I built a pair of speakers, one. (remember Johnny Dangerously - "Don't hang me on a hook Johnny, my mother hung me on a hook once - Once.")
It was the TNT Big Fun Box with 8" Fostex 206Es, there are pix in my gallery here. They had me sell my Gallo 3.0s but weren't the end of the line. That started me on the road to the Def. 2's.
I still have the BFBs, but now they have Omega Hemp drivers in there. Louis doesn't sell them, I got a used pair second hand a while back. They live in my garage, as ugly as ever but I have a Squeezebox out there with an old Onkyo receiver and I look forward to projects out there so I can listen to that rig. The receiver has bass/treble controls which the speaks need as the room's too big but the drivers are burly and can make real bass if properly massaged. I'll probably have these speakers forever.
In the past I've played around with them as replacements for the Defs. When I was 'without' between the Pros and the 2s I had them in my main room with the good gear. I've also used them as replacements in my new, way-smaller room. Other people don't think so, but I've lived with both enough to trust myself here - the essential tone is surprisingly close. There are a lot of important things the homebrews can't do that the Defs do but the genetic similarity is undeniable, and fun!
I say go for the spheres, that sounds like a super-cool idea. You'll need subs but there's part of the beauty. If you get the loading right in the main cabs you won't need any tweaking from (hopefully) 100 hz up. Then whatever EQ/phase/XO stuff you need can be done completely with the subs. IME, 80 hz with a steep slope is a good target for sub XO. That's about the lowest end of Johnny Cash's voice. If you can get there with the monitors you can have your cake and eat it too. Of course this requires uncommon sub controls.
Most have "frequency" which is a necessary start, almost none have slope. That's not the end of the world but it does limit how high the sub can go without mucking things up. Most have a phase switch but not continuous control. I wouldn't buy a sub without continuous phase. I've measured differences between 'right' and 'wrong' at 28 db which is a ridiculous amount. Sean at Zu said if you're within 25-ish degrees of correct you're getting I think 80% positive contribution at the overlap but with continuous phase you can get it perfect. Without it, there's a strong chance you're not close to 25 degrees.
The other option is that you move the sub all over the room to get phase correct, which may not be best for maximum output or best sound. So you have an imperfect choice.
Then having at the very least 2 bands of parametric EQ is so important to me. More is better. Better-than-flat, in-room bass response is oh so tasty.
Gopher it Rich!
o yea, I'd definitely listen to the Coincidents before buying, hopefully more than once. Not my cuppa.
