Can anyone who has listened to various setups make a comment here? It is hard to compare without being in the same room with the same source signal. I enjoy building, but also understand it is difficult to improve upon a well engineered design (Tannoy, B & W, JBL Pro, Dynaudio, etc.) given that the cost of buying discounted used gear can be the same as material cost for DIY designs, unless the situation calls for something radical! For a reference guide, I went to a local Guitar center and listened to some of their monitors and also went to a posh audiophile store for some listening test of bookshelf designs. I do not want to use tube amps at this point. NAD, Marantz, Yamaha, or Denon for about $100. I do not have an amplifier yet, but perhaps an older 2 channel dynamic solid state amp with about 50 watts X 2 would work, i.e.
Going this route would require less space and have a pretty flat response. On the other hand, I could also buy a pair of used Bowers & Wilkins DM 302, 303 bookshelf speakers for about the same price or decent used pro studio monitors (non powered) for $200-300. I am trying to put together a simple 2 channel audiophile setup for a small listening room environment.Īs such, the A126 back loaded horn design appears a good choice and materials would cost about $150 - 170 and it would be easy for me to build them.
