First speaker project; center WMTW w/ amt2 heil

[IBJamon]

First time poster, and first speaker project (though i have done simple mods and such). Thanks for your patience.

I have what I consider to be a decent HT system. My mains are ESS PS4As, with the cast face Heil AMT2s. In an effort to improve my front soundstage, I've been using an old Pioneer HPM-60 on its side. While it's much better than what I had before, I've decided to take a stab at making my own center. I have a spare HPM-100 4" midrange driver that I'd like to use unless given a compelling reason not to, and I grabbed one of the smallest ESS Heils off of the bay; this one is from someone's old LE-20, so it's really small (5"x3"). So I have what I believe is a decent midrange and a good tweeter. I'm looking for a pair of well matching woofers, probably 10" since that is what my mains are, or maybe 8" if given a good reason for it. My budget is around $50 per driver ($100 total).

I would prefer a first order crossover, but if that's not feasible I'm open to other options. If it's first order perhaps 500-1kHz & 3k-4k makes sense? If it ends up being 2nd/3rd order on the crossover, tighter crossover points could make sense. I would likely L-Pad it with those fancy knobs I've seen at partsexpress. I guess I hope to keep it as simple as possible, but if woofer selection demands it (for example) I'll do what it takes.

I've never built a cab either; I'm thinking of a simple MDF box, with the obvious damping material, etc. I don't mind large, but it has to sit on the floor or close to it as it has to be under my large projection screen. I've seen a lot of reference to various software to help; I'm all ears. I have access to windows/linux/mac, so that's not a limiter. Free or very cheap is likely my budget for software though. I've heard of speaker workshop. Will this be enough?

Another thought is that I don't know what the parameters are for my existing drivers. The 4" mid is likely 8 Ohms, and the ESS Heil measures 5.8 Ohms or so with a cheap multimeter.

I see a lot of mention of Ts, Xmax, Fs, and other driver parameters. Could someone point me in the right direction with a good article explaining it all?

Thanks a lot for putting up with a newb who's read way too much speaker stuff (and yet not enough!) so thanks ahead of time for your patience. I'm just trying to put together a center I can be proud of. And I'm willing to learn what I need to do it.

IBJamon

[IBJamon]

Well, I've read a bit more about driver parameters. For a midrange it would seem to me that resonant frequency is probably the most important thing to consider. Does that seem reasonable? Fortunately, any new driver would likely supply the information.

IBJamon