Christmas DIY bookshelf project

[trnqk7]

I'd like to get my in-laws a pair of decent bookshelf speakers for their home and I'd like to build them for them. I'm not ready to get totally into design, just looking for opinions on some kits that I can assemble and build my own cabinets (to the design spec of course, just looking for freedom to choose finish, etc and save a few bucks). I have 3 kits that have piqued my interest...

1) Zaph Audio's SR-71 kit, parts and accessories only for $394 ($319+$75 at madisound)

2) RB3-Kit (recession buster) from Madisound for $280 (parts and accessories)

or 3) Fountek RM6K kit for $295. Soley because I like the ribbon tweeters in my Dali Ikons.

Is the Zaph Audio design really a $100 plus bucks better? Will they notice the difference? They have and Acoustic Research 7 channel surround set of bookshelf speakers that are incredibly tiny-I'm assuming that any of these kits should blow those out of the water. I'm just thinking that, with this being my first foray into this, not wanting a lot of trial and error, and a lack of available software at my disposal, etc, that one of these kits would be a good way to go. I've dealt with Madisound in the past too and know them to be reputable.

Anyway, thoughts? Opinions? Let's keep it to these three kits for now, unless you have something that's just leaps and bounds better for under $400. It's supposed to be a nice Christmas gift, but I'm not that rich, lol. There are other people to buy for too

Thanks!

 

[Swerd]

I'd like to get my in-laws a pair of decent bookshelf speakers for their home and I'd like to build them for them. I'm not ready to get totally into design, just looking for opinions on some kits that I can assemble and build my own cabinets (to the design spec of course, just looking for freedom to choose finish, etc and save a few bucks). I have 3 kits that have piqued my interest...

1) Zaph Audio's SR-71 kit, parts and accessories only for $394 ($319+$75 at madisound)

2) RB3-Kit (recession buster) from Madisound for $280 (parts and accessories)

or 3) Fountek RM6K kit for $295. Soley because I like the ribbon tweeters in my Dali Ikons.

Is the Zaph Audio design really a $100 plus bucks better? Will they notice the difference? They have and Acoustic Research 7 channel surround set of bookshelf speakers that are incredibly tiny-I'm assuming that any of these kits should blow those out of the water. I'm just thinking that, with this being my first foray into this, not wanting a lot of trial and error, and a lack of available software at my disposal, etc, that one of these kits would be a good way to go. I've dealt with Madisound in the past too and know them to be reputable.

Anyway, thoughts? Opinions? Let's keep it to these three kits for now, unless you have something that's just leaps and bounds better for under $400. It's supposed to be a nice Christmas gift, but I'm not that rich, lol. There are other people to buy for too

To be honest, I haven't heard any of those kits. But I do think any of them would be good. Madisound does a good job on those.

The SR71 kit uses the fairly new SEAS ER18RNX woofers that are excellent. That alone accounts for the higher price, and yes I think they are worth it. Zaph is a good designer, and I have confidence in what he does.

The other two kits are certainly not bad, and you may be attracted to the lower price. I can't argue with that.

Fountek is known for its ribbon tweeters, and the woofer in the Fountek kit may not be nearly as good sounding as the SEAS woofer in the SR71 kit.

 

[trnqk7]

The SR71 kit is my first choice, but I was instructed to see if there were more cost effective options by the wife, haha. She'll go for it I'm sure if it's definitely a better solution. My second pick is honestly the recession buster, the Fountek one just looked interesting. I like the SR71 I think mostly because I've been to Zaph's website and read his descriptions-he is very thorough and I think does a good job of keeping his descriptions honest and without too much hyberbole.

 

[Swerd]

Go for the Recession Buster kit for low price, or the Zaph SR71 for better sound. That would be my choice as well.

FYI, the same SEAS ER18 woofer as in the SR71 design is also in the ER18 MTM DIY design. That is how I became familiar with this excellent woofer.

 

[trnqk7]

Thanks for the link, I had skimmed through it before, but not recently. Like I said, I'm inclined to trust Zaph and also a driver that is good enough for Dennis Murphy as well-I was fairly close to getting SongTowers instead of my Ikons, but couldn't make the leap of faith at the time.

 

[jinjuku]

Without having listened to any of the mentioned, if I had the $$ I would get the SR71 kit.

 

[trnqk7]

That's most likely the plan if the project goes forward. I was kinda hoping that someone with design experience would chime in on them with a quick and dirty pro/con if possible.