I'm looking to upgrade my speakers which I just sold (Mirage Omnisats V2's). I have a very big room and will used them for both music/HT. My budget is $1,500 and have 120w/channel to work with.
I've looked at some commercial options such as Mirage-OMD's, Energy-RC's, Jamo C's and Ascend Acoustics Sierra-1, all great options at their price points.
Being that I'm a DIY guy myself (done a couple of subs already, one sealed and one with PR's), I was looking at Madisound and ran into some interesting two-way speaker kits. The SR-71 kit caught my attention, did some research and even though I did not find a lot of info on it, what I found was all positive regarding its quality Seas drivers and very good sound.
The woodworking part of it (cabinets), I have no problem with, I can do those. I'm a little worried regarding the soldering & wiring of the crossovers. The good thing is that the crossovers are already assembled and I could even get the pre-made bafles (no router required). I could get the whole 5.0 set-up for around $1,000 and paint them to match my furniture. Five speakers all the same will probably sound best but I would prefer to have smaller surrounds. Also, I wonder if I could lay one of those speakers on its side for center channel duty or if they would only work standing up.
The Sierra-1, a very highly regarded bookshelve speaker is probably one tough competitor to the SR-71 kit. They are both compact, ported to a similar frequency and both using Seas drivers. Anybody out there listened to both and compared them? Also, the SR-71 speakers are not the most efficient design and will give up the loudness factor to the other commerical tower speaker options I mentioned before. In the mids and treble areas, the SR-71 speakers should better those commercial tower options, right?
As for building them, I like to work with birch ply (did the sub's with it). Will it work fine, specially with some braces added? Will these speakers only work ported? I though about using them sealed for the the surrounds so they could be smaller and ported for the front three. I'm new to speaker building so any feedback/help is greatly appreciated.
I've looked at some commercial options such as Mirage-OMD's, Energy-RC's, Jamo C's and Ascend Acoustics Sierra-1, all great options at their price points.
Being that I'm a DIY guy myself (done a couple of subs already, one sealed and one with PR's), I was looking at Madisound and ran into some interesting two-way speaker kits. The SR-71 kit caught my attention, did some research and even though I did not find a lot of info on it, what I found was all positive regarding its quality Seas drivers and very good sound.
The woodworking part of it (cabinets), I have no problem with, I can do those. I'm a little worried regarding the soldering & wiring of the crossovers. The good thing is that the crossovers are already assembled and I could even get the pre-made bafles (no router required). I could get the whole 5.0 set-up for around $1,000 and paint them to match my furniture. Five speakers all the same will probably sound best but I would prefer to have smaller surrounds. Also, I wonder if I could lay one of those speakers on its side for center channel duty or if they would only work standing up.
The Sierra-1, a very highly regarded bookshelve speaker is probably one tough competitor to the SR-71 kit. They are both compact, ported to a similar frequency and both using Seas drivers. Anybody out there listened to both and compared them? Also, the SR-71 speakers are not the most efficient design and will give up the loudness factor to the other commerical tower speaker options I mentioned before. In the mids and treble areas, the SR-71 speakers should better those commercial tower options, right?
As for building them, I like to work with birch ply (did the sub's with it). Will it work fine, specially with some braces added? Will these speakers only work ported? I though about using them sealed for the the surrounds so they could be smaller and ported for the front three. I'm new to speaker building so any feedback/help is greatly appreciated.