Just got in from the InDIYana gathering....

[Jeff B.]

.....a little bit ago, and grabbed a quick bite to eat. Kudos to Ben, Brian, Shawn, and any others that worked to pull this off, because it was a very well organized gathering and everything flowed very well. (Well, except for the idiot ramblings after lunch - but that was a misguided idea from the beginning ).

It was great catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. I apologize to the folks that still wanted to discuss things with me and ask me questions when I had to leave. Sometimes we just run out of time.

Speakers? I don't really know where to begin.....so, I won't. This time I didn't take any pictures or any notes, so I don't want to comment on some designs that at this time I'm not sure who brought what. I will wait till more pics and details are posted and then I will add a few comments.

There were a few speakers that stood out, but overall I was very impressed with the overall level of accomplishment you find at gatherings like these. On so many designs fit and finish is near perfect and the sound in most cases is right up there too. In fact, to show you how far DIY speakerbuilding has come, out of all of the speakers there, large and small, there were really no klunkers that sounded poor. There were some limitations in some, espeically the small ones, and there were a couple that were voiced a little bright, or a little thick in the bass, etc., but these are still small deviations and in general everything was well-refined and had its merits. All in all, everyone had much to be proud.

I told everyone that I really liked this format, where there is no competition. I feel that anyone who has built their own speakers and brought it to something like this show is already a winner, and we should all feel that way.

My appreciation to everyone's kind and flattering comments. I was humbled to be there with all of you. Remember the marathon analogy? Many of you are running very, very well.

Oh, and I don't mean to brag , but I guess I was a bit of a trend-setter, as I was the first to say "No Willie", and after that many others followed. My motto for the day was "Just say no to Willie". I'll let Wolf elaborate.

Cheers,
Jeff B.

PS: Thanks Dirk for the pics you are posting, and to Shawn for the comments on the day.

[Mark65]

Sounds like I missed a helluva good time.

Thanks, Jeff, Dirk, and Shawn for the comments/photos, and Ben and Brian for putting it together. I'll get to one of these someday, I promise!

Hope everyone makes/made it home safely!


Mark

[Jeff B.]

In addition to my comments above I wanted to add some comments about a few of the speakers and listened to yesterday, and I will use some of the pics that have been provided by others.

First, I want to say that I didn't get a chance to hear everything. So if I don't comment on your speaker that doesn't mean I thought it was bad - I may have not heard it, or I may have listened to it, but can no longer sort everything out in my little skull well enough to make a comment - you know, that sort of thing. There are a few, however, that stand out to me, so here goes:

First of all, I am really disappointed in myself for liking so many planar tweeters, but dang, if these guys didn't manage to implement them so well that I came away really liking some of them a lot.

Wolf says his Scandivifia is his best speaker, and it certainly uses the most expensive drivers. It is also a very nice speaker with excellent bass extension for its size and a very smooth frequency response. No doubt about it, it is a very good speaker. However, I personally think I liked listening to the Vijon (pictured below) better. It had a midrange quality, and some beautiful highs that really sounded seductive. It looked great too.


Next, I think these below were made by Froste. I also believe that they began as a Wolf design that he modified with a larger enclosure. It is an odd looking speaker, and not really my cup of tea in that regard. However, it has such amazing bass response for a such a small speaker, that it really came across as sounding like a much larger speaker than it really was, and for that it deserves comment. It was a very well executed design that souned very nice. Very nice, indeed.



Having said this, I would like to add that I continue to be very impressed with the speakers that Wolf designs. He seems to manage to get the most out of the drivers he uses and all of his designs sound excellent. The fact that he does most of this by ear says a great deal about his perception of how a speaker should sound. It has reached the point now that when one of Wolf's speakers is up I know I am going to hear something special. I wish I could take a little credit for teaching him, but I really can't, it all just comes down to his knack for creating an excellent speaker and he deserves all of the credit for that. Soon I will get getting his advice on this stuff.

