Help me Pick a design to build (Bed Room), Statement (monitors), Thor, Zrt...?

[avddreamr]

My budget is flexible, as I have am downsizing my av setup, i'm going to sell my halo c1 + jc1 (pair) combo, and a bunch of seas drivers since I'm unlikely to build the orion any time soon. The source is probably to be replaced with a mid-fi reciever, like an onkyo 3008, and maybe a two channel amp in the future if truly necessary.

The room measures 15.5x11.5, listening position is roughly 8 feet away from the 11.5" wall that has a console that measures 70" wide by 26" high, and it's edge is 22" away from wall. I may spend sometime in sketchup this weekend to draw it properly.

Although I have enough space to accommodate mini statements, 32" away from the wall is an visually acceptable speaker position, I fear that being at most 76" from the front baffle with extreme tow in to accommodate an on axis listening position won't be far enough for it sound properly.

I'm open to suggestions. Also my wood working skills aren't the greatest, so if anyone knows anywhere that I can get a flat pack service for the cabinets, that would be great, otherwise I'm going to have a lot of fun with a miter saw and a router. (my most advanced wood working tools).

lets set the preliminary budget as around and preferably well under 1000 for the pair.

[---k---]

I've heard bad things about the Thor kit. The others are good speakers. I don't really need to see a 3d model of your bedroom. I can't recommend the Mini over the ZRT or vice versa because it is just different trade-offs. Lots of options, no one best solution, it is a personal pref thing.

[avddreamr]

I've heard bad things about the Thor kit. The others are good speakers. I don't really need to see a 3d model of your bedroom. I can't recommend the Mini over the ZRT or vice versa because it is just different trade-offs. Lots of options, no one best solution, it is a personal pref thing.

I had the Thor, although when I had it was in a much larger room, and it was a great, as long as you didn't expect crazy response below 60-50hz, I used it with a sub, and crossed it over at around 70hz I think. However, the tweeter wasn't quite at ear height, and it didn't sound right until i was 3 feet from the rear wall, and i was about 9 feet away. Or rather that's where it sounded best.

I guess the zrt would be easier, as the box isn't all that complicated, and is probably at the limit of my wood working skills. It's also substantially more money than the statements.

How compromised would the sound be, being so close to the speakers? Or do you have other suggestions?

[avddreamr]

After figuring because my primary seating position is 8 feet from the wall, clearly any of the larger speakers won't really work in my installation.

So for sake of argument, since I really loved the open midrange of my thors back in the day, which are probably far to large for my room. Or rather my couch is to damn close to the wall.

If I chose to build the statement monitors, would it be better to
chose the 18" away crossover and as such be 66 " inches away from the plane of the speakers where the center line of the speaker are 81" apart, and then be 77.5 or (6.5" feet away from the tweeters), or chose the near wall crossover and then be 6 feet away from the plane of the speakers and then have my ears be nearly 7 feet (82.7 ")away from the tweeters.

Alternatively choosing a design like the ER18xt, would make driver summation less of an issue, I can't imagine the zrt being orders of magnitude better than this design. Since the driver performance difference isn't anywhere near as significant as one would expect given the cost difference, due to the design implementation.

Since both of these are stand mounts, I'm guessing traditional columns on pedestals filled with sand would more than do the job.

In all cases the speakers will be 2 feet away from the side wall.

I hope to pick a project by the end of feb, and hopefully get it done within a few weeks depending on the complexity of the enclosure. Also when building an enclosure is clamping + glue sufficient, or am I going to have to do dovetails? Or would dowels do the trick?