Chu Gai wrote:
He had invited various DIY'ers to bring their speaker creations to be
measured at a facility using test equipment in an ancheoic chamber.
Now that was 10 years ago and at that time it was a Celestion that
bested them on the bench. Available software has gotten better and so
hopefully has the ability of the individual to properly measure the
performance of their speaker creations.
Has a scenario such as Tom described been repeated recently? Are
present day DIY speaker creations getting better to the point where if
we ignore the amount of time a person spends (we all need something to
do) that they can produce a very competently performing loudspeaker
that measures well and doesn't suffer from the very convenient
'builder's ear' when it comes to giving a pass to what would
rightfully be considered undesireable characteristics?

This gets discussed with Tom from time to time. . I think that the current
consensus is that enough amateurs are using relatively sophisticated speaker
design and analysis tools, courtesy of the PC revolution, that the gap is at
least narrowing.