Why the cost increase?

Sorry to hear about anyone's health issues just further evidence how badly universal healthcare is needed and how much good it will do both physically and mentally.

the truth is that it is a very interesting topic.

I like much to read the OP great posts reflecting his big heart...

I am sorry to read about his health problem and his battle with inflated price to build his sonic box opus....

My deepest respect....

Well thanks again for everyone’s concern. I’m better off than most.

Happier than most and blessed in spite of my own self.. LOL

I can report the sun came up and it is HOT, 104 degrees (F) in the shade on a dead lawn. :-)

Supplies are still in short supply and prices are NOT going down. They are stable, at this time. 

My only real issue is the SS thing.. They closed all offices May of 2020, and haven't been opened to the public sense. THAT is the real ticker for me. Not that it effect me so much but that they are ALL being paid to still come to work..

You would think they would be very fast with less than 1 in 1000 being let in the front door. Just people with NO SS numbers are allowed appointments.. So why is it taking so long to get things done. I'm at 10 months and waiting.. It's really time to flush that toilet. I want to know why offices designed solely for PUBLIC access to Social Security workers is closed. I MEAN NOT WORKING!!! They are inside the building but NOT greeting customers, with a big smile and "what can I do for you"?

Time to picket the joint and get a news agency or two down there to ask WHY people are in an office but NOT greeting customers.. 50 years I paid the PIG... :-) Master M..

Good to hear from zapaemi, welcome to AG.

jond, 100% on the healthcare issue

Master M always good to hear from you. Still tinkering away? A kindred spirit indeed. It’s humbling to know such people.

With great respect and regard to all.

I bit you adieu.

Master M always good to hear from you. Still tinkering away? A kindred spirit indeed. It’s humbling to know such people.

i am more listening music now than i am tinkering, because when some relatively good S.Q. is there we think less about the sound and more about the music content ...BUT..... 😁

Acoustic is like i said many times the sleeping princess in audio....

Proof: my last tinkering is improvising a new diffuser with 10 discarded junk cardboard empty rolls of absorbing cloth and a piece of fabric lace to filter the 10 tubes aperture....The 10 tubes are in an empty egg box...( i dont feed chicken then i must buy my eggs unlike the OP )

Result: more, way more richer harmonics....Incredible changes with a one feet by 6 inches large new Helmholtz diffuser in my room ( my fourth)...I already use 40 Helmholtz resonators which also diffuse some frequencies but the diffusers by the way i use the large mouth aperture with some filtering devices are more diffusers than absorbing devices even if they absorb some frequencies also.... They complement each other....And Helmholtz resonators need diffusers devices to harmonize all the scale frequencies in relation with the room/speakers...

I made it this evening in few minutes in spite of the fact that i was thinking for the last month that my room was finished....😁😊

Now all musical files are new again...I know that few people will believe a so greeat improvement with so low cost ridiculous materials... But acoustic is a science not a luxury materials marketing enterprise....

Lesson: acoustic is more than important, acoustic is the heart of audio, not electronic design by itself, even if for sure it is very important....We must choose good speakers for sure to begin with....but after designing them like the OP want to do, the audiophile goal is not reach yet, till the room is under control for this specific speaker....

By the way it is humbling for me also to know such kindness and creative spirit coming from many of you, especially the OP ....