There is a free, and easy to use program called WinISD which can be used to give you a recommended cabinet volume.
As to "what type" of crossover you would need to give you a relavitvely flat freq. response, well, that depends a lot on the FR of the driver, which, unfortunately, Parts Express has not measured and published for us on their website. (I wish they would stop doing that, I wish they would make available freq. response files for all the drivers they sell!) So, you'll either have to "measure" the speaker or find someone else's measurement to use. I have ordered four of those drivers and hope to at least test one within a week. But, I may have to wait until after I finish some home renovation...
If a Rocket Scientist was asking me about a problem he was having with his rocket design I would reply: "hey, it's only rocket science, it's not like you're trying to design a speaker".
I see this phrase "proven design" being tossed around in this thread without an explanation? I would say that basically all speakers that have been built so far are mediocre at best, but typically poor. So, what does that mean "proven"?
I guess a lot of speakers make noise that's pleasant to hear and give us a vague approximation of listening to instruments. But I challenge any of you to find a speaker
at any price that could fool most of us into believing that, say, a real cello was playing in the room in front of us, if we listened with our eyes closed.
Having said all that... "Designing" your own speakers using diy drivers from stores like Parts Express is a lot more complicated than the "average Joe" would imagine, but, it wouldn't have to be, if the speaker designing programs weren't so gawd-awful user-unfriendly in their interface designs. I've used hundreds, maybe thousands, of different softwares, taught myself how to use most of them, but programs like Speaker Workshop, Sound Easy, and LspCAD are all sooo obtuse and give me headaches :gah:
:dizzy: :surrender: - once I figure them out, the crossover portion of the designs will be easy.
I'm guessing that those programs must be a lot easier to figure out for some people, and, if you're willing to figure them out then I say go ahead and make some of your own designs first, then, if you aren't satisfied with your own designs and don't want to pursue that avenue further, maybe try one of the designs that are popular.
Before I spent hundreds of $ on parts for an existing design to build for myself, I would like to have the chance to listen to one that's been built already. Hopefully I'll get to listen to some at some sort of diy audio event this year.
Even if you did build some speakers without measuring / simulating them; just by looking at the specs & FR graphs then maybe using something like FRD Tools FR combiner to come up with a simple crossover, you might come up with something better than a lot of the commercial speakers that are available.
There are dozens of finer details most often overlooked in most designs, you could spend months just working on designing an enclosure - I've done that. I ended up with a nice small cabinet that included: constrained layer damping, extensive precise bracing, lead sheets, roofing tar, multiple types of wood to combine materials with different resonant properties, carefully selected and placed sound absorbing materials inside, etc...
If size is not so much an issue than something like this can yield a cabinet far more "dead" than most commercial enclosures: build a double-walled cabinet with about a 1/2" - 1" space between the walls and fill with sand. When the inner wall's vibration modes are stimulated by the back wave the friction of the sand particles rubbing together as that force is channeled out will convert most of that sound energy to heat, not to mention the beneficial effect of the mass...
The other thing about building a DIY speaker is that you Must have not only the right tools for the job but the patience. Unless your happy with a box cut only using a table saw and a jigsaw your not even close to getting a good result if you plan to display them in a well used room.
People forget that the reason speakers like B&W cost the money they do is because of the detail and simply the sound quality you get from them. Internal bracing is a key factor in building a proper enclosure.
Remember that your time is also worth money and a DIY project done right takes many, many hours. Some people on here take weeks to build just one speaker.
The satisfaction of DIY once completed is really rewarding as there are DIY speakers that turn out better than any store bought ones but this usually takes several tries and allot of money invested.
I agree mostly, but I listened to several different higher-end B&W speakers and found none of them to be pleasant enough to listen to for more than a few minutes. Perhaps something is wrong with me, but I don't like most speakers :hush: for more than several years now. I did like the Madrigal Revel Salon Ultimas I listened to about 5 years ago, and most decent speakers can do a great job at Home Theater, but for music, all so disappointing...