proaudio dipole, tips/design?

[thadman]

I've been extremely busy with school and havent had the time to truly sit down and design my ambitious ESL project (maybe this summer or fall), but am longing for a magnificent speaker that wont cost me several thousand. The pro-audio lineups have gotten increasing praise over the past several months, and I'd figure I'd give them a shot. I buy/sell a lot of equipment on ebay/various forums and selling these drivers individually or together as a system shouldn't be much of an issue.

The pro-audio drivers I have considered for this project are the following:

#1 BMS 4540ND 2k-20k (crossover point will depend on the waveguides control of the wavefront)
- What waveguide should I use? I'd like this project to materialize very quickly and am aware that the DDS ENG-1 are currently out of production (at least for several months)

#2 PR170M0 or PHL 1120 300/400hz-2k (final xover will depend on tweeter xover)
- I've read excellent reviews of these drivers. The PR170M0 only costs $83 over on madisound and the PHL 1120 costs $120 over on zalytron, should I give it a shot?
- I have a pair of bnib Seas Excel W18Es on hand, and a single bnib Scanspeak 15M/4531K (buying another wouldnt be much of an issue). Should I stick with my gut feeling and go with a pro-audio mid?
- Do smaller midranges perform better subjectively than larger mids in the 400-1000/1500hz range?
- Would a 18sounds 10NdA520 or comparable BMS/Ciare driver be a better option than the PHL 1120?

#3 Ciare 18NdW1
- doesnt cost too much $$$ and I could purchase it from the same distributor (assistance audio) as the BMS 4540NDs
- I already have a pair of RSS390HFs, but shouldnt have much difficulty selling them or finding another project for them. Should I continue with the pro-audio trend?
- appears to be clean to several hundred hz (mate well with a dedicated midrange)
- what type of dipole baffle would you recommend assuming the high crossover point? What sort of dimensions would I be looking at to put the resonance past my crossover point? Can the RSS390HF handle that high of a crossover (300/400hz?) Would they operate as cleanly up high as the Ciare? How heavy would the baffle need to be to resist rocking?

I may incorporate a bottom feeder further in the future to cover the lowest octaves (10-40). A pair of those new Mach5 18s look tasty, I was on vacation and missed the pre-order. Anyone have a pre-order pair theyre no longer interested in and wish to transfer the pre-order to me (paypal)? Could they fit in a reasonably large box if ported?

These speakers are meant for listening enjoyment and I would prefer them not to tear my material to shreds. I listen to a lot of progressive metal and am a huge fan of TOOL, Dream Theater, and NIN (although they do not fit in that category). These recordings purposely include large amounts of distortion, which may or not sound favorable with razor sharp resolution.

I will have a DCX2496 for crossovers (although I am researching a PC xover solution and it seems viable, but have not gotten many replies thus far on that topic) and Crown XLS amplification for the speakers.

I also do not have any measuring equipment available, what specific equipment should I purchase and where?

[terry j]

I use the rew program for frequency measurements etc, over at the shack. Very good program at a very good price !!

They mainly use it for LF measurements there with the RS spl meter for example, but I use it for full range measurements. To get the full range measurements you would need a good mic, the behringer ecm 8000 is one such example, and the sahck also has a generic calibration file for it which is close enough in all but the most exacting situations.

To get the measurements of the mic into the computer, and supply the phantom power needed, you also need a behringer mixer and the xenyx 802 is sufficient. \

They are pretty cheap, and hunt around as you should NEVER need to pay full retail on any of them.

Hope that helps.
I too am looking into using a pro driver for dipole, but I'm only interested in using it for bass. Funnily enough, they are PHL 18's, obviously not the onr you are interested in but phl nonetheless

I also run phl mids, and so my feeling is that if you do go phl you won't be dissappointe.

[thadman]

Would porting the Ciare to relieve displacement demands and use DRC to allow reproduction below room fundamental and gain the positive effects of dipole radiation in the midbass/bass be a good idea?

Im only fascinated with this idea if DRC can give me quasi-dipole bass reproduction.