After just glancing at all the new posts in here,
Group Build must be heating up.

It looks to me a bit like things I've seen in Linux
developement with lots of cooks and who knows how much
broth.

Anyway.

Way back when the reason I started on the speakerbuilding
hobby was to make the most effective sound for monitoring
and creating digitized sound files from older media.

But the thing that never gets answered-- at least satidfactorily
for me-- is how to plug directly from souncard to speaks. It
would be the ability to yank out those little desktop jobs and
plug in some good ones for listening in the near field.

The belies (?) the idea that you would hook up a standard
amp or receiver to get the needed power for standard audio
equipment (even high efficiency, but that might be another
angle.

The snazziest desktop stuff I've seen was from Swan's.
Way too expensive and still does not solve the plug (into
the soundcard) and play issue.

I always thought the problem could be solved by
powered speakers using gainclones so my question in
this Group Build forum is how to make a product to
solve this dilemma.

Other thing that just occurred to me was some sort
of breakout box like the Creative labs Audigy or the older
Hercules 'theater' box. But the idea was plug and play
direct.

The speaks would be at ear height rather than slanted
as well. I'm using a pair like that now but they are not
plug and play and the driver should be improved to a
4 incher. Perhaps a micro version of a MLTL (Mass Loaded
Transmission Line) whose design is wider than it is deep--
like the EJ Jordan company design for the Jordan 92s.

What's your favorite flavors?

Alkilesh (sp?) mentioned those spiffy wood cone speaks in
the JVC boombox-- mini shelf system. As a cosmetic tweak,
I like this a lot.

I have only experimented with single driver full range designs
because I am electronics-challenged.

And I'd like to keep the project-- the proof of concept--
on the cutting edge of _low cost._

Best bang (or bling bling) for the bux is Fostex or Tangband.
Plus there is a third selection at Creative Sources (though I
don't know the specs) for a driver that prices out between
the Fostex FE127e and the EJ Jordan 92s. The 92s is the
premier single driver speak made and weighs in at about
$140 each.

Dr. Griffin has used the Jordan in a number of projects.

But since effieciency is a primary consideration, I'm
waiting to hear other suggestions I may have overlooked.

The goal of the project is to enhance the newer developments
in streaming audio. As more people go to broadband, the desktop
PC can function as a radio without noticeable degradation of
performance-- in my case anyway.

I can get by with dialup. But while I do, I know that
trying to play classical music from Las Vegas or testing new speaker
designs with the Pipedreams organ recital will slow the
rest of my PII rig down to a crawl.

Since this is a plug and play (hopefully not plug and pray)
project, the plug-in, high quality, self-powered speakers should
also compliment the desktop components. I truly believe that
cosmetics are important.

On the download question, the ftp and newsgroup sites that
provide binary downloads should have the news on this.

Also a good first stop is www.slyck.com which has the
current news on p2p and detailed tutorials for using
newsgroups and such.

The player that I've heard the best things about is
Foobar. Reason is that foobar is updated and tweaked more
than some of the majors and I think it's open source. It's based
on Winamp and I believe is skinnable etc.

Well, this driver is brand new at Creative Sound Solutions.
It is priced half way between the Fostex 127e and the Jordan 92s
at about $60. It is shielded so any prob's with the magnet in
a cab should be eliminated.

We never talked about what would power the amp in the box.
That's another wrinkle.

Just as a design concept I thought of a variation on the
Jordan TL.

With the 'koda" (which is what the CSS driver is called without
all it's numbers) I thought of an asymetrical mount with the
driver in one corner in a mirror matched pair at the outside corner.
The terminus of the line would fire inwards (left and right) toward the center.

This would be a 'pancake' design and not in the golden ratio.
The depth would be the smallest measurment so as to conserve
on desktop real estate front to back.

The inside would have a divider to increase the line length.

Can one of you CAD guys model that?

Hey this may be dumb, but nothing is as dumb as the Kleinhorn.
Nelson Pass has lost his grip. And AudioXpress is actually featuring
it as a build. I thought it was cool at first, but who'd want to
live with such a construction? It makes the J-lo look tame doesn't it?

• CSS/Adire Audio "koda"

My missing issue of _audioXpress_ came and whaddaya know--
a possible inboard amp that is THX rated was reviewed by
Charles Hansen.

The Link shown below is not the manufacturer. I could
not link to what was given called www.d2audio.com but
a google turned up what I think is a commercial theatre
application.

Hansen mentioned the trend to putting the amp in the
box (and I thought I had something original going-- aside
from branded studio monitors.) See _audioXpress_ December
2004 p. 44 "New Chips on the Block."

Anyway, it's another fish to fry. No clue as to where
the juice is supposed to come from for this module though.
This of course is still planning stage stuff.

The theatrical line array description mentions
individual d2's for each speak digitally controlled or
sumpin'. I wasn't just totally following it and I'm
not an engineer. Wish I knew more about the device.

• DR Audio amp