Have you ever heard one of Troel's designs? I've never read a review of any or seen any build threads. I'm sure they're out there, I just haven't come across any. I am intrigued by the Illuminator 4 and even the 5. I'd like to get some third-party feedback if anyone has any experience with them.
No I have not... Actually, I have never listened to any of the large expensive DIY kits you might be considering.
However, TG publishes a lot of performance data with his speakers... enough for me to trust they are very well integrated. He does not publish CEA2034 "spinorama" data for his speakers, but in the case of the Illuminator 4 and 5, we can make a pretty good guess as to how the power DI curve would look.
Doing a big expensive kit like this is an act of faith. There is some risk... you often do not have the opportunity to audition before you buy.
However, TG publishes a lot of performance data with his speakers... enough for me to trust they are very well integrated. He does not publish CEA2034 "spinorama" data for his speakers, but in the case of the Illuminator 4 and 5, we can make a pretty good guess as to how the power DI curve would look.
Doing a big expensive kit like this is an act of faith. There is some risk... you often do not have the opportunity to audition before you buy.
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... But he is the first to say with a great honesty than measurements don't say it all. And if he half honest about what he is saying, I have a great respect to this.
We all know it's a complicated thing and the only way should be to listen to your future loudspeaker in the listening room where it is planned to be.
But yes, experienced people as you are can reduce a lot the uncertainty by reading the specs, look at the filters, the drivers, the cabinet... mix of knowledge and experience.
But it's not easy and that's how the hifi magazine have thrived.
People of the diy world are more honest though when they have nothing to sell and share their own experience 🙂
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After a ton of additional research, I may back away a bit from my initial desire for 'no rectangular boxes'. I read a lot about the Elsinores (ScottG mentioned them earlier in this thread), and a fair bit about the Statement IIs from Speaker Design Works.
Though I would have a ton of fun building something like a boat-hull variant of the Elsinore, that would probably require a bit of a reworking of the crossover, for which I don't really have the requisite knowledge (yet). Reading through Joe's writeup on his site about the Elsinore, it sounds like even minor tweaks to the cabinet (such as corner roundovers greater than about 6mm) can have deleterious effects on diffraction, which has been so carefully modelled and accounted for in the crossover. I guess I am still sufficiently uneducated to know what I can and cannot get away with.
So that brings me to the question about the Elsinores vs the Statement IIs. Would one be more preferable that the other, overall performance-wise? This is a totally subjective question, I understand. In scouring the interwebs there doesn't not seem to be any comparison between the two - that is, no real discussion from folks who've had a chance to listen to both.
My listening will be a majority 2 channel music, with perhaps 30% movies. The added benefit to the Statement IIs is that there is a design for a center channel to compliment them.
Though I would have a ton of fun building something like a boat-hull variant of the Elsinore, that would probably require a bit of a reworking of the crossover, for which I don't really have the requisite knowledge (yet). Reading through Joe's writeup on his site about the Elsinore, it sounds like even minor tweaks to the cabinet (such as corner roundovers greater than about 6mm) can have deleterious effects on diffraction, which has been so carefully modelled and accounted for in the crossover. I guess I am still sufficiently uneducated to know what I can and cannot get away with.
So that brings me to the question about the Elsinores vs the Statement IIs. Would one be more preferable that the other, overall performance-wise? This is a totally subjective question, I understand. In scouring the interwebs there doesn't not seem to be any comparison between the two - that is, no real discussion from folks who've had a chance to listen to both.
My listening will be a majority 2 channel music, with perhaps 30% movies. The added benefit to the Statement IIs is that there is a design for a center channel to compliment them.
-Note: the "boat hull" portion of the design is the rear of the loudspeaker, not the front - so you could still do the very same baffle front and alter the rear to that shape. The only thing you would have to account for is volume (..basically the resulting loudspeaker would be considerably deeper than "stock" Elsinore's).
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