Hi Merle,
Your speakers are coming along nicely, and will be ready soon.
By definition, loudspeakers are inherently flawed devices requiring a balancing of compromises to achieve an acceptable result. The fact that a loudspeaker must terminate its output into 4-dimensional space, and that space is always different for each end-user, only serves to complicate matters. For these reasons alone there is no such thing as a "perfect" loudspeaker. They simply don't exist.
We approached the development of the Eilish and Keelin differently than we did the Eire. When we were first setting the criteria for the Eire we had been doing custom work exclusively since 1993. The Eire was our first commercial offering and we wanted to make a product that would compete against any similar product (ie. 2-driver, 2-way, either stand-mounted or floor-standing), regardless of cost. Not a small undertaking when you consider the sea of competing products - and some very good ones to boot. Therefore, every decision we made was based on achieving that goal. Reviewers, and more importantly, Eire owners are best suited to speak to the results of our efforts.
Nevertheless, I don't know that we were the first, but we were one of the very first loudspeaker companies to be internet focused and direct-sales only when we opened our web site and introduced the Eire in March of 1997.
For the Eilish and Keelin speakers, we set similar criteria in terms of competing with similar type products, but this time at a particular price-point. Simply due to the financial constraints you may not get to do all the things in design and engineering that you might like to do. However, that shouldn't preclude your ability to make a well-engineered, good-value product.
In terms of developing a product, it's really a mix of measurements and subjective evaluation. Both are needed to achieve an acceptable balance of trade-off's. There are extreme positions on both sides of that equation. I'm not willing to throw one out in favor of the other. Both are needed.
Once the criteria is set, choosing the drivers is the next step. There are many ways to approach this depending on several factors. In general, you can expect to go through lots of potential driver spec-sheets while narrowing down your choices for suitability for your particular application. Once you arrive at a few viable candidates, you can begin the process of elimination by direct measurement and evaluation. Eventually you'll arrive at a driver compliment that represents a balance of trade-off's (have I said that before?), that is acceptable for the given criteria.
Acoustical measurements are nearly meaningless at this point in terms of x-over design as you don't have a final enclosure to measure the drivers in. Designing the enclosure is a prerequisite to beginning any x-over work. You can expect to build several prototype enclosures dealing with the low-frequency response of the driver in the enclosure and internal cabinet issues before even looking at any acoustical issues. Then, you may well find acoustical issues that require more enclosure modifications, and you begin the process over again.
Okay, you now have the drivers, the enclosure, and the cosmetics worked-out and are ready to go after the x-over network. This is the ball-game. Expect to spend many hours with your measurements, tools, and experience to develop what "looks" like an acceptable balance of trade-off's (there's that phrase again). The x-over gets built and the system is evaluated both objectively and subjectively. Expect to go through this process at least a few times before an acceptable balance of trade-off's is achieved. (Getting the idea?)
We don't make perfect loudspeakers - no one does. Measurements are not the final arbiter, nor are subjective opinions. However, measurements are a whole lot easier to defend.
This is a very broad subject. I hope I've given you a general idea of the process. How I go about determining what's acceptable and at what cost is based on something like 25-years tortureing myself with these things. In the end, what drives me is the satisfaction of each and every client who chooses to do business with us. If you don't like the results of our efforts, who cares about the how or why?
