agedhorse

I don't know how convenient, but Surrey Amps has done excellent work for us for many years. Well qualified IMO. https://surreyamps.co.uk/

Perhaps if copying a proven design, but even then the economies of scale are against you. Now if there is no value assigned to labor, and you already have the tools, the gap is closer, but it's the "proven design" part of the equation that makes a difference IME. There's also the cost of developing the design and building prototypes that's often (conveniently ignored), but by ignoring even the minimal cost of design, labor, quality hardware, testing and wasted materials, then yes it can appear to be less expensive. There are also the DYI designs that, due to inexperience or lack of understanding, become "amp killers" due to not understanding reactive load limits in amps when it comes to crossover design, that bring hidden costs to the table. Yes, I run into this often enough, especially from the OCD crowd that thinks that every crossover needs multiple Zobel networks without any consideration for what ends up being lumped resonant tank circuits. This is just my experience, based on what I have seen over the (many) years.

Yet many of those plans are pretty poor when compared with established quality commercial designs. That’s been my experience overall. Economies of scale regarding quality commercial conditions makes it very difficult to build for less cost, especially if considering the used market.

Indeed it does, if you want it to look nice.

Maybe because they can buy a proven solution without trying to reinvent the wheel? I've heard some dreadful DIY PA gear in my career, yet the "builders" of that gear thought they were the greatest speakers since sliced bread. I designed commercial pro audio gear (including speakers) for a couple of the larger US and Italian manufacturers, and even with my in-house resources, it just didn't make sense unless those manufacturers were paying me to build prototypes or sample units.

With high output basses, be sure you are using the gain switch in the low gain position.

We've discussed it many times, but nothing concrete one way or the other.

Yes, the WD-800 will fit, but because it's 2" less deep you may need to fabricate some hardware. The width and height are identical and they share the same rack ears as well (the current WD rack kit mounting holes are slightly smaller than the old Walkabout, but can easily modified to work with either the WA or WD). The specific caution is because the WD is a lot more powerful than the original WA, I would recommend ONLY using it with the 8 ohm version of the cabinet, and set the amp to 2 ohm mode to scale down the power to 300 watts into 8 ohms (still more than the cabinet can handle but with the HPF set to about 40-50Hz, and the damping set to high, you should be ok).

Sometimes, placement to avoid reflections off of hard surfaces ends up being more important in the bigger picture. This is especially true in large venues with hard surfaces like arenas.

Just be aware that the actual radiation pattern is only loosely connected to the diameter. The calculated pattern does not include the elements that modify the pattern, things like cone shape, depth, dust cap shape, material and coupling to the bobbin.

It’s one way to implement muting, but not the most common way by far. It depends on what is happening throughout the amp as to how muting is accomplished and where. Sometimes, more than one method is used in an amp too.

There are several ways to mute the amp. You want to be darn sure the module is really the problem or you will be throwing money away. Also, beware of these modules sourced from China, there are counterfeits of this series coming from there.

Excellent, this is why I always recommend the best service you can find… premium service, even at a premium price is always a better value.

If the bottom passive radiator is too close to the floor it will change the tuning of the cabinet. That’s (partly)what the feet are for.

Agreed, everything gets paid for one way or the other. In the US, in most states, there is no sales tax on the labor. Only parts and materials are subject to it but only if the parts were purchased by the service business and sales tax wasn’t paid at that point. This is why comparing costs is so difficult, you pay more overall in taxes, but you have universal healthcare and we have an expensive mess run mostly by private insurance companies. Pick your poison…