Given how important cabinet rigidity is to good speaker performance, it's really not something that lends itself to kit builds; the only ones that really do are open baffle designs. Also, shipping is primarily done on weight, and I doubt a suitably packaged kit would take up that much less space than the assembled speakers.
I know it's a bit soon to be thinking about it, but what are you thinking in terms of branding? I always liked the engraved plates on Denon's old speakers and I have a feeling they'd lend nicely to your design. Sorry for the large photo, it's all I could find with the engraved brass plates.
I got a few ideas but I like things simple. I like a bit of art too though! We'll see in the future! PS. I have a really nice idea for the powered speaker I plan to do in the far future. I also shoot, I do clay pigeon shooting, I have been to the Perazzi and Beretta factory in north Italy (the two best shotgun manufacturers). I was inspired by the beautiful hand engraved guns that were made by one man by eye. These guns sell for over £100,000. I would love to incorporate some engraving scheme into the metal back panel for the powered speakers. It's the scroll I like.
I think i'll jump on board when I get to see what they look like, if you want help with the e-commerce route let me know. I've just finished setting up my site for garden stuff.
I've got a new table saw! It's my birthday next weekend so I won't have time to work on anything then but the weekends afterwards I will be making some speakers out of some beautiful cedar of lebonan I have!
You should be able to design a passive xover that does what you need for much cheaper than what it would cost the end user to xover and amplifier actively. I run a small business that manufacturers a lot of custom speakers. We have a main line of products for live sound but we also do stuff like restaurants bars and other little shops. The hifi stuff that we have done, has always been passive. None of our customers have wanted active designs, we offer it but they 're willing to put forth a little extra for a passive design. Just something to think about.
