If you plan on designing or building speakers, especially open-baffle dipole types or subwoofers, you need to check out Seigfreid Linkwitz’s vast Linkwitz Lab site. He is a retired microwave engineer from Hewlett-Packard, and applies an engineer’s insight and detail to his designs without getting into the fatal “meter-reader only” mindset that many professional audio engineers fall into. Although he sells both products and design services, he doesn’t hold back in putting up his design details onto his website. It is now so large that he sells a CDROM of the entire site, which is especially helpful for people like me with slow dial-up internet access. I could go on and on about all the interesting parts of the site, but the best thing is to peruse it yourself.
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Notable Site: Linkwitz Lab
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Hi John,
you’re absolutely right. This man has been very productive the last 5 or 10 years. His site is jam packed with theory and data, very cool indeed. But somehow I never decided to build one of his designs. Someone posted a question the other day on AA, a question that has been going through my mind for a long time: how will they sound? I think if you like the sound of tubes, then you cannot help but to raise an eyebrow on the looks of all those opamps and electrolytics in there. I guess you have to hear them to find out.
Good to see some new posts.
Arend-Jan
Eyebrow raising is instinctive. Talking about listening … “is like dancing about architecture”
I have enjoyed many dance performances. I have no ideas why, it has always seemed OK for me to enjoy something without a reassuring net of words and diagrams to support my pleasure. I now play mad audio applications engineer and occasionally I hear more than I had ever suspected. The danger comes from thinking aural phenomena is all ‘out there’. The only thing out there is wiggling air. The fun stuff is all ‘in here’. Changing out there to follow what I think is happening in here is fun, too, if it improves what I think is happening in here. But, thinking I am making useful rules for out there is simply Hubris. Audio is an inside job, for some of us 
Happy Ears!
Al
Good job John for mentioning the Linkwitz site. It captured my attention and when I was in Denver for RMAF I took time out to visit an Orion owner in the mountains, to hear his speakers.
Siegried’s description of their sound is honest and precise. They are the most natural sounding (as in a complete absence of coloration and boxiness). Most speakers I hear have flaws somewhere - the Orions are viceless, the only area worthy of comment is the lack of bass extension below about 40Hz, however that applies to most speaker designs.
And no, Arend-Jan, the electrolytics and op-amps are totally benign. My experience of the Orions challenged my prejudices about active speakers and solid state amplification.
There is a link on the Orion site to a list of owners who are happy to invite prospective Orion builders into their homes to hear for themselves.
The Orion is a DIY project however the build appears straight forward (well, it’s an open baffle!) and the costs are moderate for a speaker system that is world class.
I also love Mr Linkwitz’s take on audiophiles’ obsession with expensive cables. I plan to build a pair of Orions for my second system, although not in the immediate future.