Funkywaves has been around since 2002 but recently there's been some growing interest. I think that there's many great internet direct sub companies out there and this one is unique in that you're not stuck to the constraints of more mass-produced commercial subwoofers.
Are you perhaps paying a slight premium for nice veneers and careful attention to detail? I don't doubt it. It's not a mass produced "big black box" you're paying for. There is a certain markup whenever anything is custom. Let me be clear here - you're not getting ripped off. You wanna hear about getting ripped off? Last summer I bought my Exodus Maelstrom-X 18" driver and contemplated many options on what to do with it. DIY means having the right tools, it takes coordination, and it takes effort. And it means you're investing a lot of time. Quite frankly I wish I knew about Funky Waves last summer! Why? Because I don't really have the right tools, I could have better coordination, and my effort with respect to my hobbies can waver. And time is a big one. I did actually inquire with all sorts of local cabinet companies. I think I sent out about 25 emails last august to get some quotes. I thought to myself "It's just a box, someone'll do it". I made some blueprints. Out of those 25 companies, I got about three personal responses consisting of "sorry, not intersted, but good luck" and one phone call consisting of "$1800". And nothing's wrong with paying $1800 for the types of things I was asking for here (like 500L, heavy bracing, piano gloss finish). But at the same time this wasn't a speaker builder. Small things I was just unsure would be done right with respect to my end result. The goal wasn't a cabinet. It was a speaker enclosure.
With
any subwoofer there's IMO a few things to always consider
- Driver selection. The driver at the end of the day is the thing moving and pushing air. If it's got notable distortion, that's air being moved that isn't in the original signal - and with subwoofers distortion is not only common but more audible (by the Fletcher-Munson curves, our easy are simply more sensitive to the upper octaves of a subwoofer's passband. If a 20hz wave is sent through a sub, our ear is naturally going to be more sensitive to the 40hz, 60hz and 80hz harmonics... so even if they're lower in level we may be more likely to hear them!).
-Cabinet design. Every driver works best in certain enclosures. Some prefer a small sealed box , some might even work in a horn the size of a bedroom. For the average person, the goal is high WAF and apparently that correlates to cubic foot boxes shoved in a corner. If you're an audioholic, you may be a bit more flexible. Honestly I like the idea of tuning your own passive radiator/port/horn/transmission line/sealed box/etc to get the response you desire.
-Cabinet construction. Things like bracing and finishing. It's a *****.
-Electronics details. Things like high pass filters, parametric EQs, linkwitz transforms, RMS amplification, Peak amplification, efficiency, and soft start.
On the commercial end, I'd say more companies will lean towards Small, two or three stock finishes, and usability by the lowest common denominator as well as the widest variety of people. It's a reality of mass production and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.
With DIY you get freedom. Make it as big as you want, finish it how you want, and aim for 13hz @ 121db @ 1m
. Throw in neutrik connectors if you want. Etc. But as some have said, "not everyone can or wants do DIY". Having the right balance of Time, Money, and Equipment is different for every single person out there.
Still, you can worry about what you want to worry about. Not what another person you can't relate with dictating the market wants to worry about. That's what Funky Waves offers. A wide variety of drivers without regard to mass production limitations. Outstanding finishes. Your choice of electronics should you so desire. The box characteristics as you so desire. All on someone else's time
So in a sense, I would go as far as to liken Funky Waves to a few well-known speaker companies like Totem, Sonus Faber, Salk and many more. No, these companies probably don't have a huge budget to spend on the design and development of brand spankin new diamond/beryllium/titanium drivers and advanced servo and patents etc (or maybe they do??). Instead they take advantage of the excellence of OEM brands like Vifa, Peerless, Seas, Scanspeak, Acoustic Elegance, Tang Band, and Dynaudio among countless others. In essense... any speaker is more than just a driver so there shouldn't be a need for everything to be made "in-house". Just like the best driver designers aren't necessasrily the best crossover designers, enclosure building is its own thing as well.
My Mal-X box is ugly right now. Yours doesn't have to be. And if you're Canadian you don't need to worry about some of the various issues I ran into when I was looking to buy commercial subs including
1) Voided warranties/Arranging your own freight Forwarding - Epik told me this
2) Expensive Canadian resellers - SVS had this
3) Duties on every single component of your speaker. You might still be paying the duty for drivers or electronics in Funky Wave's price but at least it won't be a big surprise.
So no, FW might not be "the best raw bang for your buck in the whole wide world." You are paying for attention to detail, customization, all that stuff. But it's still an exceptional value - nothing like a brick and mortar markup! If you've ever considered Salk Sound like I have then these guys should be on your list for what they offer.
