Need DIY perspective on build or purchase decision

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Hi. I've been reading this forum and communicating with a few members since the beginning of the year. My project goal is a pair of speakers I'll be happy to listen too and look at for, say, five years. I've bought and sold more electronics and commercial speakers than I care to think about but right now I'm all about building a simple two channel system to listen to FM and mp3s played back through a Meridan 203 DAC. I've gone from transistors to tubes (valves) and I'm now trying to get away from the dreaded boxiness and the various ills of passive crossovers. i've got an 8" active sub with two passive radiators and right now I'm listening to a pair of norh 3.0s because I found that I liked them much better than the two-way bookshelves they replaced. They impart a pronounced coloration and usually sound constricted, plus treble performance is marginal at best but I'm at the point in my listening preferences where they sound better than conventional designs and by replacing them I'm hoping to get more of their virtues and eliminate their drawbacks.

I'm trying to decide between a big backhorn, an open baffle design or (diehards please stop reading here) just buying the $300/pair Magnepans and being done with it. I've read the whole Linkwitz site with great interest and although I don't begin to understand all of the science I'm convinced of the virtues of active amplification and the dipole effect. I'd build a pair of Orions but for the cost. Open baffle designs look interesting but they take up a lot of space. I'm considering them because it seems to me that having an active sub allows keeping the baffle to a reasonable dimension--say 24 inches.. I'd go with a two-way active design possibly using a chip amp together with my el34 integrated and the best drivers I could affort. I'd probably try the Behringer digital crossover as both an xover and a DAC (and an eq) but I'm not thrilled by that idea because it would mean swapped cables to switch inputs.

Backhorns are the third choice at this point just because construction seems like a serious undertaking. By comparison everything else is instant gratification. I do like how they look like musical instruments, have great bass, and manage to be point source into the bargain. If Nelson Pass's J-Low design were even remotely practical it would be a lot of fun but real-world considerations kind of put the kibosh on it. I really like the look of the ten-thousand euro Replikon and I've got access to a cnc machine to make a knock-off of sorts but I'm less than convinced that it'll sound great--better than the norhs no doubt but not necessarily justifying the effort and expense.

The Maggies seem like a no-brainer except that I'm told that in general all Maggies lack dynamics and are gluttons for power. However there's a review of them on the web where somebody hooked them up to an el34 amp comparable to mine and loved it. I'm guessing that the maggies really need that power starting in the lower midrange and going lower so perhaps this particular model's complete lack of bass actually reduces the brute force needed. As for dynamics, which I value highly, I can still seel where the Maggie's other virtues make the tradeoff worthwhile. Also it seems to me that a DIY mod to the Maggies of simply placing them in a baffle might improve them by moving the cancellation frequency lower.

Any further insight into the tradeoffs between these designs and/or experience with the Maggies would be deeply appreciated. Thanks.
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
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Part of the joy of DIY is the journey... I've been pretty much where you have been buying & selling, and am solidly in the DIY camp.

The baby magnepans i understand are pretty much midranges, you might well get as good a performance from a pair of Fostex FE83s or Mark M modified Tangband 881s.

Fostex FE108ES in Buschorn IIs are pretty magical.

dave
 
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