future dipole owner!

[HIPCHECK]

hello, my name is steve and im a long time lurker. i have never really built anything that has made it past prototyupe mdf boxes and test clips. one day i wanted to build a home subwoofer, and i ran into the partsexpress website, wow! i had the bug bad after that. like all newbies i tried to buy some buyouts, crossover parts, and jump right into speaker building. it didnt work! LOL

so i bought some alesis amp pcbs swaped out the caps, tossed some drivers in, and was happy with the results. active crossovers seemed the only way for me to go. so i jumped into learning all things gainclone, opamps, and power supplies.

so now i am at the point of no return; speakers on a test baffle, dcx2496 arrives tomorrow, and numerous pcbs from group buys ready to stuff. needless to say im happy as hell

i have decided to go 3way dipole. i have selected 2xDayton rs225s, a BG Neo8, and a BG Neo3. i plan to crossover @80hz to a mono sub using the active filter pcb with LT feature , im not sure on my final subwoofer. currently i have 2 Dayton Quattro15's that will fill in now.

i bought the BG neo8 and Neo3 when i still was trying to build a passive crossover. i had a fond memory of some Carver speakers using the ribbons and wanted that sound. however, if i was to start over i would take that $200+ and buy one of many low fs/ low distortion tweeters already proven with dipole designs.

that being said, i am still sure i will enjoy the current drivers. from all test i have seen the Dayton RS speakers are top notch and i couldnt afford anything better. the BG neo 3 is well liked but the Neo8 has many opinions.

the bad part is i dont have a measurment system. so building this thing right is going to be tricky. ill prolly tweak the dcx alot and get something that sounds good, only to measure later and find huge suckouts or peaks. LOL. sometimes not knowing what "sounds good" and being a rookie is great.

ok after all my babble here is what i need help on.

would it be a good plan to decide baffle width first, and then use "The Edge" to determine baffle/ dipole rolloff and plug this number into the dcx. is there any phase issues to think about when i decide crossover freq/and slope (regarding the BG NEO's) if i am crossing over :

BP @ 80hz-800hz RS225s
BP @800hz-5000hz Neo8
and HP @ 5000hz Neo3

is there any reason to notch some of the driver breakups: the 12khz-15khz peak on Neo8 and the 2000hz-5000hz region on the RS225s, or am i crossing over far enough from these to not worry?

thanks for anybody who taken time to read, and any advice would be great. i have lurked around the Linkwitz site, and need to read it all over again. and now that im getting the dcx i have alot of tweaking/learning to do.

[nunayafb]

Im doing a similar design although I am going 4-way with a dayton IB 15", (3-way passive-active on the 15") see the 3D model here . You are going to need equalization on the 8's due to their low Qts and the baffle will need to be fairly large to get down low. I strongly recommend picking up one of Behringer's feedback/RTA/equalizer units, I believe they are only $150 or so.