DIY HT Design Stand or Floor Mounted?

Ok, so for those of you just tuning in, we have a budget of $750 per pair not including cabinet materials and a desired bass extension of 60hz +/-10db. The next question is whether this should be a floorstander or stand mounted design. For those that choose to vote (and i hope all readers do as we need the feedback..this project is tailored towards the needs of HT enthusiasts), please add a post as to why you chose either design.

Nice room Big! No matter what we decide on, you can definitley fit it back there.

Exactly! In this project, we want to know what YOU want from a speaker. This will be designed around that. If the group picks stand mounted, then we'll have to figure a way to get all of the remaining performance requirements in a stand mounted box. As of now,that's certainly possible. I chose this polling question early on as most people will add a speaker to their room and not build a room around a speaker. As the remaining polls are posted, the options will reflect what we've already chosen. I'm trying to be as analytical with this as possible. For instance if this poll was one of the last and we already picked ported or sealed and extension was chosen as 30hz, stand mounted would pretty much be a non reality...get where i'm going? The group chose 60hz, so we're not locked in to ported designs......yet. If the group chooses Pro, high efficiency drivers, then ported it will be as the only way to get to 60hz sealed with those is 18" drivers. I'd be amazed if anyone was really willing to live with that. But Hey, that's what this project is about...what the HT enthusiast wants from a HT speaker. I'm surprised floorstanding has such a strong showing as of now.

Don't count out an MTM Big, as the right pair of 8" woofers or larger can move some air. Take a pair of SEAS CA22RNX woofers for example. In a sealed 55L enclosure a parallel pair will play at 117db to 60hz...and to 1.8-2khz on the top end. I'd rather see a mid in there as well and move the XO point up to 3.5k as well.....but we have to wait and see. On another front, i've also been toying with the Kappalight 12LF in pairs, ported with a compression horn waveguide mounted. Budget would be tight but it could be done.....and that would certainly move some air!

And just think, after Brandon's done pulling his hair out while smoothing the response, he'll be ready to tackle our parallel pair like he was folding a blanket.!

Seriously, this is much closer than i thought. I didn't think anyone had an interest in floor standing speakers anymore. Vote count is kinda low.....what gives guys? I hope the DIY Forum isn't suffering from ADHD.

Well this could go either way, as the few 'either way' votes could be applied to floortstanding for a tie. I'll let it run a bit more and see what gives but my first impression says stand mounted which could obviously be built with an empty chamber for floorstanding by those who don't like stands.....or building them.

For those left to vote, please tell us why you chose either cabinet style?

[quote=mjg100;16754501]Usually a tower speaker uses the bottom area to get bass extension. /QUOTE]

And sometimes some pipe resonance to go with it!

Ok, so stand mounted looks like the way to go. It offers some flexibilty in placement and ear height and allows for others to create their own floorstanding version need be. The next poll will certainly begin to limit things a bit, and will 'set up' the bassis for the design once the poll is done. Thanx to all that have voted so far an i hope no one is loosing interest. Hopefully feedback will continue to the final stages of construction which i anticipate will begin by the fall...after all the summer fun of course. I don't get much of that as my job is seasonably dependant on the summer...i vacation in the winter out of neccessity, so the fact that i'm here so often this time of year is that i simply can't go anywhere anyway...if i want to keep my job that is.