Well, ultimate to me, anyway.
Here's my situation, my plan, and my questions.
1. The situation: I need a set of nearfield monitors for my desktop at home.
My uses: This is for my home office, and this is where I listen to music the most. I spend a lot of hours in there every day, some doing real work while listening to music, and some playing guitar along to the music from my monitors. When I'm doing real work, the music is at relatively low volumes, and I have picky ears, but when I play, I play loud, and the monitors need to keep up. The monitors will be on stands that are probably no more than 6" from the wall.
What I've tried: I'm currently using Logitech Z623 2.1 computer speakers, which are awful. Not nearly loud enough, horrible sound quality. (They're OK as far as computer speakers go, but not anywhere near what I'm looking for.) I used to use a pair of Aria 5R speakers placed on the opposite wall from my desk, and they were pretty good (once I treated the room with bass traps and absorption). But those have been adopted by my living room, so I'm stuck with the Logitechs until I build something better.
My resources: I have a very good woodshop (including CNC) and plenty of woodworking experience. My budget is around $3k for the pair of monitors, including amplification. I have a spare sub driver that I'll use for the low end, so my budget is in addition to that. I've built quite a few speakers before, but this is a different level of budget, given that these are going to be the speakers I listen to most of the time.
2. The plan:
Active crossovers using MiniDSP
3-way monitors using Illuminator series drivers -- D3004/604010 tweeters, 12MU/4731T-00 mids, and 18WU woofers
A sub that will double as a printer stand using a 13" Focal subwoofer I have laying around.
3. The questions:
a. Input on drivers and design. I don't really have questions, but I know how much you all want to comment and tell me how you would do it differently, using different drivers, using a 2-way design or full range, or how I should really put all of this on my roof instead of in the home office. So let 'em fly. I welcome your thoughts.
b. Amplification: This is the tricky part for me. Typically, studio monitors use plate amplifiers. But I'm struggling to find plate amplifiers with three channels each, which I think is what I would need for a 3.1 system. (Minidsp makes a PWR-DSP3, but that is a ridiculous amount of power and would blow up my budget, especially by the time I get another plate amp for the sub.) So the only ideas I've come up with so far are:
(i) Put two plate amplifiers in each monitor (with two power cords, uggh), one of which has two channels.
(ii) Use a single 2-channel plate amp in each monitor, but set up a passive filter for the tweeter and mid, to be driven by one channel of the amp, and use the other amp channel for the woofer. Which eliminates a lot of the benefit of the active filter.
(iii) Use external amp(s), with three channels to each monitor, and a separate plate amp for the sub.
None of these options are ideal. I would really like to find a good 3-channel plate amp that won't blow my already generous budget.
c. Anything else you want to say.
Once I get some designs started, I'll post some CAD drawings.
Here's my situation, my plan, and my questions.
1. The situation: I need a set of nearfield monitors for my desktop at home.
My uses: This is for my home office, and this is where I listen to music the most. I spend a lot of hours in there every day, some doing real work while listening to music, and some playing guitar along to the music from my monitors. When I'm doing real work, the music is at relatively low volumes, and I have picky ears, but when I play, I play loud, and the monitors need to keep up. The monitors will be on stands that are probably no more than 6" from the wall.
What I've tried: I'm currently using Logitech Z623 2.1 computer speakers, which are awful. Not nearly loud enough, horrible sound quality. (They're OK as far as computer speakers go, but not anywhere near what I'm looking for.) I used to use a pair of Aria 5R speakers placed on the opposite wall from my desk, and they were pretty good (once I treated the room with bass traps and absorption). But those have been adopted by my living room, so I'm stuck with the Logitechs until I build something better.
My resources: I have a very good woodshop (including CNC) and plenty of woodworking experience. My budget is around $3k for the pair of monitors, including amplification. I have a spare sub driver that I'll use for the low end, so my budget is in addition to that. I've built quite a few speakers before, but this is a different level of budget, given that these are going to be the speakers I listen to most of the time.
2. The plan:
Active crossovers using MiniDSP
3-way monitors using Illuminator series drivers -- D3004/604010 tweeters, 12MU/4731T-00 mids, and 18WU woofers
A sub that will double as a printer stand using a 13" Focal subwoofer I have laying around.
3. The questions:
a. Input on drivers and design. I don't really have questions, but I know how much you all want to comment and tell me how you would do it differently, using different drivers, using a 2-way design or full range, or how I should really put all of this on my roof instead of in the home office. So let 'em fly. I welcome your thoughts.
b. Amplification: This is the tricky part for me. Typically, studio monitors use plate amplifiers. But I'm struggling to find plate amplifiers with three channels each, which I think is what I would need for a 3.1 system. (Minidsp makes a PWR-DSP3, but that is a ridiculous amount of power and would blow up my budget, especially by the time I get another plate amp for the sub.) So the only ideas I've come up with so far are:
(i) Put two plate amplifiers in each monitor (with two power cords, uggh), one of which has two channels.
(ii) Use a single 2-channel plate amp in each monitor, but set up a passive filter for the tweeter and mid, to be driven by one channel of the amp, and use the other amp channel for the woofer. Which eliminates a lot of the benefit of the active filter.
(iii) Use external amp(s), with three channels to each monitor, and a separate plate amp for the sub.
None of these options are ideal. I would really like to find a good 3-channel plate amp that won't blow my already generous budget.
c. Anything else you want to say.
Once I get some designs started, I'll post some CAD drawings.
Do some box simulations and prove me wrong. If you are good with that then no problem. 
