Our Philosophy

The short version: we sell the parts for people who build their own speakers, we tell you straight what they do, and we help you get the build right. No "best", no "Audiophile Grade", no snake oil.

When we first wrote this page in 2023, we thought we'd mostly be building speakers and kits ourselves. Then more and more people wanted to build their own, and honestly, helping them do it is the better job. How we think about sound hasn't changed. What we do with it has.

Our mission is still in our name

No Bullsh*t Audio. We don't claim to sell the 'best' parts or call anything 'Audiophile Grade'. We sell objectively good parts at a reasonable price, tell you what they do, what they suit and what they don't, and help you put them together.

What we do now

DIY speaker parts. Around 800 products: drivers from Dayton Audio, SB Acoustics, Scan-Speak, Peerless, SB Audience and Purifi, amplifier modules from Hypex and Purifi, test gear, and our own range of crossover parts.
Complete speaker kits designed by SB Acoustics. Drivers, crossovers and cabinets for proven designs like the Ara and Rinjani, so your first build can be one that's already been measured and sorted. See the kits and builds.
Free tools. The Driver Fit Finder tells you which drivers physically fit the cabinet you've already got. The Port Designer gives you push-fit flares and a port tube, sized to your box, as free STL and STEP files to print.
Free guides. An 8-part Beginner Guide to speaker building, from planning to first listen, with every part as a free PDF book. Plus guides on reading driver specs, choosing a box, crossovers, measuring and building the cabinet. All guides.
Free advice. Choosing parts, or working through a design of your own? Ask us. We've made most of the mistakes already, so you don't have to.

Objectively good beats a "sound signature"

What sounds good to you is personal preference, and plenty of speaker brands lean into that with a "sound signature". One brand in particular (which I won't name, but it starts with a "K" and ends with "lipsch") is known for being bright. Some love it, others find it fatiguing. Party speakers go the other way, because what party goer doesn't love some "doof doof".

An objectively good speaker is a different thing, and research has been fairly consistent on what it looks like:

Frequency response: flat and extended across the audible range, without big peaks or dips.
Distortion: low, so the speaker isn't adding anything that wasn't in the recording.
Directivity: controlled, so the sound off to the side is a smooth version of the sound on axis.
Transient response: fast and clean, so sudden changes in the music come through clearly.

We sit firmly in the objectively good camp. The goal is to reproduce what the artist recorded as faithfully as possible. If you like a bit more bass or a bit less treble, that's what EQ is for.

It's also how we pick what to stock and how we describe it: the maker's specs and measurements, in plain English, not adjectives.

Diminishing returns are real

Speakers range from a few hundred dollars a pair to the price of a house, and it's fair to wonder what the difference is. A lot of it isn't the parts. Many well-regarded speaker brands use drivers from the same handful of makers, like SB Acoustics, Peerless and Scan-Speak, and you can buy those same drivers on their own. That's the whole point of DIY: you put your money into the parts that make a difference, not the badge.

You can't polish a turd

Good speakers start with good parts. Bad parts just limit how good the speaker can ever be.

But good parts in a box don't make a good speaker on their own. It takes a design: the right box for the driver, a crossover built around how the drivers actually measure, then measuring the result and tweaking it. The good news is that simulation software and measurement gear are cheap now. A measurement mic and free software like REW will get you a long way (here's how). It's also why you can't just swap a driver in a multi-way speaker and expect it to sound the same.

Speaker design is driven by compromise

Physics sets the rules. A small box, deep bass and high sensitivity: you can pick two. Small woofers fit small boxes but won't play low. Bigger woofers can play low in a small box but need a lot of power to play loud. Want loud and deep? That's a big woofer in a big box. Pairing with a sub? Then the main speakers can be smaller, because the sub does the heavy lifting.

So start with a goal, and design around it. That's what our tools are for. Coming soon: the NB Speaker Builder, to design a speaker box around our drivers and see how it'll play before you cut any wood, and the Crossover Designer, to build a passive crossover for your drivers and come away with a parts list.

Spend where it counts

Every part of a speaker has its own snake oil. Here's where we land:

Crossover parts: a capacitor can cost a few dollars or a few hundred, and the measurable difference is mostly tolerance, how close the real value is to the printed one. Tighter tolerance costs more and the returns drop off fast. Use what the design needs, not what the marketing says. More in Passive crossovers explained.
Cabinets: MDF or ply has been done to death on every forum. With proper bracing and damping there's almost no measurable difference. A rigid, braced, damped and sealed box matters far more than the board it's cut from, so pick on budget and looks. Building the cabinet covers the rest.
Amplifiers: a well-designed amp that measures cleanly, used within its power, doesn't have a "sound". What matters is enough clean power for your speakers and room, low noise and low distortion. That's why modern class D modules from makers like Hypex and Purifi make sense: they measure extremely well and run cool, without the price of a boutique box.

Your eyes lie to your ears

Research has shown again and again that what we see changes what we hear. A well-known study run at Harman in the 90s compared sighted and blind listening tests and found:

"...the sighted and blind loudspeaker listening tests in this study produced significantly different sound quality ratings. The psychological biases in the sighted tests were sufficiently strong that listeners were largely unresponsive to real changes in sound quality caused by acoustical interactions between the loudspeaker, its position in the room, and the program material."

In other words, the expensive-looking speaker wins until you can't see it. Worth remembering before you pay extra for a part because of how it looks or what it's called.

Treat audio as an experience

That same bias can work for you. Listening isn't just what reaches your ears. It's the dimmed lights, the comfy chair, the glass of port or whiskey you just poured, a good meal behind you, and the house to yourself for the night. Treat it as an experience and you'll find the speakers play a smaller part than you'd think.

The elephant in the room... is the room

It doesn't get said enough: the room can matter as much as the speakers. Hard surfaces bounce sound everywhere and make it messy; soft furnishings, rugs and curtains clean it up. Room size matters too. Big horns in a small room underwhelm, and a small, low-sensitivity speaker in a big room will struggle. Get the speakers right, then get the room as right as you can.

So, the point?

If you've read this far, well done. I barely get two sentences into speakers with my wife before she's lost interest. It all comes back to the name: good parts at a reasonable price, honest information, and a hand when you need one.

Whether it's your first build or your tenth, start with the Beginner Guide, or just ask us at sales@nbaudio.com.au. Thanks for building with us.