The important point to remember in all of this is that skill in woodwork is distinct and separate from skill in speaker design. People who are specialists and not "all-rounders" should stick to their specialties, and not imagine that they are good at other things just because they are great at one thing.
I know someone who is a great specialist, who wishes he were more well-rounded. The thing is, he makes a boatload of money in his specialty, and can afford to hire people to deal with everything else. And that is exactly what he should do, instead of trying to do some of the things he is ill-suited to do.
I specialize in High Efficiency Heating and cooling systems, but with the internet and asking others for advice I have done world class irrigation systems, designed and built {contracted} houses worthy of AM monthly, done surgery on my dog {he lived}, cut my kids hair {they lived}, cleared and excavated many many many land lots, installed a dt466 engine in one of my service vehicles, installed surveillance systems, shopped for groceries {twice}, ect...
So although speaker design is an art, if he would just do a little research ask a few questions and make some easy decisions his project would come much much further, but to hire someone to design and install the speakers for his "budget" HT build, I would say that is stretching it a little... He just should have done a little more planning, there are so many plans for speakers on the net he could have picked one he liked the reviews and design of and made the enclosure how ever he wanted, sure maybe his enclosure would have differed a little bit, but they probably would still sound listenable... He is aiming towards a speaker that sure will make noise, but thats about it, and when it comes to that, I am only guessing because I can't even make the cabinets this guy is doing, never mind design a speaker from the ground up. He would probably be better off buying a set of fluance towers and making his own cabinets for them... even a bad plan is better than no plan...
How funny would it be if these things ended up sounding amazing and this guy turns out to be some kind of savant, the speaker design sells for millions and we all end up with a set badged "Polk", all other speakers slowly get phased out and people are selling their Sonus Faber setups and replacing them with these things... They sound so good, people pass out the first time they hear them, there are parties in the street, we all know his name and the results from his speakers is world wide, peace, starvation ends because food grows fast when you play his speakers, we no longer need middle eastern fuel because we can now grow corn in the deserts at a phenomenal rate, we burn all other speakers in joy, BUT then it happens, the generation after us, born to the "listeners" {as we will be labeled} turns into a race of mutant monsters, with huge ears and wings with a 10ft wingspan, and they are hunting us and destroying all human life, the only thing that changes them back to human is playing the old speakers, BUT they have all been destroyed, they are gone, except for one set of, yes you guessed it.... B&W CM5's, Russel Crow leads a task force to find the cm5's that were fabled to be last seen in a NY basement apartment, just rumors and stories of the old speakers to go on, he pillages through NY at an exhausting rate, to accidentally stumble upon the B&Ws after spending a torrid night with an asian prostitute named PEG LEE, she was brought to the US at a young age to help construct the world changing speakers, she and millions of others stolen from their beds to work as slaves constructing these monstrous 6 way speakers that are leading to the end of the world as we know it... Having found the cm5's Russel Crow takes them and the remnants of a sony boombox to the center of the city and from the tallest building he presses play, the only cassette he could find starts to play.... "Alright Stop, collaborate and listen, Ice is back with my brand new invention, something grabs a hold of me tightly, then I flow like a harpoon, daily and nightly, will it stop YO, I don't know turn off the lights and Ill glow........
The monster youth starts to retreat to the mountain regions of the world, and the humans start to destroy the speakers, except for that pair of cm5's that saved the world, we slowly start to change the mutants back to human with the cm5's and an old sony boombox...
