taobao is the Chinese equivalent of Ebay, with a significant difference – access to the world’s factories. In other words, mind boggling variety, crazy prices that flatten the world, nightmares to middle-mens around the world…
But with such a huge market out there comes the conundrum – how to separate wheat from the chaff? The golds from the duds?
Here is where a curator’s weight in gold is measured!
Evil advocator of all things horn – the hornmeister himself – Gabriel told me about this manufacturer offering horn speaker kit – CNC cutting MDF pieces to be assembled by the end user. In other words, horn speakers given the Ikea treatment.
Here is another gem, this time recommended by Ew, a devil of a guy who knows way way too much about tube amps and transformers…
OK. So here is where I come in. Reading those pages, and oogling at those photos got me drooling, and so I took the next most logical step…
I bought them.
The speaker kit arrived first, all 30kg of it. Hernia alert!
Time to get horny!
A quick mock up sets the pulse racing…
And off we go!
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The first pieces are always the easiest. |
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Then it gets tougher to align. Hey, my neighbours wardrobe isn’t very chic. |
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Oh my, more clamps please… |
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Slowly but surely, it’s getting in shape. |
Almost there…
Done!
Err, from that skeleton stage to finished good, actually went through an awful lot of work. You see, I screwed up along the way (I have a knack for this) and Gabriel saved my ass (again) as he had to undo some of my mistakes before setting them right.
Thanks again bro…
The finished speakers are clad in hard wood timber strips and finished in at least 5 coats of polyurethane. The attendant driver here is a none other than our DCA4, stained to match.
Listening to it…
Hey! What’s the little tube amp there? Which brings me to the next page… [scroll down for page 2 link, dumbo]
ermmm…. what do they SOUND like?!
hi andrew
did you check out page 2 of the article?
yeo
Hi Yeo, long time didn’t hear, and me visit this site.
I looked at taobao just now. There are two suppliers for these kind of cabinet, and yours one I also found. The other seller have a different shape of internal enclosure, but it is very2 cheap.
My question is, is the cheaper one workable too? Hehe…
hi fauzi
thanks for stopping by.
obviously i can’t tell you how well it’ll perform as i don’t have direct experience with it, except for the horns i wrote about in this article.
go try it. it doesn’t cost much anyway and you know very well you can’t get this done locally at this price.
do update me once you have tried so. can even feature an article with your project!
thx!
yeo
Yeo,
Did you bought the cabinet direct from Taobao or via agent?
I want to do up my Coral too..(bought them from you years ago, now fixed them on open baffle)..
hi fauzi
i remember it was through an agent. due to the weight, it was easier thru an agent.
the corals would excel in a horn. that’s for sure!
yeo
Yeo,
For the cabinet, is the price quoted for 1 unit or for a pair?
the one i bought, they quoted one pair, but best is to clarify with the seller.
Hello Yeo
Nice article. I also found a lot of nice items on Taobao. But until now I have not dared to buy some items from this very big market place. But after your positive feedback I might give it a try. I have some questions where you maybe can help me. What does it mean to buy via an agent? And where do I find the matching agent for the Taobao offer I want to buy? How much were the shipping costs for your order?
Kind Regards from Germany and Thanks in advance for your help
Phil
PS: Almost ten years ago I bought USB Monica from you. Time is running way to fast. Of course I still have the Monica 🙂
hi phil
i’m sorry i couldn’t recommend an agent. ask around as these agents specialise in different countries.
i don’t need an agent as i could read/write mandarin and could order directly.
freight charge is different country to country. for malaysia, it’s not too extreme as i believe there are lots of freight containers playing this china-malaysia route.
for germany, i have no idea. best is to ask around. or go through an agent.
glad you still like your usb monica!
thx!
yeo