The attendance at this year’s event was excellent. Over 30 people from all over the upper Midwest and Florida attended and brought 21 speakers to listen to. The speakers ranged from very inexpensive designs that were built for well under $100 to John K.’s NaO design built by John Pastuck and Jim Salk’s new super high end 3-way design.

I spent the day trying to keep things organized and tallying the feedback forms, so I didn’t get to actually listen very much. However, I was impressed at the number of very good sounding speakers at the event this year. Almost 450 feedback forms were filled out and submitted that had to be calculated to determine whose speakers were most liked in each category. I’ll only list the top two in each group and let other individuals comment on additional designs that were favored.

****SPECIAL RECOGNITION****
I want to extend special recognition to the wonderful sponsors of the awards given in each class and a special “Award of Excellence” that was awarded to the most professional non commercial, non kit design.

Budget Class – Dave Ellis generously provided a pair of Hiquphon OW1’s for the best sound in this class. A wonderful gift for a beginning or budget speaker builder. Thank you Dave!

Mid range $250 - $500 Class – Sponsored by Parts Express. A special thank you to all around good guy, Darren Kutsma. Parts Express with Darren’s leadership has been a strong and loyal supporter of the DIY community and should be recognized and applauded. Thank you Darren! The prizes included A pair of Usher 8945A carbon Fiber 7” woofers, one pair each of 6”, 7” and 8” Dayton Reference series drivers and many, many smaller items that became drawing giveaways. The Reference drivers were awarded to the 1st runner up in each class.

Unlimited class - Sponsored by Madisound. I want to thank Madisound for their support of the DIY events this year. It is deeply appreciated! They awarded the listeners choice in this category an unlimited 20% off gift certificate on one order. That’ll warm up your credit card!

Award of Excellence – Sponsored by E-Speakers. I was quite overwhelmed with Andre’s generosity when the award arrived and I opened the box to see what was inside. Andre provided all the Aurum Cantus drivers for a very high end pair of 3-way’s consisting of G3si ribbons, AC-130F1 5” mids and AC-250F1S 10” woofers. This is a spectacular award that is just as excellent as the design it was awarded to. Exceptional! Thank you Andre!

I also want to extend a special thanks to Bohdan, owner of Bodzio software, for again providing a free copy of his exceptional Soundeasy software. Bohdan has been a strong supporter of the DIY community and I want him to know how much we appreciate it.

Finally, Ray Kimber generously provided a whole box full of goodies including shirts, binding posts, CD’s etc. Lots and lots of fun stuff that we really appreciate.

**** LISTENERS CHOICE AWARD WINNERS ****

Budget:
Best of class was won by Maynard Goff with his Morel/M130/Dayton driver 3-way design.

1st runner up was won by Jeff Yourison with his Audax 8” 2-way design.
Great job guys!

Mid Class ($250 - $500)
Best of class was won by Scott Julian with his 2-way “Bevels” based on Excel and Dynaudio drivers

1st runner up was won by Scott Julian with his MBOW1 entry.
This was an unusual situation in that Scott had two entries that both sounded great. Excellent job Scott!

Unlimited Class:
Best sound of class was Jim Salk’s new 3-way tower. Absolutely stunning to look at and listen to. Aurum Cantus G2’s, Seas Excel mids and a custom made TC Sounds 10” woofers round out this spectacular speaker. Since Jim does offer his speakers for sale, he was not eligible for prizes but the quality of his speakers is just amazing. Great job Jim and thank you for making the long trip and allowing us to hear your creations!

1st runner up and award winner: John Pastuck with the beautiful Nao design by John K. Exceptional sound that has to be heard to be appreciated. The Corian baffles are beautiful! Great job John! Ya, both of you…

2nd runner up: Nate Bryan with his excellent 2-way design utilizing Scan Speak 5” Revelator woofers and Morel MDT-30 tweeters. Excellent sound! Great job Nate!

Award of Excellence:
The criteria for the Award of Excellence was that the nominee must not be a commercial or a kit design and be created by a DIY’er from the beginning to the end. The goal was to pick the most polished and professional design without regard to the cost of the design so it could be a budget or an unlimited.

The winner by a very large margin was Wayne Wendel with his Sphere entry. A speaker in the shape of a ball with great sound and unbelievable imaging. Finished in a mirror shine gloss black that had significant WAF. Excellent job Wayne!

There were many drawings by Rick Craig and Dennis Murphy for the additional items that PE sent and for the excellent prizes provided by Ray Kimber. I apologize if I’ve missed anyone. I hope everyone that attended had as much fun as I did. Now it’s some one else’s turn to host next year so I can be an attendee again.

Jim