Ok, a little brainstorming post, so bear with me…
Not trying to be selfish, but as r1 was done partly for Amir, r2 is more for my own use. That said, just the initial thread here demonstrates there are like-minded members. So, my vision for r2 is a more extensible speaker than r1. I want to start with a base set of solid parts and be able to deploy them in multiple ways. A good example is what Krutke did with his ZA5, but updating the approach to take advantage of more current technology.
Given this, agree we still need to have an initial target or two. So, while still like the floorstander aesthetic, suggest it might also be a bookshelf as well. So, while am tempted to keep the Seas DXT from r1, the Purifi woofer price is not conducive to being used for scalability unfortunately. If you accept the premise of my proposed concept, the coaxial gets shelved too. Am still pretty sure there is not a better alternative to the minidsp 2x4 HD, so plan to keep it for now.
So, the r2 bookshelf should get back to my price target of $1000 per pair (with XO and without amps). The floorstander would initially be the bookshelf in a larger cabinet, but also have a higher output version with an additional woofer. More cabinet and another woofer might push the price closer to $1400 but just a guesstimate for now…
So, suggest r2 needs a woofer that is $150 or less. r1 suggests that we can get good directivity with a smaller woofer and avoid the complexity of a dedicated midrange, so thinking it needs to be a 6-7 inch driver. We have a few queued, but on the high end a Satori MW16 comes to mind, but one of the SB woofers would likely do too. Like the idea that we could have a drop-in upgrade.
Realize this is getting long, so going to toss it back to members to get your feedback.