Just a quick followup. I worked it out with the seller, 25% off the purchase price. Not great but OK.

I finally got them hooked up and boy was I disappointed. They sounded like a transistor radio in a coffee can. Turns out all of that stuff below 500hz makes a difference. I pulled out an old pair of Advents and put those on the bottom end, played with the eq, and balance between top and bottom and they sound pretty nice. Really, loud in an all concrete basement if need be.

The problem is, zero, none, nada, top end. I'm doing a/b/c comparison between the straight Advents, some Magenepan MMGs, and the home brew. Even with the eq pushed to the max +12db from 8K+ I can't get any real top end, especially cymbals and bells. I hear them, muted pretty much, but the "sizzle" for lack of better word is missing.

I pulled the covers and these have original screw top 21545 diaphragms. They look to be in good condition. The wires from the cover to the diaphragm have crimp connectors with spades on both end. Other than that they look good. I guess I need new diaphragms to get some top end. The GPA pascalites seem to be the preferred solution. My question is, will these make a difference and what will the power handling be. I'm aiming for a 120db system to allow close to reference levels at 45 feet for home theater usage. I think the Symbioteks are already getting me close enough but I'm not sure about other diaphragms.

One final question to help out a newbie. How to I tell how much power I'm putting into them? I'm using an Ashly FET-200 (100watts at 8ohm) which has indicator lights in 3db increments down to -27db. At normal listening I can't even get the -27db light to come on. Turned up higher I can get the -18db light flicker occasionally. My, likely faulty, understanding is that power doubles every 3db so -3db is 50watts, -6db is 25 watts, etc. Was I really only putting in 1.5 watts at -18db?

Sorry to have so many questions. I want to make sure I don't blow up what I have and see if I can get it to sound a little better.

Thanks!