[gab]

My woodworking buddy asked me what I thought...

http://www.rockler.com/diy-speaker-kit?sid=RTEMA15&utm_source=bronto&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=RTEMA15&utm_source=bronto&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Image+-+Starting+at+$149.99&utm_content=Experience+High+DIY+Fidelity+with+NEW+Speaker+Kits+++15%25+Off+Most+Items&utm_campaign=052015_b_r_NewProductsGlobal_RTEMA15&#turnto-reviews-content

gab

[NeilT]

Xover?

[HAL]

The two capacitors are the xover for the tweeters.  Looks like the woofers run full range.  And the capacitors look to be NP electrolytics.

[mlundy57]

Why the crossover is the height of simplicity. Apparently these only need a single capacitor for each speaker.

And to top it off, the 6in woofer model is only $30 more than an X-LS Encore kit!

Sorry, couldn't help the sarcasm. The real pity is that a lot of people will probably buy these without any idea what their money could really buy.

Mike

[sfox7076]

The woodworking set loves Rockler.

[gab]

I submitted a "review" to warn those woodworkers that better options exist. Of course Rockler deleted it immediately. My opinion of Rockler is forever tarnished.

gab

[Hank]

You didn't expect them to leave your review and lose sales did you?
I hate to see Rockler sell crap - everybody thinks designing and building speakers is easy.  And as mentioned, Rockler does a lot of business and I'm afraid a lot of woodworkers will buy the kits so they can say the DIY-d them.  SQ won't enter into their decision. 
Ha - I just looked at the site and there is a 5-star review from someone who stated they don't own the kit, 'but the instructions look technically accurate'.  Sheesh!

[playntheblues]

 

[jcotner]

I've bought a lot stuff from Rockler over the years, if you build speakers you probably do other woodworking. I did call them and tell them it was hypocritical to remove the negative posts and leave the positive post when none of the posters had actually built the product. Either remove them all or leave them all. They said they intended to restore the other two reviews and before I finished this post they had. This is kind of fodder because I don't think anybody that visits Danny's forum would fall for this consumer trap. But you know we could all be wrong. I think the most objective thing would be for somebody to build a set and send them to Danny for measurements. And this may not be the forum for this but Danny's is one of the most read on AudioCircle, so there you go.

[DFaulds]

Perhaps a reputable designer should offer a few kits to Rockler as an alternative to what they now have?  I'm not sure that would accomplish anything because I'll bet they make a pretty good markup on these things that would be hard to beat, but it wouldn't hurt for someone to try.

[sfox7076]

Rockler won't sell the higher end stuff because it will have them lose margin.  Also, unless you are selling a premade crossover, they won't be interested.  The advert promotes it as not needing solder...

[Hank]

I don't think Rockler would want to offer higher end kits - with their markup, the selling price would be too high to move any quantity of them.  If Danny measured a pair, I'm sure Rockler wouldn't publish the results, so Rockler customers would never know.  I say leave it alone and let Rockler sell what they will - probably not a lot.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

[Folsom]

I feel bad for anyone that buys a set, when Danny's stuff is out there. At some point or another I've been skeptical of Danny's claim against almost all reasonably priced single driver speakers, but now that I've developed my own amplifier I can clearly hear despite a crossover, if anything, the single driver speakers I have are much more colored and/or whatever makes music sound inconsistent with a lack of clarity. I'm sure that isn't true in a number of cases, but I think Danny knows what he's doing to a level that make his kits a superb buy by comparison to others out there. Variety in designs is the only thing I don't like, given just how many have a relatively same woofer, but ironically the various varied competing designs aren't competing as well as they should be.

[wshuff]

At least the woofers are round.  I always find it difficult working with those hexagonal woofers.

[jameswang]

The woofer actually looks great.

[gab]

The woofer actually looks great.

You mean they are pretty?

The 2 different woofers used in these kits are VERY different, but the crossover for each woofer in each design is identical i.e., "none required" Also no resistor on the tweeter in either design? 

Here are the specs and a link (note there are no measurements or graphs shown on the site):

https://www.midwestspeakerrepair.com/mw-audio-mw-5050-5-woofer
https://www.midwestspeakerrepair.com/mw-audio-mw-5060-6-5-woofer

MW-5050-8 5" Woofer Specs:
Voice Coil Impedance: 8 ohm
Rated Frequency Response: 80 - 7k Hz
Sensitivity: 87 dB SPL (Average 500 - 2.5 kHz, 2.83V, 1 meter)
Rated Power: 40 watts
Program Power: 80 watts
Magnet Weight: 284 gr (10 oz)
Fo: 45 Hz
Re: 7.4 ohm
Qts: 0.29
Qms: 2.5
Qes: 0.32
Vas: 13 liters
Xmax: 1.6 mm
No: .33 %


MW-5060-8 6.5" Woofer Specs:
8 ohm Specifications and Small Signal Parameters
Voice Coil Impedance: 8 ohm
Rated Frequency Response: 50 - 5k Hz
Sensitivity: 89 dB SPL (Average 500 - 2.5 kHz, 2.83V, 1 meter)
Rated Power: 40 watts
Program Power: 80 watts
Magnet Weight: 340 gr (12 oz)
Fo: 54 Hz
Re: 5.8 ohm
Qts: 0.73
Qms: 4.4
Qes: 0.87
Vas: 16 liters
Xmax: 4 mm
No: .28 %