My pipe diameter is tandard 4" with the fittings.

I do not have golden ears for listening to what's here..
more like cabbage ears.

Most of my listening is done with the Yamaha RP U100
receiver. I originally began experimenting with the 1197's
across the room on a bench system. The bench system consists of
a Radio Shack SA155... the smallest and lowest power unit
there is on a commercial basis. I got that used because it has
a built-in phono preamp. On the bench set-up I managed
to transfer a couple phonograph tracks. That was my primary
intention for the bench machine. Somebody donated an old
Pioneer turntable to me and I bought a fresh Grado cartridge
for it.

I figured I could upgrade parts as a I went.

My 1197s are blue box and cost about the same. I read about
them in the forums and so word of mouth sent me to the store
to go see if there were any left.

As part of this dialog I began reading your introductory pages
the t-lines but am not very far with that yet so I don't have any
sensible sort of questions.

I'm moving the 1197's from one project to another. They started out in cardboard boxes.

I had wondered how SPL effects pushing the sound through such a long length... or which of the parameters addresses the issue of
pushing the sound through a long length.

Send me a mail with your address. I will take some snaps
and send them to you. The footprint of these things isn't really
that large. Both toobz sit on a piece of chipboard shelving
I get for $.69/ea. The shelving is 10 1/2 inches by 23 1/2.

I'm reminded of some recent postings in the Full Range Driver forum which related to building with sonotube. More dimension
is available with that and the upshot of the article was that
sonotube sound (which I figure is similar to what I have) sounded
better to the listeners than more expensive rigs in the same room.

I have not found any fault with the boomtoobz except insofar
as announcers on their various mic setups can sound from ok to
peculiar. But those shortcomings are tranparent when listing
to concert performances like Pipe Dreams and other classical
reproductions.

To conclude, you said up there that a 3/4 wavelength pipe
would be a total of 10 ft. What could I expect by adding on
another short length to go the full 10 ft. distance?
Would anything be gained?

Since the 3 ft. 4" length for a TL is pretty close to
my shorter tube, I'm thinking that the driver should
be on the shorter length which would be closer to listener's
sitting height and the back tube would be open and may
not even need an elbow for "directionality" if I'm
reading what you're saying correctly. In that configuration
it'd prob'ly look more like a calliope.

Which way to go for a driver upgrade or leave well-enough
alone?

lon@athenet.net