New project - need advice, please.

[conscious]

Awesome forum, guys! I've spent most of the last 2 week holiday searching and reading threads here.

I'm very interested in making some DIY speakers - not the be all, end all speaker that going to cost a lot (e.g. the Orion, or the Thor) but rather a project that I can get my feet wet and not take a figurative bath. Unless I have a horrific experience, I expect that I will continue to make speakers of increasing quaility in the future so this is a starter project with an investment in knowledge and tools for the future. I also feel like I want to take on a little more than just a kit, so as to apply some of the theoretical knowlegde I've been gathering from LDC, and other sources.

Some possibilities:

1. A full range Fostex with a folded Mass Loaded Tapered Quarter Wave Tube. There's a design for a Fostex 168E on Bob's speaker Stuff website that looks interesting. The construction diagram is at the very end of the pictures on the left if you'd like to see it.

Folded ML for Fostex FE164/167E

http://geocities.com/rbrines1/

I could use this set to compare/replace my existing PSB bookshelves in my 2 channel setup. The cost would be about $200 cdn from www.solen.ca, and the cost of wood. I'd probably like to get an RTA, mic and soundcard to compare the results and tune the tube and stuffing. This would add about another couple hundred dollars, but would be used for future products. I'd also learn about making speaker cabinets and not have to worry about crossovers.

2. Pull out the passive crossovers in my PSBs and replace with an active Behringer DCX2496. This would cost me $399asd and the cost of a used (hopefully) 4 or more channel amp (or 2 identical amps). If I had to buy a new multichannel amp, it seems the Outlaw 7100 http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/7100.htmlwould be the most reasonably priced. Alternatively, I could buy 4 Audiosource monoblocks, for about $500usd http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...=302-610&DID=7 In addition, I would get the RTA, mic, and soundcard to tune. When I add it all up, it's a lot of cake (about $1.7k cdn) to squeeze more performance from my existing speakers, but again all of these units would be used in a future speaker project.

3. Build an amplified dipole sub (probably better described as a woofer). I could use a sub for my two channel and would like to compare the sound of a dipole to the monopole that I have in my HT right now. Linkwitz describes an H-frame http://www.linkwitzlab.com/x-proto.htm#PW1 and a dipole woofer, http://www.linkwitzlab.com/woofer.htm. He also includes designs for an equalizer, passive and active filters. The 2 Peerless woofers would cost me about $400 cdn http://www.linkwitzlab.com/woofer3.htm, and then the cost of wood, amplification, filter, rta, etc. Total would be about $800 cdn.

WAF would suggest option 2 as it is no change cosmetically - 1 and 3 are a push as they are adding larger boxes to our room. Option 2 seems to cost a lot though. I'm leaning to option #1 as it seems like I would learn a lot with relatively little outlay. What do you guys think of these possibilities? Are there others you would suggest to a DIY newbie looking to expand his horizons?

Thanks for looking and hopefully you can share some of your vast knowlege!