I had a hard time telling the speakers apart! The best part, besides the accuracy and details that continued to come out of these, was the sweet spot. With the B&W's I was so used to sitting in a particular spot. I could not believe that the accuracy continued as much as 2-3 feet around the 'sweet spot' before I noticed a difference! The soundstage and imaging were excellent- just as good as the B&Ws. You've probably heard this before already, but friends have had a hard time figuring out which ones are playing!! All in all, the DIY look (better!) and sound just as gorgeous.

Unless the music has instruments that go lower than the DIY's cut off (by design). The other area I thought was a bit weak was the 'naturalness' of the female voice. I am not an audiophile, and therefore do not know what terms you use to describe this, but in blind tests, I could pick out Diane Schurr's voice coming out of the DIY vs. the B&Ws. Keep in mind, I paid more than 3 times for the B&Ws! Maybe, I need to crank down the tweeter a bit more. Or, as per Ed's suggestion, wait till the woofer settles in.

Cabinets: I was adamant on a particular look- that of real wood with nice smooth rounded-off corners-- impossible with wood veneer! So, the cabinets are made out of Poplar (very soft to work with) with no internal bracing as per Ed's suggestions. However, I did add numerous layers of damping materials inside since the wood is excessively porous. The holes were counter-sunk and all were layered with silicone to cut out sound leakage. The final finish took 5 coats of polyurethane and has an ok sheen to it, but the final rubbing will be done after a month or so. Check out the pictures here: http://www.ajoyprabhu.com/album/view_album.php?set_albumName=efe-diy-speakers Xover: In my initial test (ex-box) I thought that the speakers were laid back and therefore chose the 0.3ohm resistor at the tweeter end. Later, once assembled, I went back, redid them, and brought the resistance up to 0.5ohm. System Since I had tried my hand at bi-wiring the B&W 603s, I could do rapid A/B tests with the same setup. So, the setup consists of - Sony 200 disk player with optical out - Pioneer receiver (VSX-811S) - Hafler DH220 100wpc amp - B&W 603 (as reference) The room however, is lightly furnished and acoustically not great with high celings! Music For instrumental, I listened to a wide range- Bizet (Carmen), Miles Davis(Kind of Blue- So What), Indian classical (for those that care! Sharma (Music of the Mountains), Chary (Janani), Ali Akbar Khan (Legacy)). For vocals, I chose Diane Schurr (Acapella- Somewhere Over The Rainbow), Diana Krall (Paris- 'Deed I Do), Indian classical- Dagar Bros. (Maestro's choice), Pt. Jasraj (Bhihagda) and Pt. Joshi (NiReSa).

Similar Products Used:

B&W 603, Boase 301 IV (yuk!)

great sound , imaging, inexpensive

not much at this price!

i have really become an aficionado with these speakers. i have tried many crossover combonations with this speaker. first off i had the 'old' crossover design then changed to the new, using many cap. and inductor variants in the design just for experimentation. I didn't find the new design to be to my liking as the previous reviewer,that was a bit to beaming for me and lost a little air, but more accurate. i found the best combo with the old design and a 4.5 ohm resistor on the tweeter(4 to bright,5 loss of air.) of course thats just what i like and i dont think any of the values are bad. As for the speaker review they are AWESOME! Ed Frias is an excellent designer! I just reviewed a pretentously expensive avalons, $7000 a pair, i would pick the diys over them anyday. So if you like a forward sound field use the new design if you prefer i more back use the old.

Similar Products Used:

various

Everything. Better upper midrange now. It seems like a curtain between you and the speakers has been lifted and you're now hearing ALL that the CD has to offer.

Nothing

I just upgraded my speakers with the parts described in Ed Frias' Dec. 2002 e-mail. If you haven't done this yet, you don't know what you're missing! This makes these speakers so much better. The total cost from MCM Electronics including shipping was $16 and some change. Guys, you owe it to yourselves to do this. You won't regret it.

price + performance

no fancy name on the front

Wow,Wow,Wow These sound fantastic. I was running Infinity SM 82s large bookshelf speakers + yamaha Rx-v777. Sounded bright + harsh at med high levels. Replaced the 82's with these little EFE DIY speakers and WOW. Sounds wonderfull - sweet at high level - a real joy to listen to. Bass is good to very good - surprising from the size of speaker.

