Ok, so a lot has happened since I reported back last time. In that time I have moved my personal Hauptwerk rig into the sanctuary and set it up using a new Cymatic Audio LP-16, 8 channel amp, a pair of Behringer 2031s, my TLAH Pros, Windermere^2's, Fostex BK-12m's, a pair of Kustom wedge floor monitors, and my TubaHT.... and I have now dubbed it the "Franken-organ."
Seriously, though, I have discovered and learned A LOT. Much of it has already been covered here on the thread, but I wanted to report back with a few things.
1.) As I already knew, it is paramount that you use the same speaker in your multi-channel outputs. This is actually pretty obvious to me, since I work in audio, but I do see a lot of people mixing and matching due to budget reasons, etc. and that is totally understandable. Since I have only one pair of 5 different kinds of speakers, I went ahead and started experimenting. With such a conglomeration of speakers, it makes the most sense to group them and route stops to them based on their abilities - i.e. the Windermere and Fostex work very well with flutes. The Behringers do well with just about anything... the TLAH Pro's (since they are line arrays) worked well with the Solo stops, etc. etc. (I was using the full Salisbury set to test with....)
2.) The TubaHT is MORE than enough subwoofer. My God, that thing may actually be a bit too much.
3.) The Cymatic Audio LP16 is AWESOME! It took me a while to wrap my head around how to setup multichannel outputs in Hauptwerk, but once I got the hang of it I tried out several setups. I could tell that, with a full set of matching speakers - say, 8-12 channels, by far the most pleasing to me would be using 8-10 mains, and 2 speakers + sub for pedals and just let the Hauptwerk software handle the rest. Breaking them out by division, etc. just isn't necessary I don't believe. Let the software spread the load as best as it can.
4.) The results of all of my speaker builds are in ---- I'm probably going to buy something off the shelf instead of build the 48 main speakers. Don't get me wrong, building the Tuba HT was DEFINITELY worth the time and effort when you compare the performance to the cost, but the other speakers, while they have their applications and are each very good in their own right, are not suited for Hauptwerk use in large spaces.... but could do nicely in homes. Now, it certainly stands to reason that there are other speaker designs out there that will work quite well, but I just haven't found one that really grabbed me. I will still take recommendations if you find something out there you like or believe fits the bill. I found some ideas the other day on Parts Express but I haven't decided if I'll give them a go or not. Stay tuned.
5.) Wet sample sets are deceptively large, muddy, and hard to hear. At least this is the case with Salisbury. Again, this isn't "news." I am simply confirming what you all told me. You just can't beat hearing for yourself. If you take the reverb out (truncate the releases), suddenly you get all the nuance coming through that you didn't hear before - (obviously having all matching main speakers would help this as well....)
I still have concerns about "presence." I know that may be an odd way of describing it, but I'm concerned that if I go with something like the Behringer 2031's, being so high up in the air, I'm afraid the organ will lack clean articulation at the organ bench. This is my main concern at the moment.
On another positive note, though, the congregation is quite enthralled with the "Franken-organ" and are very curious and keen to know more and rallying support for the necessary funding may not be so difficult to achieve.