Thank you very much, given me some fun things to think about, and try
I love horns, wish I could use the beat up old set I bought from Dr Edgar, Slimlines with huge mil spec caps, foil inductors, upgraded horn tweeters, etc...just not the right space for them. I would have to have subs and build new woofer sections and still not likely work out, just to small a space for them.
That said, a horn loaded tweeter coax in a 12, etc would be fun to try out. I do want a baffle, to keep my wonderful wife happy, she let me get by for a couple of years with a dual 15 massive folded horn sub that looked like crap but was incredible performing setup with the Slimlines. I swapped that out with 4 sealed 15's and massive power and still just not as good though it was great.
I could build something like a slim, a bit tall as I want the center of the driver to be a bit below ear height and not leaned back very far as I think when sitting at my desk with the system on it might work the best but of course I might have to do otherwise. I will have some old very fine mini speakers on the desk for just me listening and the fold down from ceiling TV will have the Martin Logan Vision X sound bar above it for that use...
I like the looks of the Radian drivers with the compression tweeters mounted on them...and will check the Beryllium versions out as well as the aluminum.
We do like to play it loud on occasion so the 12's might be better to try out first. With very musical subs right behind them on each side I may be able to run a higher crossover frequency as well. Seems I need a DSP but not sure what I would want to use as have what I feel is a very good DAC, good enough for my needs, Topping E70 Velvet and want to use it but realize the added conversions are not something I want to deal with. The DAC has balanced and single RCA outs which can be used at the same time so I could at least just use the DSP on the subs.....and hope for the best on mains.....I had great success in my car audio comp days using Yamaha built to Image Dynamics specs then upgraded EQ and crossovers but they were far to big for space I want to use there.....
I did see the post about the higher end DSP on this thread and looked it over, very nice indeed but beyond my budget for some time to come due to the remodel....but also have looked at the Mini DSP higher end units. I might just get one of those so I can at least go all active, or active/passive as needed, for whatever designs I work with and sell the DAC I have now and maybe later get the higher end DSP.
I have a bunch of 30x6, bridgeable to 60x3, etc...amps designed by Robert Zeff, founder and head engineer at Zapco, 110v, I could use for testing at least, they are pretty darn good amps.
Lots to think about, will be great fun when I can finally start building speakers!
Rick