I was really prepared to not like them, but find myself defending them instead:
Not nice looking: some comments are clearly fit-finish related, but that is exactly why they wanted kickstarter funds to use professional woodshop and steel cutting. One can certainly see in the video that there is some “lack of smoothness” of the steel from the hand-finishing. Some comments could be related to the aesthetics of the design, which I find quite clean and reminiscent of mid-century-modern and Jakob-Jensen:
http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A2909&page_number=&template_id=6&sort_order=1
Price: Some people are offended when a product costs much more then the “parts cost” of the assembled materials. As a business, these guys still make a loss if their income from the project doesn’t also cover the cost of all the prototype materials, and I suspect they might like to be compensated for their time too.
The actuator/exciter being used is available in bulk for $35.50/pair,(www.tectonicelements.com) and reasonably clear alder is selling where I am for about $5 a board-foot in that thickness. They are using solid planks, so they will need to be very selective about buying boards only of adequate width, there will still be a bunch of the wood that they will have to cull because of knots, checking, splits, or wany-edge. Wood moves. By using whole boards they need the wood to be cut in a particular way in relation to the growth rings so that changes in humidity don’t break the speakers. Finishing costs money – The lacquer on wood furniture from Target uses the same mass of resin per unit area as the furniture from Bo Concept, but the latter has a niceness of appearance and feel from the multi-step application and buffing that the former can’t match.
Audio circuits never sound the same laid out on a breadboard as they do on a proper circuit board, so there is a lot of trial and error (and parts purchases, and re-etching) involved in getting from design to production,
There are many reasons why I would not choose to mill a speaker box out of a chunk of solid alder. But it is really nice to have something so elemental as part of your everyday environment. There are many reasons why I would not choose a bent panel of stainless for a loudspeaker diaphragm. But I’d also say there are probably many worse choices in terms of sound quality at the same price in retail stores near you.
