Save money, build your own speakers
At least, that's what I thought. I'm pretty good with my hands, having knocked the odd book case together, can saw a straight line, so why not? You've got to give it a go, after all. The aim was for bookshelf speakers for the study/bedroom.
Read up a bit, decided on something the small Harbeth size, found it was based on the BBC LS/3a, read up about that, found a suitable (I hope) tweeter and woofer, bought some three ply and off I went. Well, not quite, had to design the crossover, but there's lots of programs for that on the net, so went 2nd order Linkwitz-Riley because they're a flat frequency response.
The saving money bit is already out the window. The speakers cost £200, the wood £25, the crossover £150, then there's screws, glue, routers, jigsaw, varnish - I'm already up for £500 and have no idea what they'll sound like. The aim is a Harbeth like sound, by the way.
Chose sealed box because it seemed easier than ported. That means precision box building, don't have the proper tools over here so, though the boxes are pretty good, airtight they weren't which meant sealing. It also means that until the last screw is in place I'm not going to know whether I did good or bad. Apparently you can tweak crossovers, but with a sealed and glued box, that's not going to be so easy.
To-night's the night, anyway. Just waiting for the sealant to dry, then I'll do the final bit of soldering and put the baffle in. It's either going to be a "told you so" or champagne.
I couldn't be bothered with the time and hassle!
I would much prefer someone else to do the hard work of testing/tweaking to get good sounding components and speakers. The amount of time, research and experience involved...
On the other hand part of the fun in some hobbies such as model planes and train sets is in the making of them and the design you put in yourself.
Hope they sound good, and if not you could reuse the parts, just make a new enclosure.
At least, that's what I thought. I'm pretty good with my hands, having knocked the odd book case together, can saw a straight line, so why not? You've got to give it a go, after all. The aim was for bookshelf speakers for the study/bedroom.
Read up a bit, decided on something the small Harbeth size, found it was based on the BBC LS/3a, read up about that, found a suitable (I hope) tweeter and woofer, bought some three ply and off I went. Well, not quite, had to design the crossover, but there's lots of programs for that on the net, so went 2nd order Linkwitz-Riley because they're a flat frequency response.
The saving money bit is already out the window. The speakers cost £200, the wood £25, the crossover £150, then there's screws, glue, routers, jigsaw, varnish - I'm already up for £500 and have no idea what they'll sound like. The aim is a Harbeth like sound, by the way.
Chose sealed box because it seemed easier than ported. That means precision box building, don't have the proper tools over here so, though the boxes are pretty good, airtight they weren't which meant sealing. It also means that until the last screw is in place I'm not going to know whether I did good or bad. Apparently you can tweak crossovers, but with a sealed and glued box, that's not going to be so easy.
To-night's the night, anyway. Just waiting for the sealant to dry, then I'll do the final bit of soldering and put the baffle in. It's either going to be a "told you so" or champagne.
I must admit, i do quite fancy doing this, building a 3 way speaker but dispensing with the passive crossover & tri-amping with an active crossover in my rack.
The problem is, I would then get carried away & end up with 7 amps, a pre & 6 powers, feeding individual drivers! Jeez, can you imagine the amount of wires!
It's never going to happen if I'm honest with myself, but a nice little thought experiment nontheless!
I assume you have pulled the original design report from the BBC's R&D archives...
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/reports/1976-29.pdf
...I know things have changed a lot (unavailability of the specific KEF B110/T27 variants originally used etc.), but the cabinet dimensions are all there along with crossover diagram and instructions on damping and sealing and materials.
Fascinating reading anyway.
Good luck with them.
Hope you can suceed and awaiting to hear your outcome. Twenty years ago I did similar DIY as yours but the result was not satisfactory 
To-night's the night, anyway. Just waiting for the sealant to dry, then I'll do the final bit of soldering and put the baffle in. It's either going to be a "told you so" or champagne.
You certainly don't want to end up with a "Lemon". 
Here's hoping....
Great stuff, pictures please!
@Chebby, yes, thanks, studied those closely and used their cabinet construction. The crossover couldn't use - made for the Kef drivers that don't exist any more (I substituted SEAS and Monacor) plus was 11/15 ohm so substituted the Linkwitz/Riley.
@cno - 
@ben law will do, but slight complicating factor - the cold has slowed the sealant curing 
.
@ everyone else - cheers for the support
Good luck with your project altruistic.lemon, and I'd like to see some piccies too, cheers. 
Even iof they don't work, well done for trying. I thought about a Wharfedale Denton kit years ago, and didn't have the courage as I don't have the patience to make anything other than a nuisance. Finers crossed! Show us some pics by the way, and what drivers did you fit?
An old school mate of mine is now designing and building speakers, presumably the construction is outsourced to a company that has the skills to make these well as I would guess they're a tad more diffcult to make that traditional box speakers!
That looks insane! Where do I buy! 
I've seen those speakers somewhere, retail about 4-5K IIRC?
Seems rather expensive since the Jordan full range driver does away with the crossover.
About £4k I believe. They're Curvi-hifi Model 1 Version 2 speakers. I have no idea how many have been sold, I would have thought quite a low number.
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Good luck with the venture!
would love to do something like this myself but that would mean having to do away with my 602's which I love and will never get rid of!
Let us know how you get on
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