OK, it would be wrong to not comment on Ed's speaker shown below. The appearance is unique, and although it may not be for everyone, at the same time I am sure everyone there felt that they were stunning, if simply in the sheer quality of the execution. Ed warned us that they were a little forward in the mids, so he planted that thought in everyone's minds. However, to be honest, I did not find them to sound that way at all. I thought the mids were voiced pretty nice. I would characterize the speaker as a little bright in the treble, but not enough to be objectionable in any way. I would be very happy with the way they sounded, especially with rock. And this brings us to another thing about this speaker: When the demo was over I spoke up and reminded everyone that all of that bass was being generated by a 6.5" woofer, and that was very impressive, because these babies rocked. They were a real treat to both look at and to listen to. Making a speaker like this is what Do It Yourself is about



OK, I know these posts have limitations so I had better wrap this up. I'll comment on two more. First, Dan N's Basslines. I had great interest in these because I knew they were inspired by my design for Jim Salk that we brought to Richmond last year, and Dan and I conversed a lot on this design of his. Unforunately, the room was little unkind to the larger speakers, and produced quite a bit of midbass bloom, as is often the case. The room in Richmond last year was lot bigger and I think that really helped my speaker shine. Dan's, I think, kinda overpowered the room (it used the same woofer and alignment as mine did). Ah, but there is just something that has to be appreciated about an efficient speaker. The dynamics and the output of these was almost scary in this smaller room. Not that we got to ear bleeding levels, but that the dynamics of some of the test tracks made you jump - What fun! Good job, Dan.




And with that in mind, what was my favorite speaker of the day? Well first, to be fair, I need to rule out anything I brought or was personally involved with in any way, and I think that should include Jim's speaker too. Even though I didn't have anything to do with it, I still asked him to bring it down. I have already posted my thoughts on it on another forum anyway. All things considered my favorite speaker of the day was Paul Kittinger's MTM with Usher midbasses and a B&G Neo3 tweeter (there's that planar thing again). I have to mention that Dan N. did the crossover and Paul designed the transmission line. In this room, in this setting, I felt this speaker performed exceptionally well and didn't really do anything wrong. The only thing it didn't do was extend that last octave, but other than that it was superb in every way. Dan's crossover was perfect for these drivers and Paul's TL put out such pure and accurate bass. They both have a lot to be proud of here.



Those are a few of my thoughts, sorry that there were so many that I just couldn't include comments on at this time. Maybe more later......

Jeff B.

[Paul Carmody]

That was one intense day of speakers!

I had a really great time, and I always enjoy getting to catch up with old familiar faces, and meet a few new ones. Wolf and Brian did a top-notch job putting this event together. I have never seen such attention to detail! And the raffle prize table... holy cow! All I can say is that it's clear that those guys LOVE speakers! I don't mean to disappoint, but when I finally do get around to having a DIY Chicago, I just can't make it that nice. Wow!

It was two years ago this weekend that I went to my first DIY event. At that time, I had only built a set of Dayton IIIs, and I was an eager sponge, wanting to soak up every bit of information I could about speakers. I left the event with my head totally swimming with inspiration. I feel as though my role has shifted over the last few years, as now I feel like people are coming to me for information, and I'm OK with that (though if someone asks a question I don't know the answer to, I'll humbly admit I don't know). But it's kind of neat to see guys come to the event who were at the place I was two years ago, and they leave grinning ear-to-ear, thinking, "There are so many cool things I want to build and learn!"

I like that there's something for everyone at these events. Now that I have more of the crossover and measurement techniques under my belt, I like to take the time to chat with some of the expert woodcraftsmen like Paul K, Dan, and George ("moosespeaker"). I'm always learning useful information.

So to spend a few minutes going over the highlights for me:
--Jim Salk bringing the "HT2." It's interesting to see what happens when you use the best drivers, best cabinetry, and best crossover design; gives you a good metric for comparison when listening to everything else. Jim is a great guy; a commercial speaker builder but with the heart of a DIYer.
--Ed's Thiel-inspired 3-ways with the custom paint job. You couldn't ask for a cooler-looking finish on a speaker, and I'm with Wolf, it's Ed's best-sounding pair to boot. Knowing you built these for your son, and seeing the little dedication plaque on the back almost brought tears to my eyes, Ed.
--Wolf's "Vijon." Excellent midrange, and a fit an finish that speaks for itself, saying, "This guy loves to build speakers!"
--Jeff B's LS3/5A clones. Last year when he brought these, I had a cold and my hearing was pretty rotten. But yesterday I got a good chance to really listen to them, and they are just wonderful! They have a perfectly smooth sound, and you get absolutely the finest room cues out of recordings.
--Tom's Linaeum + RS100 thingy. He did a good job taming that tweeter, and I never felt like it was drawing attention to itself. Also, Tom is one hell of a woodworker.
--Paul's "Marcatos." Nice, dynamic sound, and probably my favorite craftsmanship I've seen out of Paul (not that the stippled roller isn't nice, but... all that Oak makes it look like a high-priced piece of furniture)
--Dan's "BASSLines." Oh, so THAT's what high-sensitivity designs do! Geepers! Talk about a "front-row" experience.
--finally, Paul Ebert's TMWW and mpotoka's WMTMW showed a lot of potential. I mean, as they stood, they put out a sound to be proud of (and you guys SHOULD be proud), but it was clear that they were on their way to some really great designs.
--oh yeah, and I really got to hand to to the guys at Meniscus for showing up and being such good cheerleaders. Sounds silly, but that sort of thing means they'll be getting more of my orders in the future.

