I wanted a pair of small speakers for my computer system, to be driven from a modified Beresford Caiman and SMSL T-Amp.  After scouting around, I decided it would be fun to build them rather than buy ready-made.  There isn't much, if anything, to be saved cost-wise, but it does allow you to specify your own components, cabinets, cable, terminals and, of course, driver(s).

I decided on the well regarded Fostex FF125K 5" full-range driver from Wilmslow Audio for ported operation (an advantage for a small speaker, I think).

This has a reasonable response curve as shown, in a ported cabinet.

There are no nasties and, when listening, I can confirm that they sound smooth, have some bass extension and a nice quality treble response.

I found a pair of ready-made cabinets on sale on eBay - from a company in Moldova.  Despite my reservations the transaction went smoothly and the cabinets arrived within a couple of weeks.

It was hardly a difficult build, being simply a case of assembly.  There is no crossover.  I used Black Rhodium Twist for cabling up.  The drivers are mounted with proper Tee nuts and domed hex bolts, not wood screws, and the cabinets are stuffed with lamb's wool.

The finished speakers and a pair of speaker cables made from the same Black Rhodium Twist.

In situ and sounding good.

They have a remarkably open and coherent sound, neutral in tone and with reasonable bass extension (the 5" driver does well but they won't give LS3/5as a hard time in this respect), reasonable dynamics but very well resolved microdynamics, very good transparency when used in near-field conditions, and lovely effortless midrange. They are not at all harsh or hard edged.

Listening to different styles of music, their performance with big choral music (Vivaldi's Gloria) is very vivid, creating a wonderful small but continuous soundstage in my study. In fact, they image very well indeed. Trying out their bass extension, Massive Attack's Mezzanine sounded robust with some quite impressive hard struck bass drum. Playing Jewel's Spirit reproduced her lovely breathy voice nicely with a fair amount of insight.

They will certainly take some power and mercilessly reveal the T-Amp's power limitations when it starts to clip (I am constantly amazed that anyone can run a Mini-T as a main amplifier in a hi-fi system, the power envelope is just too limited).  In fact the amp is definitely the limiting factor in their performance and I shall scout around for a cheap replacement.