds.

Additionally, sites like diyaudio.com are better when you want a specific thing built and are looking to learn more about techniques, new parts etc.

This is a rabbit hole worth jumping into when time allows it.

Check out Hexabase on YouTube, and then check out DIYAudio.com. Those will whet your appetite, I hope.

I think you mean HexiBase?

Can you actually outperform the KEFs and Perlistens of the world? They seem to have so much engineering put into their designs I don't believe a hobbyist can realistically match them.

I will admit that stuff like "speakers with quasi-active noise cancellation behind them" sounds intriguing. That's probably a good reason to get into this rabbit hole!

> Can you actually outperform the KEFs and Perlistens of the world? They seem to have so much engineering put into their designs I don't believe a hobbyist can realistically match them.

Absolutely. Don't forget, these guys are: a. Humans, and b. Operating for a company to make a profit. When you're DIYing you're (generally) not concerned about the latter part at all.

There's a few more reasons why DIY is so capable:

1. High quality drivers are available to purchase. There are companies like Tymphany/SB Acoustics etc that are OEM/ODM manufacturers selling to the big names. You can get the same/very similar models from parts express and other sites.

2. A lot of the engineering principles are well understood, public science. In fact many experts hang out on websites like DIYaudio.com. They're human. You can see their workings, opinions, doubts etc up close.

3. Some speakers like the Dutch&Dutch 8c's started their lives on forums like diyaudio. Which is to say, they went from DIY level to "well-reviewed" level in a manner that's quite clear/transparent to anyone familiar with the forum/DIY. No "hidden" black magic involved.

4. You have a lot of amazing designers on these forums putting their designs out for free. Jeff Bagby, Paul Carmody, Troels Gravesen, Perry Marshall etc. Check out Perry's comment on his speaker below. Btw, he's a professional designer having worked across a number of audio & car companies designing AV systems.

Now, if you want to design your own speakers and not use an existing model, yes you'll need to learn a lot. But it's very much doable. It may take time/money/effort, but beating a top of the line system for a fraction of the (material, not labour) cost is possible and has happened.

[0] - https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/ultimate-open-baf...

BTW Perry had made another comment about how his speakers sounded better than almost all other speakers at AXPONA and his kids agreed, but I couldn't find it right now. And many of those speakers were high 5/6 figure speakers.

This for me, for quite a while now. I've built my own speakers, microphones and now I'm in a DIY synth module hole.

Latest at https://fourays.lon.dev

I've just got to the point where I think I know what the module is going to be, but last night found out that PCB manufacture puts additional constraints on the PCB design, so I have to go back and re-do a lot of it, including probably dropping some features to make it simpler. The learning never ends.

All I want is a small stereo speaker to replace my awful monitor speakers. Like a small soundbar that doesn't suck. I might dive into this rabbit hole

Check out this speaker kit call C-Notes. They're really well rated and a pretty simple/budget friendly option, especially if you're okay applying some eq on them. Paul Carmody has many good designs.

"Small" and "decent audio response in bass" don't really go together. But you can go surprisingly far with a pair of "bookshelf" speakers.

With passive speakers, I agree, but with active/DSP speakers you can do ludicrous things. There's this build on diyaudio called something like "compact active 3 way", that'll give you an idea of how decently powerful a small speaker can go (and that's despite some design flaws in the build like the choice of a passive radiator).

Check out Hexabase on YT. He has really punchy small speakers that he has released designs for.

> Check out Hexabase on YT.

https://www.youtube.com/@HexiBase in case you're having trouble finding it with that spelling.

Thank you. Mea culpa.

How hard to make something better than my hs8’s? I want an upgrade but next tier is like 3k

How much are you willing to spend? Troels Gravesen has many builds on his website and I'm sure some/many of them would be better than the HS8s. You could also search for "hs8" on diyaudio.com and see posts of people in a similar position.

I mean, hopefully less than 2k for something that’d be worth 3k for a pair of barefoot03’s ?

Do you mean the barefoots cost 3k and you'd like to beat it by spending around 2k? You could see if there's any design you like from Troel's page, though you could also make an account & post the question on diyaudio.com. Unfortunately I'm not very familiar with DIY studio monitors, I know speakers like the Hitmakers (by Paul Carmody) exist but I'm more aware of domestic speakers.

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