I'm sorry you feel that way, Josh. Honestly, I'm a bit surprised since you wrote to me last month asking prices for flat pack kits. I know you wanted drivers, CNC cut wood and machined aluminum all for $750.00, but that's way below cost. The raw materials, baltic birch, aluminum, hardware and drivers for either a 12Pi or a LABhorn cost at least that much, without precision CNC machining.
The LABhorn is a great subwoofer, so you could definitely do worse than building a set of them. Your preference is entirely your affair. That said, I must clarify a couple of things about the 12Pi basshorn sub.
The 12Pi basshorn uses the same drivers as the LABhorn, but the similarities end there. The 12Pi basshorn subwoofer has a few tricks up its sleeve that set it ahead. It uses push-pull drive to reduce distortion and it uses a patent-pending cooling system that increases its thermal limit and power handling capacity. It is also different than the LABhorn in flare shape, throat area, mouth area and front and rear chamber sizes.
The reduction in distortion from push-pull drive is evident in measurements, as is the reduction in motor temperatures and increased power handling that result.
Compare the response curves of the horns measured at the
2005 Prosound Shootout. We measured distortion at this event, so you can compare the 12Pi basshorn with other horns that don't use push-pull drive. In all of the charts, amplitude response is shown as a blue line and THD+N distortion is shown in violet. You'll notice that at high power levels, the 12Pi basshorn sub has a lot less distortion than the other horns that didn't use push-pull drive. You'll also notice that distortion doesn't rise rapidly under horn cutoff like the other basshorns do. Rising distortion under cutoff is to be expected, since the horn unloads. But the 12Pi doesn't rise nearly as much because of its push-pull drive.
There's one other thing that may be of interest to you as a DIY'er. Some people omit front chamber fill. Response is still good, so I guess it's optional. But response is better when front chamber fill is installed as shown in the plans.
When the 12Pi basshorn is made with front chamber volume of 20 liters, response is perfectly flat from 30Hz up. But this is difficult to do in practice, and makes manufacturing difficult. The front chamber fill shown in the plans reduces front chamber volume to under 30 liters. This makes nice response, having only a slight dip around 45Hz. When the 12Pi basshorn is made without any fill in its front chambers, they're larger, causing a little more dip around 45Hz. Response is still good, but not as good as when the front chambers are smaller.
See the post called
"12Pi basshorn subwoofer - the best yet!" for more information on response changes with respect to different front and rear chamber sizes.