DA-135 or Silver Flute plus ApexJr ribbon - extra-cheap speaker option?

[Spasticteapot]

I've been looking at a budget 2-way speaker for my bedroom. The object is to keep the price as low as possible without sounding like junk - I'd like to keep the total cost below $50.

For the tweeter, I've heard some very good things about the ApexJr ribbon, which is also very, very cheap - $5. It seems to have a bit of rolloff around 16khz, but Planet10 had some nice things to say about it, and the next best thing is likely triple the cost.

http://apexjr.com/speakerstuff.html

http://www.t-linespeakers.org/drivers/ribbon.html

For the woofer, I was looking at either the Dayton DA-135 or Silver Flute W14RC25.

http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?cart_id=8455311.27859&pid=1075
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=295-330

Both of these speakers work well in small ported boxes of around 7-10 liters, according to WinISD. Both of them look okay; Zaph liked the Silver Flute driver, but he also approves of the DA-135's bigger brother, the DA-175.

Hopefully, Planet10 will have something to say - he seems to have used them sucessfuly.

 

[cotdt]

Both the Silver Flute W14 and the DA-135 needs to cross relatively low before distortion becomes audible (I'm playing test tones through them right now). I would say 1.8kHz but maybe you can run them at 2kHz. The ApexJr needs a VERY high crossover point so it won't work. But there are tweeters from HiVi and Tangband for less than $10 each that can do it easily. You can have my Silver Flute W14 for free if you're willing to pay shipping. I've moved on to higher end stuff.

You can look around in the local garbage dumps for some free wood. That's where I get wood to build all my stuff. Your main problem is the crossover, with its EQ and baffle-step correction parts, which will cost money.

You can also go full-range, though when I tried full-range I didn't experience the audio nirvana that was promised me by the full-range fans. All I got was missing top-end dispersion and a very complicated enclosure system.

In my own budget speaker, I used a 5.5" woofer with BSC built-in, and had a nice flat response and a soft breakup, so the crossover was very cheap and simple. You can buy this woofer from Circuit City or Best Buy, though I don't know if there are any stores in Wisconsin. But I think Zaph lives there, maybe you can leach off that guy.