Similar Products Used:

infinity + bose (bites)

open sound, wide soundstage

none really at this price range.

I recently assembled the kit and I am very happy. I had been listening to Boston Acoustics CR-8's. I purchased the enclosures from speakercity. (by the way one of the earlier reviewers said that the enclosures do not come with the rear port. That is not true. They do come with a port and port tube.) I purchased the drivers and cross over from Brian@madisound. The cross overs were already assymbled by madisound and use the latest frias updated design. I listen to both music and movies. In comparision to the BA CR8's, the DIY speakers are more "open" sounding and have a much broader sound stage. The soundstage is important for me since I have a wide sofa sectional for people to sit on and watch movies. With the CR8's, the folks sitting on the left and right side of the sofa were at a definate disadvantage. The CR8's and the DIY speakers appear to be very similiar in efficiency since I did not have to readjust my volume levels much between my channels when I recalibrated the room with my radio shack SPL meter after the swap. I had sent several email's to ed frias himself with questions on assymbly and proper polyfil stuffing procedures. He answered promptly and with full explainations. A great guy!

Similar Products Used:

Boston Acoustics CR8

GREAT SOUND...LOW PRICE

None

Back in November my 20 year old ADS speakers died. I was on the hunt for a proper replacement. I went to the audio stores and listen to B&W and the likes and generally liked what I heard. But the price...wow. Anyway I found my way to this website and began to ask questions. Jeff (jeskibuf) was extremly helpful and directed me to the DIY. I read all the reviews and I decided to take the plunge. I recieved them about 4 weeks ago. They are powerhouses. Don't let the size fool you. I'm not much for words when it comes to describing audio but they sound GREAT. I wanted to write something to let others who may be on the fence to take the plunge. You will not be dissapointed. $350.00 for a sound that will cost you $1500.00 at the local high end audio store. It's a no-brainer. I also want to publicly thank Jeff. His knowledge and generosity were inmearurable.

Clean and smooth. Natural high end (not overly bright). Fast and punchy transients. Big soundstage. Decent bass extension, and very tight bass, for such small speakers. Quite sensitive compared to comparbly sized monitors, so they can go very loud.

Given the price and the design limitations as a small two-way monitor, none.

I have been listening to "diy" speakers for a long time, starting with a mediocre stock-crossover-based 2-way, then moving to a low-cost but well engineered 2-way monitor designed (Dayton Budget) by Wayne Jashke, and finally hitting the jackpot with Ed Frias' model, which I have been listening to for a month now. Construction notes: Implementing his latest crossover revisions, and the 5 ohm (before inductor)+ .5 ohm resistor (after inductor) in series with the tweeter, I followed his plans as close as possible. I used Parts Express for all the parts in the design, and thus substituted 14 gauge 2.0 mh coils in the low pass for the 16 gauge the design calls for. Other than that, my crossover is very close to the original specs. The stuffing I used was Acoustastuff. Also, I used high-end Mills resistors in the high pass section instead of the more typical "audio grade" sand cast resistors that are 1/3 the price, in hopes of the cleanest HF performance possible. My enclosure is made from 3/4 inch MDF, and is 1.5" deeper to compensate for the two layer (glued together) baffle and rear panel. I flush mounted the baffle. Also, I glued very thin rubber-backed carpet pieces inside the enclosure to dampen resonance and reflections, and used two cross braces. All added internal volume was compensated for by a slight box oversizing. Results: Although getting the right amount of fill was a bit challenging (and they still may have a little bit too much), the results were worth all the trouble! The sound of these speakers is very clear (my perfect pitch string playing wife said she could hear the 'texture' of music much better now), and the bass is tight, refined, and as deep as one would expect for such small speakers. There is a bit of "glare" in the upper midrange, but this is mostly due to poor room acoustics, and diffraction effects, some of which I plan to fix by eliminating sharp edges on the baffle and felt application. The treble (compared to my old DIY's) is very smooth, adequately detailed, and not a bit harsh or grainy.) Many subtle acoustic effects that the old speakers could not reproduce are very present on these. For example, I have never before heard speakers reproduce the slight frequency modulations of sustained guitar notes. Transients (like kick drums) are also very solid and fast, and congas and kettle drums sound deep and resonant. The soundstage is large, and I expect that when I get a better amplifier (and a better listening room) imaging will improve considerably, although as it is this is not bad at all. These are perfect speakers for small ensembles (jazz and chamber music), but for being a small monitor they don't do bad at all for rock music and big symphonies. They are clearly better in just about every respect than my previous speakers, and I am guessing with a better amp they will be outstanding. Clearly, my speakers are now the best part of my stereo and it is time to look elsewhere for improvements before building more costly speakers. System info: Denon DCM-360 CD changer (with 20 bit Burr-Brown Alpha DAC and 8x oversamlping). Pioneer SX-737 (silver era) 40 watt receiver. AWG 16 speaker wire, and 5 dollar patch cables.

