DIY S2000 Speaker Build Log and Review (Pictures!)

[AlexHempel]

Greetings AK,

Thought I'd share my experience building some compact S2000 bookshelf speakers. Hopefully those interested in the S2000 will stumble upon this post and find it useful in the purchasing/building process.

I don't have fancy woodworking equipment nor do I care to breadboard crossovers, so I looked for a kit that includes a pre-cut flat-pack cabinet and PCBs. I eventually decided on the S2000s from DIY Sound Group because they're small, have optional PCBs, and have nice optional baltic birch flat pack cabinets. They sell for around $200 shipped with all these options, which is impressive considering what you get. My plan is to listen to them nearfield on my desk and bring them to parties (I'm sick of horrendous Bluetooth speakers).

The flat pack cabinets look quite nice and the carbon fiber woofers are heavy with a cast spider. The tweeters are abnormally small but I'm sure they'll do the job.



As you would expect, the crossover parts are audio-grade: Jantzen and Dayton air core inductors, big Dayton and Audyn poly caps, and hefty 10w resistors. The quality of the PCB is stellar. If you order the PCB, you also get plastic mounting standoffs and screws, which makes the installation so much easier.

I started by assembling the crossovers since I'm an electronics DIYer at heart. Made sure to raise the resistors off the board a bit to give them better airflow.



Then drilled holes for the binding posts (which are not included but can be purchased for $7 extra). As you can see, I split the outer layer of the plywood on the bottom panel, and both panels have significant splitting on the side not shown. The baltic birch plywood really does not like being drilled or screwed into. If I had to redo this part, I'd definitely use a 2x4 clamped behind the drill hole to minimize the splitting risk. I'd also use a wood-specific drill bit instead of a multipurpose bit.



After this, I spent a good deal of time thinking about the optimal assembly order. I've seen many people assemble and finish speaker cabinets without the crossover mounted, but I don't think that's the best approach here. These speakers are very compact and trying to mount crossovers in the fully assembled box would be a pain. Instead, I opted to mount the crossovers first and then glue the cabinet. The crossover and driver screws need pre-drilled holes or the wood will split.

A word of caution: the drivers and ports will conflict with the crossovers if you're not careful. At first, I had the crossovers mounted to the bottom panel:



However, I tried putting the baffle in position and discovered the woofer conflicted with the crossover board. This could only be resolved by putting the xovers all the way at the back of the bottom panel, but that would cause them to conflict with the binding posts since I drilled my binding post holes relatively low. I could have used these as the top panels, but I didn't want the heavy inductors sitting up-side-down. After some deliberation, I ended up mounting the crossovers to a side panel in a position where they didn't conflict with the port or the woofer. S2000 builders need to be aware of clearance issues and should do a trial assembly run to make sure everything fits in their chosen configuration.

After figuring the xover situation out, I got around to gluing the cabinet. The back panel supports all the other panels and makes for easy assembly so long as you go in a logical order. I managed to get away with only two clamps per cabinet.



I'm not done yet: still need to pre-drill holes for the driver screws, finish the cabinets, install the binding posts, and then mount the drivers. Will post pics of the final product and give some listening impressions once that's all complete.

 

[Tucker99]

I'm looking forward to seeing your progress and getting your impression once do.

Thaks for the DIY post adding to your work.

 

[DCS]

Did you ever finish these? I'm interested in how they sound. Looking to build these as a gift for someone.

 

[AlexHempel]

@DCS I did! Thanks for reminding me about this thread. I kept putting off updates because my room is challenging and I've spent a lot of time messing with the placement. First, the kit is phenomenal; everything is packaged very well, parts are high-quality, and the baltic birch plywood cabinet is a lifesaver. The cuts are extremely precise and I was able to get a professional-quality look with flush edges using only wood glue and four clamps. With about five coats of clear wipe-on poly finish they look very clean and Scandinavian.

