what drivers are best? thinking of a DIY project

Morel, ScanSpeak and Seas all built very good drivers. Here's a good place to shop: (https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com) Studying the very comprehensive specs, included in the descriptions, should help you best choose your combo.

Are you thinking a single driver speaker or multi-way?
Passive or active crossover?

DiyAudio.com is the place for that. I'm scratching the surface, looking at building a 4-way active system. I started a couple of threads there you might want to check out. I use the same ID there. Especially the Bass Section thread. A lot of reading.

Lenardaudio.com is a good primer on a number of considerations, but he does believe in 4-way active as THE way. Of course there are many ways, like everything it seems to be more about implementation and tradeoffs. But it's a good read/intro to a number of important aspects.

Cheers!

ooops sorry

I am building a single driver system nothing too complex

Lowther is too pricey but some feel the midrange on the Fostex is "shouty" so I am asking around

I will go to the sites you guys mention and thanks

I may post again as I have a long road ahead...

best Phil

206en in a nagaoka cabinets a good sound but use nagaoka's design not others

I use my Merrill Zigmahornets daily and can't believe how good they are. You can get the instructions on-line to build the 1/4 wave transmission line cabinets. My only mods were to use better wiring, real binding posts and spiked feet.

The bass from these is tremendous due to the cabinet design. I run them with a 10 watt tube amp and never run out of power. Guessing at 94-94db efficiency. They are very smooth and not "shouty" at all like some mentioned above. The Lowthers have that bump around 1000hz which is very noticable in my opinion.

Since the Merrill drivers are no longer available, my preference would probably be the Jordan 4". The closest I have seen to these in a production model is the Role Audio to give you an idea of what you will get.