[Wolf]

Wolf says his Scandivifia is his best speaker, and it certainly uses the most expensive drivers. It is also a very nice speaker with excellent bass extension for its size and a very smooth frequency response. No doubt about it, it is a very good speaker. However, I personally think I liked listening to the Vijon (pictured below) better. It had a midrange quality, and some beautiful highs that really sounded seductive. It looked great too.


Next, I think these below were made by Froste. I also believe that they began as a Wolf design that he modified with a larger enclosure. It is an odd looking speaker, and not really my cup of tea in that regard. However, it has such amazing bass response for a such a small speaker, that it really came across as sounding like a much larger speaker than it really was, and for that it deserves comment. It was a very well executed design that souned very nice. Very nice, indeed.



Having said this, I would like to add that I continue to be very impressed with the speakers that Wolf designs. He seems to manage to get the most out of the drivers he uses and all of his designs sound excellent. The fact that he does most of this by ear says a great deal about his perception of how a speaker should sound. It has reached the point now that when one of Wolf's speakers is up I know I am going to hear something special. I wish I could take a little credit for teaching him, but I really can't, it all just comes down to his knack for creating an excellent speaker and he deserves all of the credit for that. Soon I will get getting his advice on this stuff.

OK, it would be wrong to not comment on Ed's speaker shown below. The appearance is unique, and although it may not be for everyone, at the same time I am sure everyone there felt that they were stunning, if simply in the sheer quality of the execution. Ed warned us that they were a little forward in the mids, so he planted that thought in everyone's minds. However, to be honest, I did not find them to sound that way at all. I thought the mids were voiced pretty nice. I would characterize the speaker as a little bright in the treble, but not enough to be objectionable in any way. I would be very happy with the way they sounded, especially with rock. And this brings us to another thing about this speaker: When the demo was over I spoke up and reminded everyone that all of that bass was being generated by a 6.5" woofer, and that was very impressive, because these babies rocked. They were a real treat to both look at and to listen to. Making a speaker like this is what Do It Yourself is about



Jeff B.

Yes-Ed's M4n combo is a "clone" of my "Sophomores" project, which has not been written up yet. Mine has the same kind of bass extension, and in a smaller box. I had mine there the Friday night, as Ed wanted to compare them. I didn't want to crowd the day-of, or they might've appeared there too.

http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...er/Sophomores/

I have to say though, that I can't thank you enough, Jeff, for taking me initially underneath your wing and helping me through that first complicated 3 year progression for the first big project I built. Even if it was the fact that you used manufacturers' spec sheets for it. I learned sooo much through that time, and have a hobby I very much now enjoy. Noone else would help me out, and you took the lead. It just so happens that you lived in the same state and you and I have become friends, and dare I say it- peers.

I know you have more knowledge about it than I do, or I woulda messed up the 'close to fruition' sub project by a fair margin. (I now have the PR's!)

I occasionally require a quick-check, and for that I also thank you. Just to make sure I'm thinking about it in the right way. I know my methods aren't always normal, but they make sense to me, and I seem to do okay with that. I really do respect your opinions.

Additionally, you just wrote me probably the best rave I've ever received, and it's a stunning endorsement in that right. I highly thank you for that praise.

And lastly, I don't know if you were aware that I helped Ed with those 3-ways as well. I thought they sounded like they should, and the paint is just the icing on the cake. He tweaked it from this state:

http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...FCT3_7-Froste/

Thank you for attending this event, as your presence is always welcomed and appreciated.

Hope to see you soon,
Wolf

[shawn_a]

But I do agree with pretty much everything he said.

Jim's HT2 finally brought the shudder to the air I want to hear when the material calls for it.

The Eds and their b-a-d-a-s-s paint job was a visual joy to me.

Wolf's Vijon was half a surprise to me. I looooove the woofer to the point of almost needing professional help. It works well sealed although I do prefer it vented when it's all said and done. My opinion only but I know what it's capable of in a vented box. The tweeter however was an unknown to me. I will be implementing it one day because it does it's job very well.

