Help selecting suitable speaker design

[aps]

I'm after advice on speaker designs that are both elegant and suitable for a large, bright, room. The situation is that I'm after speakers for our open-plan lounge / kitchen) which will be used for music and movies. My wife is focused on "tower speakers" (Panasonic Consumer Electronic - Tower Speakers) due to their small foot-print / discrete design and I'm hopeful to find a DIY design that meets our combined form / function requirements. Some facts for the decision process:

1. Speaker / Room: Room has a 24' x 26' footprint with 8' ceilings, a tiled floor and windows (out to a garden) on one of the side-walls. All this sees the room being quite bright and I've got no hope of adding room treatment. The speakers are to sit either side of a flat-screen TV / entertainment unit well away from the sidewalls. It's possible to have the front-baffle of the speakers aligned with the entertainment unit which would see this being about 2.5' to 3' from the front wall.

2. Speaker Elegance: Form requirement is that the speakers are floor-standing but aren't imposing . This translates into their being a small footprint and not too high - with a speaker with a small footprint able to be, say, 4ft high but if the footprint is larger the height would be slightly smaller. My wife has a passion for eclectic design so it's possible that something unusual will work but, whatever the design, the speaker will need to have an excellent finish.

3. Speaker Requirement: Main use of the speakers will be for music with the occasional movie. It's important to note that people will be scattered about several chairs when watching movies (as opposed to all being co-located in the sweet-spot). Another important feature is that the speakers must be dynamic and have a truthful representation of voices / mid-range. I'm less concerned with bass performance as it should be possible to add some sub-woofers at strategic locations.

So that's the design brief. The first question is about the nature of the speaker that would suit. I've discounted open-baffle due to the constraints on distance from front wall / speaker width. My initial thinking of the Pluto has waned on the basis that the room might not be suitable for an omni-directional speaker given the tile floor / plasma screen / glass windows but it'd be good to have this confirmed. The ideal option would seem to be a line array but all the designs that I've seen are 5' to 6' tall. All this sees me at a small, mono-pole, design as the best option. Is this thinking correct?

On this basis I've started to look into a few specific designs with those catching my eye being the Mark Audio Pencil Series, the Tysen F.A.S.T. and a Jordan variant (ether the JX92S TL or JXR 6HD Line Array). I've got no real basis for choosing one design over the other so (assuming that these are consistent with the design brief) then it'd be good to get input on the relative strengths of each design. Thanks in advance for all the assistance.

Regards,
APS

[aps]

Still hoping for any and all advice. - Regards, APS

[Bill poster]

I know its a stupid question but how loud do you want these speakers to go? How about 2x jxr6's per side in a sealed sat on slim stands and a sub?

[Commited]

I'm a big fan of the tower style design too, having auditioned some System audio speakers years ago and being really impressed. I don't know if you're set on having multi-way speakers but I recently finished building an inverted BiB style full range speaker (EL70) that may fit the bill. They're 1400x210x300.


(location was just for testing, they will be in corners when I'm finished playing around with them)
Another advantage is that they're designed to sit in corners which results in high WAF.
The total cost of the speaker build including all materials and glue came to £150.

If you wanted higher efficiency drivers, Fostex FE126En or 166En could be employed.

Mark

[ScottG]

MiniStatements

[ScottG]

I should also note:

Elsinore Speakers DIY

..bigger, but not a lot bigger.

[purplepeople]

These may be a little big, but they're tall and you won't need subs.

DTQWT-12

:)ensen.

[aps]

Originally Posted by Bill poster

I know its a stupid question but how loud do you want these speakers to go? How about 2x jxr6's per side in a sealed sat on slim stands and a sub?

My guess is that dedicated listening won't be that loud (say 90dB) but that the speakers will need to be able to play loud as quite often we listen to back-ground music well away from the listening chair. The idea of 4 JxR 6HD per side s to get reasonable efficiency - with low-pass to woofers - is appealing due to the simplicity but the ability to move enough air in the large (~5000 sq ft) room is a concern.

Originally Posted by purplepeople

These may be a little big, but they're tall and you won't need subs.

DTQWT-12

ensen.

These speaker options are larger than I was hoping but are both interesting enough that I'm wondering about whether to lobby for their case! The DTQWT appeals due to the high sensitivity but how would these work close to the front wall (given the rear firing woofers)? Also the build looks exceedingly complex. Is it correct to think, though, that someone with a CNC machine could pre-cut all the materials straight from the plan?

Cheers
APS

[purplepeople]

It's an interesting project and has me thinking about the mechanical damping of multiple drivers. There is a smaller version that has actually been built.

DTQWT-mkII

And it looks like an even earlier version had only one driver so depending on your amplifiers, that could be a possibility. You also might ask the designer if side-mounting will work.

:)ensen.

[Bill poster]

The best value drivers (for me) are the aluminium Dynavox/Fountek FW's. Not sure if they are available to you but well worth a look. A slim 'double TL' perhaps?