Designing well-braced cabinets that work within the constraints of baffle-step is one thing. The use of top-notch drivers is another point. But it has been my personal experience that developing a good crossover is probably 75% of the effort and 90% of the actual time spent developing the system.
A truly wonderful system capable of a very wide dynamic and frequency response range can be developed using a total of around $1200 of drivers, maybe less. The crossover components will likely cost around $400 - $600 if simple crossovers are used. But the crossover MUST take into account all the other facets of the system. Voicing the speakers and maintaining timing and "pulse coherence" will be the biggest hurdle.
A truly wonderful system capable of a very wide dynamic and frequency response range can be developed using a total of around $1200 of drivers, maybe less. The crossover components will likely cost around $400 - $600 if simple crossovers are used. But the crossover MUST take into account all the other facets of the system. Voicing the speakers and maintaining timing and "pulse coherence" will be the biggest hurdle.