Now for the sound. To preface, I'm in a fairly small dorm room (about 150sf) which is completely un-treated. I usually drive them with Hypex NC400 monoblocks and an SMSL SU-8 DAC. As other reviews say, their bass output is pretty crazy for a speaker of this size, especially with room gain. I've brought them to multiple parties and they're great at filling a mid-size room with danceable music. My initial placement was terrible -- the rear was too close to the wall, so everything sounded muddled and the imaging was very poor. All speakers are sensitive to placement of course, but these seem especially picky. The port really needs room to breathe (and I recommend using it, or else you'll lose a lot of low-end).

Now that they're positioned correctly, I'm quite impressed. The sound is full and powerful, especially given the size. They handle vocals and high-midrange quite well, courtesy of the excellent silk dome tweeter. If I had to describe their signature, I'd say it's warm and punchy (listeners who prefer lots of treble sparkle might not vibe with them). With regards to criticism, they sound a bit loose -- drums could be snappier and instruments a little better separated. This is especially true at the lower end, but I'd say it's a perfectly acceptable tradeoff to get such good extension out of a small and cheap speaker.

Anyways, I'm happy with the S2000s -- they're a worthy replacement for the B&W 684s I left at home when I went to college. I'm sure they would make a great gift, although I'd be wary of bad room placement if your recipient is new to hifi. I'll post some pics of the finished product later today.

 

[DCS]

Excellent, thank you very much for the review. About how far from the wall did you need to place them?

 

[Poultrygeist]

Always enjoy build threads. Thanks!

 

[AlexHempel]

@DCS in the unsuccessful position they were about 4 inches from the wall. Now it's a foot and three inches. Here's a picture (taken while in the old position):

 

[DCS]

Thanks again, those look very nice!!

 

[AlexHempel]

Thanks! One thing I forgot to mention is that distortion guitars don't sound that great through my S2000s. They sit oddly far back in the mix and lack that sort of edge in the treble. The same is true for harsh vocals. This and the muddiness are the main shortcomings of the S2000s versus my 684 setup at home (granted, the 684s are much larger and more expensive). But I hesitate to be too critical because my room is so small (taking a few steps to the left or right substantially alters the tonal balance). I really wish I had a better room to test the S2000s in, and I'm very tempted to send them to Amir of Audio Science Review for measurements. I suspect he'd find that they're light on treble and have a bit of a hump in the upper bass/lower midrange. If you end up building them, I would be very interested in hearing your impressions.

 

[AlexHempel]

Ok, so this thread is very dead but in case anyone stumbles across it looking for impressions of the S2000, I wanted to update a bit. The issues I mentioned in the above post have persistently annoyed me with these speakers, and the initial review I wrote on Feb 8 doesn't really represent my ultimate opinion of them. When I stumbled across Amir from ASR's measurements of the S2000, I clicked with much enthusiasm, because I was eager to find out what exactly about these speakers annoys me.

Amir's measurements basically confirm my impression of the lacking presence and bite on instruments and vocals. It's here for anyone who is interested: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...s/carmody-s2000-diy-speaker-kit-review.17507/

Amir found roll-off above 3khz, which aligns with my gripes (when EQing these I was boosting the treble above 2kish). To me, this manifests in distortion guitars and vocals lacking a bit of that presence and airiness that's found in the high frequency harmonics. This was the impression some of my friends (classical and jazz musicians with ears far better than mine) had as well -- all remarked that something was off in the treble. However, it's worth noting that Amir liked the speakers, as do many others. I think my issue with them is a combination of 1. my preference for a speaker sound signature with some treble emphasis and 2. me using them in a very small room, which boosted the LF and midrange stuff and exacerbated the lack of treble energy. Given the price, I still think these are excellent, especially for those who want a warm speaker with big, rich sound in a very small package. They would be excellent for a teenager who listens to modern music, a garage system, etc. However, I do not think they are quite top-tier speakers, at least for those whose preferences align with mine.