I’ve chosen to build a design that uses the full line of tweeters and line of woofers. I’ve also built it using Dayton ND20A ¾ inch neo tweeters, which I have cut the flanges to reduce comb filtering distortion to beyond 14,000hz. I have a word picture document that shows how I did that available by email. Since I’m using Neo dome tweeters, I’m also using original $17 Korean Sammi 3.5 inch mini-woofers which go down to about 100hz. The Sammi’s have a 3.5 mm xmax, exceptionally large for a 3 inch speaker. The crossover for the Sammi’s is 165hz and about 2600hz. I’m using 17 Sammi’s per side which go from about 6 inches of the floor to about 3 inches from the ceiling. Each Sammi is encased in its own sealed 23.5 inch pvc pipe, and stuffed with 4 lb/cu foot fiberglass fill. The tweeter line is 33 inches long, and involves 30 Dayton Neos per side. I have supplemented the two floor to ceiling arrays with a separate 12 inch DVC 15 mm xmax woofer for each side. Currently its in the 2.5 cu foot vented box of my previous speaker system. But I am building a 8.5 cu foot sonotube column design for them, which will lower the bass to about 17hz.

The system is Quad amped. Using RMS numbers, the tweeter amp is rated at 65 w/ch, the midrange/mid woofers amp is rated at 250 w/ch, and the 2 separate woofer amps are rated at 350 w/ch. I use a Rane 3 way electronic crossover with time delay, and a DOD constant Q equalizer. I have an Apex 220, and Macintosh Fuzzbuster sound graphing software to balance the system crossovers and equalization. The system is not Tapered. In my opinion most actual live music settings that are not in huge halls or outside exhibit wide vertical soundstage bloom, so having it in my own setting brings more of a live performance into the room. The system is designed to operate entirely in the near field for listening. Regular seating is about 9 feet from the speakers which keeps the tweeter array in the near field also.

I listen mostly to classical, including organ, with some rock, folk, Celtic, and blues. I avoid Rapp and most Jazz.

What does your line array look like?

Marlboro

What's the frequency response look like without the equalizer? 25 of them should smooth it pretty well without equalization to begin with.

I would have like to use 25 of the Sammi's, but I also wanted them to be in individual sealed tubes for all the benefits of tube enclosures. That meant 4 inch tubes, and a space between the tubes.

Marlboro

But since I'm also building the woofers using sonotubes and those are essentially pressed cardboard about 1/8 inch thick. They'll have a mdf and hardwood top and bottom looking like a greek pedestal. I'll be using a series of MDF pieces sliced and glued together with a hole cut in the center for the woofers.

Marlboro

I heard the Russell arrays at RMAF and I don't think they suck either. I found myself drawn into the music, especially if it was highly dynamic music, and they were good with the softer stuff too. I suspect pulling them out from the wall would have enhanced the soundstage depth too. I wouldn't pay $19K for them given the other arrays that are available at and below that price, and would choose a two way with ribbon tweeters instead. But I still believe this would be a great sounding speaker for the price if you DIY it, and I've been tempted to build a pair using Tang Band drivers. Only problem is I would have to sell a pair of Theater Three Pi's to make room for them, and I can't bear to part with the Three Pi's.

My present reference arrays are the Selah Audio XT-8's in a ported configuration. I have heard speakers that have greater resolution along with more authoritative and extended bass (Wilson, JM Labs, Acapella, Garshman Acoustics, etc), but I haven't heard anything I would prefer to have in my listening room more than the XT-8's.

My "fun" arrays are the silly cheap ART arrays that are described elsewhere on this forum. All I can say about these is that you have to hear them to appreciate how good $350 can sound, especially with a low power tube amp.

Early results lead me to believe I can make the passive version sound just as good, if not better than the active pair, with a less complex crossover than I'd anticipated, with the XOs at 500/3200. Of course, I might as well weld the speakers into place, because it won't take much movement to require a re-engineering of the crossover.

Ultimately, I'd like to be able to build some room treatments and see if I can leave the XO the same, but be able to move the arrays into different rooms and achieve acceptable sound by tweaking only the various traps and diffusers.