Similar Products Used:

Dayton Budget DIY (speakerbuiler.net) Old home brew 2 ways.

Comparing these speakers to the Paradigm studio 100 v2(which I also own), the 100’s are better than the EFE DIY in only two areas - - 1) they go much lower (no surprise) and 2) they are more efficient. Other than that, the EFE DIY’s are either the equal, or they are superior to the 100’s. - the EFE’s are faster, more detailed, more open, but have the same tonal balance as the 100’s (with the exception that the voices on the 100 have more “bass” - -that’s the low-end of the 100’s) - You can more readily hear fingers on guitar strings, breathing of singers - Detail in the background can now be heard (some of which is lost on the 100’s) - Words are more easily made out - Best attribute, they are “musical” - once you start to play them you forget about the speakers and are instantly into the music

None - - for this money these can not be beat - -IMO.

Just finished building Ed Frias's DIY speakers - - hooked them to Yamaha 2092 receiver (pre/pro) + Odyssey Stratos amp. Playing through a Yamaha CD player. After about 15 hours of listening here are my impression: - - General - - Outragiously good speaker. If you brought it in the room and kept it covered so that you didn’t know what it was, you would guess it’s a high end bookshelf - - something over $1000.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm 100s Thiel CS3s

detailed, uncolored sound with great clean bass. oh, and price DUH ^_^

muscles may atrophy after sitting in front of them for too long

Well I finished my Ed Frias DIYs and have been listening for about a week, and I love them! I haven't owned any audiophile quality speakers before, so I really have nothing to compare them to, except that they were a fun project, and I'm hearing things I never heard before in my cds. I find myself listening to my instrumental cds more and more now that I can hear all the little details like strings being pressed against the fretboard. Lord of the Rings sounds great on them too, of course ;) All in all, I would much rather have two of these than any 6 speaker sat/sub combo i've heard.

Similar Products Used:

well, my last pair of speakers were Jensen C-JRs that came free with my receiver, I would say this is a bit of an improvement to put it mildly ;)

-nice balanced highs -tight punchy bass -superb clarity -great bang for the buck

-if you're building the x-over yourself and have little or no experience it can be difficult but this is not really a weakness since you can have the x-overs prebuilt and sent to you from Madisound for about $5.00 more. -filing off the grilles can be tough

I just put the finishing touches on my set of DIY and let me tell you I am not dissappointed as my previous thread suggested. The problem was that my caps were reversed and with the help of Mr. Frias I switched the tweeter caps with that of the subwoofer caps and filled the boxes with about 2 handfulls of polyfill as the directions suggest. It took me a couple of days to put together the x-overs themselves since I have absolutely no experience with soldering and/or putting together x-overs. This was my first DIY and I have nil experience with high priced speakers but I do know good clear sound when I hear it. I am most impressed with the the clarity and the sound that these great speakers convey. The bass is nice and punchy, not overdone. The highs are clear and not scratchy, good balance. Right now I am watching the AFC championship game and it's as if the sound overshadows the display. At commercial I switched to some audio channels and I was in sonic heaven. Give them a couple of weeks and I am sure they'll sound even better. Props for Mr. Frias for the help and this forum who turned me into an audiofile. For those wondering I am using an Onkyo tsr-600 receiver with no external amp and these speakers still shine (Onkyo tsr-600 is not exactly a top of the line receiver). I don't know maybe I am biased since I put my time and effort into these and like with any brainchild you will be biased but the speakers sound good. Thanks again to Mr. Frias and everyone who makes this forum and site possible.