Horns and drivers present many limitations. Size is a big one, pardon the pun. The Western Electric 26a that models out to a ~254hZ cut off frequency would not be crossed that low. I don't recall off hand where WE crossed them in the original Mirrophonic II systems. I would like cross no lower than ~400hz. That is a nearly 40" wide horn. Ok, I might try a lower crossover point, depending on the driver, but not too much lower than 400hZ...
All loudspeaker systems are compromise collections. Capitulate size for frequency coverage being one of the most dominant ones. There's thousands of other points to compromise on, to varying degrees of 'importance'. To add to it, a lot of them are rather subjective compromises.
My approach is to design/build the best I can given 3-5 main points.
1 - Cost. No reason to bother designing something I can't afford to build/own.
2 - Size. My main system is in the living room, and while my wife is incredibly understanding, she'll beat me in my sleep if I take over the entire living room.
3 - Reasonable aesthetics. I do my best to not put 'shop' grade systems in the house, at least not for very long.
4 - Cost.
5 - Time. My most precious commodity.
Beyond that all I really care about are 2 main points. I endeavor to learn, discover and hopefully grok new things every day, and especially in long term projects. I have to end up with a system/component that rocks, it has to trigger the grin and butt shake from me or it does not stay in the system.
All loudspeaker systems are compromise collections. Capitulate size for frequency coverage being one of the most dominant ones. There's thousands of other points to compromise on, to varying degrees of 'importance'. To add to it, a lot of them are rather subjective compromises.
My approach is to design/build the best I can given 3-5 main points.
1 - Cost. No reason to bother designing something I can't afford to build/own.
2 - Size. My main system is in the living room, and while my wife is incredibly understanding, she'll beat me in my sleep if I take over the entire living room.
3 - Reasonable aesthetics. I do my best to not put 'shop' grade systems in the house, at least not for very long.
4 - Cost.
5 - Time. My most precious commodity.
Beyond that all I really care about are 2 main points. I endeavor to learn, discover and hopefully grok new things every day, and especially in long term projects. I have to end up with a system/component that rocks, it has to trigger the grin and butt shake from me or it does not stay in the system.