> drivers. The Focal and Cabasse lines are impressive! Also Accuton tweeters
 > and midrange units look like choice items, once you recover from the 
sticker
 > shock. :-(
       Wait until you get the prices on high end crossovers!!! But I remain 
convinced that in Audio, you really get what you pay for. Ref. below>> Your 
background in electronics will save you some big money there. I lack the 
expertise to design and build my own crossovers. So I rely on an outfit in 
Calif that builds custom units to your specs. Fantastic quality and build 
with 
your choice of slopes and freqs!
 > I've seen ads for the Loudspeaker Design Cookbook, and will order a copy
 > soon. Does it go into any good detail on Bandpass and Transmission Line
 
       Absolutely. They begin with mid to advanced basic theory and move all 
the way through the design process including the math and charting out what a 
finished projects would look like in graph. So far it is the best I have seen 
for someone having the skills but needing direction.
 > As to level of expertise, I've been an electronics tech for many years, 
 > have a 
 > strong woodworking/cabinetmaking background, have built composite 
structures
 > for aircraft and boats, and have done a lot of R&D work building
 > electrical/electronic prototypes for industrial equipment. I've always had 
a
       Yessss! Someone to brag to for a moment. [Loud Mouthed Bragging Mode 
On]
My neighbor is a composites guru for the aircraft industry. He fixes what the 
rest mess up and plans the new state of the art projects for them. I am a 
woodworking fanatic. I build furniture, wall units and cabinets. 
   A couple years ago I became fascinated with the Hsu Subwoofer design. So 
we 
put our heads together and built a kevlar composite shell rather than the 
cardboard form used by Hsu. We used an exceptionally high carbon composite. 
We 
bowed the top to cancel standing waves and built in the platform for the 
crossover and the tuned port. The crossover was protected by a second piece 
that snapped into place and could be sealed with adhesive. In later models we 
included the flared ports in the design which cut down on turbulence noise. 
   We ended up with some exceptionally light and strong structures that 
sounded quite good....not high end....but much better than the commercial 
grade powered and unpowered subs you see on the market now. 
   My main mistake was trying to include too much in the basic design. I had 
got carried away with the project and forgot the KISS technique. My next 
attempt will be the 92 inch model (yep, 92" !!!) with a 12 inch woofer. I 
will 
still bow the top cap, but will make it an add on to be assembled with some 
good space aged adhesive. Same with the bottom baffle, which I reinforced 
with 
2.25 inches of medite and the port. They will be added to the shell. The 
crossover will be an external. The crossover placement, and decisions about 
protecting it from vibration and wind damage was the biggest problem before. 
From Hsu's design, it looks like he learned that the first go round also. But 
next I am going to build set of rear channel for AC-3, as soon as we see a 
definative answer as to the amout and avg freq of bass information we will be 
getting in the rear channels. No one knows yet. Many of the high end 
designers 
like Duddleston @ Legacy are waiting until the smoke clears and not offering 
anything different than their THX rears in di/bipole. And it will probably be 
a few months before we see anything we can count on.
 > On the software side, do you have any experience with Top Box? Can you
 > reccomend anything else that is good? I've tried Speaker Workshop (basic, 
 > but
 > solid), SDES (total crippleware, can't even evaluate it properly), Bandbox
 > (doesn't even RUN), and LED (looks OK, but memory hungry and awkward to
 > navigate, requires a spreadsheet). Still haven't found what works for me.
 > LEAP is a distant dream, of course!
       I have pretty much just stayed with the spreadsheets for basic 
number doodles. I haven't personally looked, either. I have called a friend 
with the LEAP set up and took his feedback. Perhaps it is time to get off my 
duff and see whats new in the world. There used to be a regular participant 
here in the echo named Matt Ion that ran a BBS dedicated to audio. He had 
quite a few programs that he said were quite good. Not flashy like so many of 
the Windoze apps, but number crunchers for speaker builders none the less.
ANYONE FOLLOWING THIS THREAD HAVE SOME INFO ON AUDIO SOFTWARE FOR SPEAKER AND 
LISTENING ROOM MODELLING??? Please feel free to chime right in!! I will try 
to 
find Matt and see if he still has his BBS running. Also, Old Colony used to 
advertise a number of apps. Perhaps some of the people here have some 
experience with the shareware apps???
Cheers, John
--- AdeptXBBS v1.07f (Registered)
---------------