Kicking around ideas for new speakers

[Saurav]

Hi,

I think I want new speakers, but I'm not quite sure what I want. So I thought I'd post some random thoughts/ramblings here, in the hope that some of the more experienced speaker builders can chime in with advice and/or suggestions. Alright, here goes...

Constraints, or the things that cannot be changed:

* Room - roughly 25'x15', with the speakers along a long wall. So the listening position is about 5-7' from the plane of the speakers, but the speakers themselves can be put 10-12' apart if needed. Speakers are usually about 2-3' from the back/front wall. No room treatments.

* Amps - I'm definitely going to try active biamping, that's a given. I have a 3W tube amp for the tweeters, and a ~ 25W (not quite sure what the maximum output of my new Gainclone amp is) SS amp for the woofers. So I need 96dB or higher sensitivity (and hopefully 8 ohms) in the tweeter, on the woofer I guess I could handle low 90s, maybe even high 80s.

* Size/aesthetics - my wife is pretty forgiving so this isn't really an issue. I don't want anything too large or heavy though, so 6' tall speakers are out.

Sound, or what I'm looking for - I'm not really sure.

* I love the midbass dynamics of my HE12.1s, and so I'm definitely not going back to a wimpy 6.5" 2-way or anything like that.

* I'd love to get the smooth midrange and treble of my GR Research Paradox 1s back.

Other than that, I don't really have much of an idea of what I'm looking for. Nice place to start, huh

* Oh, bass - don't need any real extension below 50Hz or so. The speaker will be high-passed at around 100Hz, with the bass being handled by an EQd subwoofer.

Other stuff:

* Dipoles and/or open baffles - the concept intrigues me, but I'm not sure I have the listening distance for these types of speakers to work. Also, I'm not sure this is a good choice for a first time crossover attempt. Maybe I'm wrong though... suggestions?

* Line arrays. Again, the concept intrigues me, but the two or 3 line arrays I've listened to, I didn't like them *that* much. This doesn't include the Acoustats where the panels had been rearranged to form 10' high speakers - those were good, but that's not an option for me right now.

* Ribbon drivers - again, intrigued by the concept, haven't heard much to really have an opinion. It seems that getting the sensitivity as high as I need it to be might be a challenge?

* Coaxials - I really like the presentation of the HE12.1s. Also, this would allow me to ignore delay issues in the crossover (at least as a first cut), which should make things simpler? So maybe I should just try building another coax, using different/better drivers?

* Horns... as much as I like the concept, I don't think I can handle a full-blown horn rig in my current room. I think I'll stick with direct radiator woofers for now, with horn/planar/direct radiator tweeters.

And that's about all that I've thought of. Does there appear to be any coherent thought running through these ramblings? Does anyone have any ideas that could meet all or most of these criteria? If you do, would you build it for me too?

Oh, and while we're on the topic - is anyone interested in a pair of highly modified HE12.1s? That might inspire me to actually take these ideas and actually build something with them

Thanks for reading.

Saurav