Used to be you could find a shop selling stereo equipment, walk in with your favorite records or CDs, and listen. Of course you might have to wait your turn in line behind the tire-kickers, the brand-name-droppers and those with 'interesting' ideas as to what constituted useful test music. Nevertheless, you could usually count on getting a chance to hear before buying.
Those individual hi-fi stores are mostly gone. The few ultra-high-end audio boutiques that still remain often require an appointment, and they often demo with well recorded-but-blah music. Besides, you'd be lucky to walk out of a boutique with even a pair of cables for $100. Context? The high end audio boutiques may offer stereo systems that cost as much as a car or a house.
Stores such as Best Buy and WalMart have complete stereo players for around the target price, but simply because it's stereo, that does not mean it's necessarily (or even probably) high fidelity. Besides, it's likely you already have a boom box or you already have computer speakers. And if you and your Significant Other are OK with the sound you already have, then it's probably best to avoid this project. But you are still welcome to join in the comments.
The price point of $100 is not exact, but then I'm not selling stereos here: just providing a concept. Where you buy is up to you.
In the days immediately after World War II, it was possible to get high-fidelity playback. But the home hi-fi market was limited in its choices of gear: use movie theater equipment or build your own.
This updated concept is straightforward. The $100 Hi Fi is an ultra-simple stereo playback system that relies on the same broad strategy used in those early days of high fidelity. Only a lot smaller. And simpler. And you may decide it's better sounding too.
Instead of movie theater equipment for controlling volume and balance and for selecting the input (what you are listening to), this uses the type of pro-sumer equipment sold at almost any local music store (typically between the drums and the guitars). This piece is called a, "Mixer." For the $100 Hi Fi, figure somewhere around $45 at 2011 prices.
The amplifier for the $100 Hi Fi is a class T device reviewed here which you may be able to find for a street price of less than $30. You will need either eight AA cells ($5 or so) or one 12 volt gel-cell battery or power supply. Re-chargeable batteries work fine, though you'll pay a little more up front for NiMH AA cells and a decent charger. 12 volt gel-cells (sold for alarm back-ups etc.) can sometimes be found on sale at Radio Shack. But it is important to get the right sort of charger (figure $60 plus). That would break the $100 budget, though, and upgrades are a topic for another day.
There's $20 left in the budget and still no speakers. If these weren't on sale for $8.72 each, the budget would be blown. And this model is out of stock until the end of the month (the square frame model in the lower right corner should sound pretty similar, but I've only heard the round frame model). Not only that, it's just a raw speaker. You'll still need a solid cabinet.
Here's where a little patience and good scrounging ability pays off. First, though, a little history.
Years ago I had a pair of four inch speakers in walnut veneer over particle board enclosures. The raw speaker was mounted to the back of the Baffle (the front plate to which a speaker is mounted in box-type enclosures). The rear-mounting meant that the hole cut into the baffle acted as a short tunnel that the sound had to travel through before spreading out in front of the baffle. To mount the raw speaker to the front of the baffle would still leave a shadowbox effect because the baffle was set back a little to allow the grille to be flush with the front of the box.
Since the front mounting would not let me use the grille anyway, the solution was to build-out the baffle. Instead of using particle board, flake board gave a less crumbly surface to screw into. And since it was an experiment, the use of glue to make a baffle-sandwich seemed too final. So after cutting a hole in the flake board that lined up with the already existing hole in the particle board, it was simply a matter of dry-fastening the new baffle to the existing baffle with screws. After front mounting the raw speaker to the beefed-up baffle and reconnecting the internal wires the difference was noticeable.
Forward quite a few years, and a friend of mine was looking for a way to make use of some scraps of ipe wood that were left over from a deck project he'd been working on. Because of the properties of ipe wood, building a set of small speakers like the re-baffled ones I described above seemed like a good match. My friend did some internet research and decided to go with a three inch full range vented design instead of a four inch sealed cabinet design. His dad built a pair of boxes using the ipe and then they mounted the raw speakers. Those are now his main listening speakers.
Ipe wood is not especially easy to work with, nor cheap, and scraps of it don't turn up that often. But it was pretty evident that the solidity and mass of the enclosure was worth pursuing.
It turns out there is a cheap solution involving a standard two-hole concrete block, a hole saw, particle board and flake board cut to fit over all the front and part of the back of the block, and some long bolts. If there's interest I'll post more on this. So rec and tip away if you want more DIY (Do It Yourself) diaries.
And please ask any questions you'd like.
I'm not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned, and I don't think they are getting rich at those prices either.