Speaker Designers Needed.

[square_wave]

The newer constant directivity products like Dutch and Dutch 8C, Kai Audio KII3 with BXT, Earl Geddes's designs and Genelec designs would trump the earlier designs. Only blind A/B testing would confirm subjectively. But then there are polar charts of both the designs already available and its very clear. Times have changed.
Its 2026 and I believe, passive crossovers and non waveguide designs are a thing of past especially for DIYers like us, DSP offers so much and there are plenty of amps and drivers available, no dearth of anything. If one has a budget, one can make a very nice system that commercial designs dont offer.

At the outset, let me say that I am a fan of speakers that come with waveguides or dual concentric drivers. If they dont come with one of those, then the design has to be special enough to get acceptable directivity but are still maximising the benefits of not having a waveguide.
I agree....Waveguides are a powerful tool, but they are not an absolute requirement for a great loudspeaker. They primarily address dispersion control and off-axis consistency, which is only one part of sound quality. Many world-class manufacturers deliberately choose other priorities and achieve outstanding results without waveguides at all. Companies like Vandersteen Audio focus on time- and phase-coherent designs using low-order crossovers and physical driver alignment; Wilson Audio prioritizes dynamic realism, scale, and mechanical time alignment through modular enclosures; and ATC achieves exceptional accuracy via dedicated midrange drivers, massive motors, and active control rather than radiation shaping. These speakers are globally respected precisely because they excel in tonal realism, dynamics, and musical engagement—demonstrating that waveguides are a design choice, not a prerequisite. In loudspeaker design there is no single “correct” solution, only informed tradeoffs, and history clearly shows that greatness can be achieved through multiple, equally valid paths.

I agree with you that "fully active systems" utilising an active crossover and separate outboard amplification for each driver will outperform a passive crossover type loudspeaker that is driven with just one amplifier. However that increases complexity and cost.

However, most speakers that have these amps inbuilt into the speaker chassis itself and driven by an active crossover sound great but many are easily beaten by systems that use a more traditional approach. They usually have their pros and cons. Very subjective stuff. I personally know someone who bought a costly active genelec to sell it soon and went back to a traditional system.

There are of course very high end DIY people who make custom stuff that are really awesome. But those are usually not very commercially feasible.

At the OP, sorry for diverting the topic. Many apologies if this is diverting the thread from your goal.

 

[Vineethkumar01]

Yes. In 2026, there are smartly designed waveguides available for easy DIY that are significantly better than any commercial ones..
So all the following and more can be easily achieved in DIY..

1. dispersion control and off-axis consistency
2. time- and phase-coherent designs
3. dynamic realism and scale
4. tonal realism, dynamics, and musical engagement

Don't believe me?
Here is a 3way system that I put together (off course with help from @sadik who built the cabinets and the horn for me).
Both midbass and sub use "small" 40litres sealed cabinets..


passive crossover between the midbass (Faital pro 15PR400) and the horn (EXAR 400 horn with SB Audience 65CDN-T compression driver with a custom 1.4-inch to 1-inch throat adaptor)
The crossover between midbass and horn is approximately 850Hz, passive. The crossover between the subwoofer (SB audience NERO SW800) and midbass is approximately 80Hz and is implemented using a Minidsp. Hypex NC250 amplifier drives the midbass-horn section. An O&B amp drives the subwoofer

Measurements


For the sake of completeness, and for someone who wonders what it all sounds like (with all faults in the process of streaming a low-res file from Spotify, recording with a mobile phone, and putting it on YouTube), here is something

Not even sky is the limit these days..
Those manufacturers using flowery language to describe things and make it all seem achievable only via some proprietary techniques are simply lying.

 

[grindstone]

good to see you found your way back to big

 

[keroo1099]

@Vineethkumar01, sounds great for a mobile phone recording. First impressions are clarity and a big sound.

Don't large drivers like what you have overload the room as I don't I see any room damping.

 

[diyaudio]

@Vineethkumar01, sounds great for a mobile phone recording. First impressions are clarity and a big sound.

Don't large drivers like what you have overload the room as I don't I see any room damping.

Large driver produce constant directivity into lower frequency than smaller drivers and hence send less energy into the room hence they are better suited to small rooms. I know its counter intuitive but thats the physics of constant directivity

 

[square_wave]

@Vineethkumar01, sounds great for a mobile phone recording. First impressions are clarity and a big sound.

Don't large drivers like what you have overload the room as I don't I see any room damping.

From what I can see in his original post, he said " Both midbass and sub use "small" 40litres sealed cabinets." I guess that is why it is working well. If you make large volume conventional speakers with such large drivers and especially ported designs, the speaker will almost certainly overload the room. I am sure it is the particular design characteristics and driver characteristics that makes it work well. @Vineethkumar01 , could you shed some light on those ?

 

[keroo1099]

From what I can see in his original post, he said " Both midbass and sub use "small" 40litres sealed cabinets." I guess that is why it is working well.

I completely missed that. That's a volume slightly smaller than 1½ CFT which is really tiny for a 15" mid driver that goes down to 850 hz