Jon,
Regardless of whom inspired the speakers there's a preferred way to do things and a less desirable one.
RE she does not like how the driver looks when its mounted from the front.
Well, if mounting the drivers correctly is a cause for divorce, then mount them your way and both of you will be happy. I'm married too. Bottom line its your speakers, you'll be listening to them, and you have final say on how you build these.
With regards to bracing, you have some things right and some wrong. The horizontal brace under the woofer looks ok. Your vertical brace on left side panel seems small size. Assuming it will be 2" X 2" then its ok in view of the following.
Your bracing looks more like an H type brace instead of a preferred cross looking brace like this: + . Here's why the cross is better. Two of your largest panels, more prone to vibrations, are the left and right ones that part of the cross will reinforce further when its installed as indicated below.
The left to right panels brace should be tied midway in between the panel vertical braces, tight fit and glued. So box panel (left or right) tendancy to vibrate is also resisted by the opposite side due to the common brace.
Same principle for the front to back panels brace, if the rear panel wants to "expand outwards" then the front panel linked to it by the brace will also resist to that movement. And vice versa for the front panel. When two panels (front/back and left/right) are tied together by a brace (often the largest panels), in addition to standard panel bracing, then you get a very rigid cabinet much less prone to vibration. That leaves the smallest panels, usually top and bottom, with only standard bracing, which is not really an issue since smaller panels of the same thickness as others have higher rigidity anyway.
For the front/back brace its a bit more tricky since on the front panel there's less space available to place the brace due to the large driver cut-out. Perfect center brace placement may not happen in this case, then you try your best, i.e. as close to center as as you can.
Btw, on your picture of the H type brace your front to back piece is under the two horizontals. I would put that piece on top of the two horizontals, not under. That means the front panel horizontal goes down a little to make space for the front to back piece on top. Two slight advantages that don't cost more and no more work. First, the piece going to the back panel will be a little higher so a bit closer to ideal center or midway back panel. Second, maybe slightly better vent air flow, something many people don't think about.
Richard
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