Paul's Marcatos were exactly as Jeff described them. Just missing the absolute bottom extension but very nice to listen to, especially given the room. I just wish I could fall totally head over heels for the Neo3 but I just kept having the feeling that all the projects we had that used that tweeter sounded a bit on the dim side to me. I need to use it myself to get a feel for it's capabilities I guess. Maybe I'm missing something here.

Paul Ebert needs to be given the badge of courage for his cabinet building. I can't wait to see how he finishes them off because they have that bit of stealth fighter cool to them that draws me in.

Mpotoka's design made me grin. Say what ya will about 'em, the Dayton Classic line has quite a bit of upside to them. The performance he squeezed out of them was fun to behold. Someone could build his design and be quite happy for a long time.

Jeff's LS3/5A interpretation remains my favorite little speaker for all-time. I'll have a pair for myself very soon.

Dan's BASSlines. Damn. I'll say it again: I want to be like Dan when I grow up. Constantly raising the bar on his creations. Makes everything I've ever done look like child's play. The sound was dynamic as I've ever heard from a speaker.

There's so many good things that came out of yesterday I could type for hours. I do have to echo Paul's sentiment about the Meniscus people. Mark and Joel graced us with some darn sweet schwag plus it was great to talk with them. More business for them indeed. I'll spread it around as I can but the Michigan Men will be getting more money from me in the future.

shawn

[fbov]

Well i just spent 90 minutes summarizing my experience, and the !@#$%^& web site logged me off and dumped everything I wrote. I'm using my mother-in-law's computer which I've been fighting all day to fix some issues and I've had it.

I haven't read what Shawn or Wolf posted while I was writing, and I'm not going to recreate what was lost except to say:
- thanks to Ben and Brian for putting this on
- thanks to everyone who threw a few bucks in the box to help them cover expenses (you succeeded)
- thanks to the vendors for making this the BEST door prize-to-attendee ratio ever!
- thanks to all who demo'ed speakers for teaching me a lot about my ears.

See you all again,
Frank

[Wolf]

Well i just spent 90 minutes summarizing my experience, and the !@#$%^& web site logged me off and dumped everything I wrote. I'm using my mother-in-law's computer which I've been fighting all day to fix some issues and I've had it.

I haven't read what Shawn or Wolf posted while I was writing, and I'm not going to recreate what was lost except to say:
- thanks to Ben and Brian for putting this on
- thanks to everyone who threw a few bucks in the box to help them cover expenses (you succeeded)
- thanks to the vendors for making this the BEST door prize-to-attendee ratio ever!
- thanks to all who demo'ed speakers for teaching me a lot about my ears.

See you all again,
Frank

It was really nice to meet you, Frank! Thanks for coming!
Wolf

[Paul K.]

I want to especially thank Jeff and Wolf (and anyone else I've forgotten) for their compliments about my Marcato speakers. Dan's crossover design really made them possible. And, even though their bass might have sounded a bit on the lean side, in the InDIYana room we had, I think that was a plus (and they don't sound lean for my tastes at home). I thought all of the speakers sounded good to great for the most part, especially when you take into account their sizes and driver complements. Excluding my speakers and Jim's HT2s (for obvious reasons), my favorites were Dan's BaSSlines and Ed Froste's "flames", and I really liked Jeff's little Harbeth-looking clones.
Paul

[brianpowers27]

All I can say that there were a ton of fantastic sounding designs. I hardly feel qualified to comment on any pair of speakers since I enjoy extended listening session where I can really take in a speaker. I will say confidently that there was no piece of work out there that I wouldn't feel proud to own.

Not only was the sound fantastic, there were excellent examples of painted MDF, Hardwood, and vennered MDF. Finishing work takes the patience of a saint.

I only wish that I had been better prepared and was able to take more pictures. I found that I had freshly charged my battery yet it still died after less than 40 shots when it normally lasts for thousands.

I think that I can honestly say that almost every pair of speakers I heard made me feel like I was there. Kudos to everyone who went out on a limb and showed their stuff for some of the most critical listeners around to enjoy...

Above all, I appreciate the fact that when we get together it is much more like a community than a competition. So many people came together to share knowledge and enjoy music...

[Dirk]

I think that I can honestly say that almost every pair of speakers I heard made me feel like I was there. Kudos to everyone who went out on a limb and showed their stuff for some of the most critical listeners around to enjoy...

I felt the same way. I think that, if I wasn't so thrilled by the "making" itself, I could build any one of Saturday's offerings, set them up in my living room and then go do something else. They were all the kind of quality that would keep any sane person happy for years. That's no exaggeration