Since most of my specific goals for this project deal with power handling, excursion, and bass response, the woofer selection was my first area of concern. My first hunch was to follow the lead of the classic speakers and use 15" woofers, but I didn't like what that would do for me from an aesthetic standpoint. Trying to modernize the design somewhat, a dual woofer design seemed appropriate. In looking through the available options, the Dayton Shielded DVC woofers were a great choice because of their robust construction and ability to net an 8 ohm nominal load. Since the 12" woofer only requires a slightly larger cabinet than the 10" and is only marginally more expensive, I decided on a pair of the SD315-88 woofers per cabinet.

I knew that the most limiting requirement in terms of mid range selection was the sensitivity issue, especially knowing it needed to play fairly low and also maintain an 8 ohm overall impedance. (Not many home audio cone based midranges or mid-woofers have real-world sensitivities that high.) An exception that I found was the Tang Band W6-789S 6-1/2" shielded woofer, I tested and confirmed that it does indeed have a real-world sensitivity of about 91-92 dB. In addition it has a smooth and extended frequency response that would make crossover design easier. Since both my woofers and midrange ended up being shielded, I decided that I should carry this theme through to the tweeter selection. While magnetic shielding wasn't one of my initial design goals, I figured it would be a nice extra bonus and add that much more versatility. Looking for a tweeter with high sensitivity, shielded construction, and a somewhat lively sound, this led me to the Dayton DC25TS-8 1" Titanium dome tweeter.