I would love the opinions of you DIY forum members about my design.
I have offered to build a custom 5.1 setup for my wife's parents' living room. To meet the aesthetic demands of the Mrs., my father-in-law and I have decided to custom build a wall unit that will house the TV, LCR speakers (and perhaps the sub). I know this is probably not optimal, but there is no convincing her of adding a pair of floorstanding speakers and a 2'x2'x2' wooden cube to the furniture arrangement she has chosen. It also seemed that building the speakers into the shelves would yeild much better performance than just placing bookshelf speakers in the cabinet. My main idea is that this will be a 1-piece, 3-speaker enclosure that also holds the TV & electronics; not an entertainment center with speakers shoved in it.
I was originally drawn to TLS Guy's "Recession buster" Audax design
Audax 2.5 way, but when I started poking around his blog/website, I was also intrigued by the MTM using the Dayton RS drivers and the
Beston Ribbon Tweeter. How do the two designs compare in terms of performance and ease of construction? (I posed this question to TLS Guy directly, but he's quite busy these days. I don't expect many of you have built/heard both designs, but maybe you have some ideas about the drivers or designs). The Dayton/Beston crossover appears simpler and cheaper at a glance, so I'm leaning toward that design.
Would you recommend either design for my setup? What information do you need to make an informed recommendation? Here is my sketch of the wall unit. It won't be built until this summer, so I can make some adjustments if it will improve the sound performance. The red spaces are my intended locations for the LCR speakers; that is open for adjustment, however, the overall dimensions (10' wide, 60" TV directly centered) can't be changed. I'd estimate the total room volume to be about 4000 cu. ft. because it is a big great room that opens to the dining area and kitchen. The living room itself is about 2400 cu. ft.
I'm reconsidering putting the sub in the EC--I originally conceived of a sealed sub built into the bottom-left compartment of the EC. Then I say a really nice end-table build on the rythmik website, so that might be an option.
Anyway, your thoughts?