Wow! Breaking in makes indeed a huge difference!! I am impressed that I nailed the concept of breaking in and Thiele parameters without having any background on it besides having heard that people only rate speakers after “breaking them in”.
So, after your input regarding Dayton’s reputable listed specs, I think I will keep my original box design as at the moment I do not have a good way of breaking them in (still in the process of finding an amp).
And thanks for the tips for the z-offset. I guess I will build the boxes and then figure out a way to mount the crossover inside using the hole of the RS225 to access the back board of the test box, while the other box I will leave open until the crossover is mounted.
I have yet another question:
In the uglies you add this foam to the walls to dampen standing waves, as you say it. I am thinking in doing something similar, my main motivation is to try to dampen the coupling with the MDF (my own thoughts) while also dampening standing waves, but I do not know how to implement that in winISD. Or, actually, I know I can model stuffing inside by changing the Qa in the advanced box parameters, but I wonder if just lining the walls with some absorbing material warrants changing that value, or if I should just keep it as is (I actually see an improvement with a value of 80~90 of Qa).
I cannot thank you enough Nick (if I may) for your patience answering all my newbie questions.
As soon as I have finalized a CAD drawing of the boxes, I will start the new thread.