Hello.  After closely following the Big Betsy thread and also digesting the Palomino Audio Project thread, I took the plunge and bought a pair of Crystal 10 drivers.  They are now mounted in a basic rectangular baffle powered by my 25th anniversary Zen.  I have supplemented it with my Omega Deep 8 subwoofer (high-passed and crossed at 110hz) and AudioSmile supertweeters.

Even in a very crude baffle, I am quite happy with the sound and feel like it all blends together pretty well.  With only 15 hours on it, this already sounds better than my Omega Super Alnico setup did.  That being said, I am sure there is much more potential here.  Options to be considered are:

1) Add LiiAudio W15 woofers to the baffle below the Crystal 10s and power them with a separate amp.  Continue to run the Crystal 10s full range with the Zen amp.  Dump the Omega sub.

2) Add separate Servo subwoofers as stands to support a modified baffle containing the Crystal 10s.

3) Add ZRock2.  

Option 3 may be the easiest to implement but I feel that options 1 or 2 may provide a better option long term.  Based on the vast amount of experience out there, does anyone see pros and cons to any of the potential options?

P.S.  I am a complete newbie to building any type of speaker.  I have a table-saw, router, and jigsaw and am figuring it out as I go.  So far so good though!   

I've been a big fan of the ZROCK2 but for the past month I've had mine completely out of the system.  I started suspecting that is was "adding" things I didn't like.  I have the F15s in big baffles and Steve doesn't use the ZR2 with his F15s.  With this intro, I wonder too if you won't be better served by a sub.  I was very impressed by what one did for the Mini Radials.

Did you go back through the CR10 posts by Steve to see if he used a sub with them?  I remember he ran some different things in his open baffles.

I am pretty sure he didn’t use a sub but he did strongly recommend the ZRock and used it with them.

This Omega sub is not a massive slow beast that goes super deep.  It is really designed to provide bass support for the Omega single driver speakers.  It doesn’t shake the floor but on the plus side  the sound is not localized even crossed over at 110.

Ells, you will need a sub amplifier for the mid bass. And you can use the Palomino magic cable to optimize their usage. I was absolutely lost at first, but Pal talked me through it. Hard to get at first, but I finally understood. Go back and read the Big Betsy thread closely. I think that’s where that info is.

I found where Palomino explained how the sub amp and woofer connections are made. It is on the lower part of the page:  https://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb22/YaBB.pl?num=1454259615/500

The amp is a Crown XLS 1002.

You may reach out to Palomino too. He was able to get it through my hard head, so he does a good job of explaining it.

There you go!  I’ve seen his posts on the Lii Audio Facebook page.

I have thought about going with the Betsy shaped baffles.  However, that doesn’t work for my wife so it is out of the picture.  I am pushing my luck as it is!

Groovysauce and I look to be on a similar path.

Groovy sauce - when you get a chance can you explain how you plan to amplify the W15s and how you are dealing with a crossover?  Thanks.

After having explored the options a bit more, I am going to order the W15s and power then with one of the CrownXLS amps.  

I will use a RCA out from my preamp to the Crown or continue to run speaker wire from Zen speaker taps and use a device that converts the speaker wires to a RCA signal.

This may be biting off more than I can chew but it should be fun to try.

I found this little guy a while back.
This is what I use with my open baffle subs. With this you can use any amp you have laying around. It works perfectly.

https://rolls.com/product/SX95

Still waiting for thenW15's to arrive but am now considering a few different ideas.  I don’t want to crash into the original  Big Betsy thread as this is off-topic.

A question is about creating separate panels for the W15 and C10.  Combining them into one baffle seems to open up the possibility that the bass woofer will send vibrations to the Crystal 10 and smear the sound slightly.  Having separate panels as Groovysauce shows in his picture seems to make sense.

Does creating separate panels for each woofer allow for better isolation of the C10 driver?

Wow, with a Torii Mk IV you'll have lots of headroom! Looking forward to your impressions.

After two months, the speakers are finally operational.  The W-15s and Crystal 10s are in the same baffle with the Crystal 10s powered by the 25th Anniversary amp and the W15s powered by a Crown XLS1502.   The 10s run full range while the W15s are cut off at 180.

The sound is everything I hoped for and more.  Hearing bass from a 15 inch woofer is a revelation.  The soundstage, detail, and tone are superb.  I haven’t played around too much with the crossover point on the W15s but the integration between the woofers feels seamless.  

I just can’t say enough about how much I am enjoying the sound.  I never thought I could build speakers of this quality.   Thanks to all for their help on this thread.

I will try to post some pictures this weekend.  This is my first speaker build and greatly surpassed expectations.  I am still basking in the new sound but can’t imagine going back to box speakers again.

One more picture.  When listening I have the blinds down and have a still
Stillpoints aperture set up behind the speakers.  Two GIK diffusers are on the way so I will see what impact they have.

By the way, what is the hole size for the 15’s?

I know what you mean. It is really hard to stop listening  

I’m sorry lazb. Folks definitely take a lot of things in life for granted. Covid was a wake up call for some of these.

Hoping your wait is over with quickly!

Very best,

Geno