A full range speaker?


Many claim to be, but how many can handle a full orchestra’s range?

That range is from 26hz to around 12khz including harmonics, but the speakers that can go that low are few and far between. That is a shame, since the grand piano, one of the center points of many orchestral and symphonic performances, needs that lower range to produce a low A fully, however little that key is used.

I used to think it was 32hz, which would handle a Hammond B-3’s full keyboard, so cover most of the musical instruments range, but since having subs have realized how much I am missing without those going down to 25hz with no db’s down.

What would you set as the lower limit of music reproduction for a speaker to be called full range?

 I’m asking you to consider that point where that measurement is -0db’s, which is always different from published spec's.
128x128william53b
mijostyn4,713 posts07-21-2021 7:22amdaledeee1, absolutely incorrect. Specs as published mean very little. They are taken at one meter in an anechoic chamber. At 3 meters in a real room the story is entirely different. Most speakers start dying at 80-100 Hz with a peak or two below depending on room nodes which results in one note bass.


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WOW
Very nice info here. 
You justn saved me from consideringa  Seas 2 way with a  dedicated midrange and adding a  W26 or W22,.

based on your info, 
makes no sense for me to attempt to gain a  deep bass than what i already have.
Dual 6.5's might in the end beat out a  single W22 or even a  single W26

Both the W22/W26 on paper go lower, but as you say ina  test room, 1 meter.
In real time, its a game changer.
No, I'm thinking now dual W18's = best bang for the bass buck. 
Troels pretty much confirms this on his notes about Dual W18's bass punch.
I am amazed at how far off track this post has wandered. What, on the low end, defines a "full range" speaker to you; 20-60 hz? Lower or higher than that, that’s ok to say too.

Where do you define a full range speaker for yourself? Of course top end is ok too, if you want, but that is much easier to achieve. How you get there is up to you, and not really important to the original post, because thats where the quibbling starts.


Mine is 28 hz, 0db down at my preferred listening level. So, very few speakers can lay claim to being full range if that is true to me, and right now I need a sub. So, i consider all of my speakers wide range, but not full range.
WEll seems Wilson is defining what Full Range is, the cabinets are fulll of drivers, 
There is not 1 fq missing. To me thats FULL packed range. 
Sorry not interested. 
Seas Millenniumk twee rolls off the top end, but the low mids are super fidelity and voice as accurate as any Magneplanar, Sound labs, Quad 57 human voicing. 
I think the new flagship Cresendo has extended the top end. 
IMHO full range is 60hz-12k hz. 

william53, I think that is what I have been trying to tell you. Unless you want to go for an ESL with subwoofers, the best you can do with dynamic drivers is a two way system with subwoofers. It is easier to control and engineer a passive two way crossover than it is to control and engineer the mechanical crossover you have in these so called full range loudspeakers. Anything with a whizzer cone is not full range, it is two way. The crossover is mechanical as the whizzer cone becomes decoupled from the woofer/midrange cone. The ESL is the only truly full range driver but it still IMHO requires subwoofers. An ESL will do 28Hz to 20 kHz but removing 100Hz down cleans up the sound so much that you are better off crossing to subs. I cross at 120 Hz. Above that it is all one way. Not that everything is perfectly rosy, it is not. There are two transformers, several resistors and caps involved between the amps and the ESL panel.  
Anything with a whizzer cone is not full range

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No indeed, it is not, 
There is some roll off in the lows/highs.
But I can tell you , this lil 4 incher packs a  nice lil kick in the upper bass. and highs are not so rolled off, at least for classical music, 
For jazz, yeah you want more of the shimmer and glitz on top end.
I am using it more of a  upper bass - upper mids driver.
The W18's now at 10uf go up to 1600hzish and so there is a huge overlap with the W18 and 4 inch whizzer, The 4 goesc down to say 100hzish. As i say has some punch for a lil guy
Highs aint too shabby either.
Vocals accurate, 
Stress/distortion  glares  in full orch explosions/huge chorus.
But livable.
I think folks need to be aware the whizzer full range is onlya  LIMITED wide band, Not a  FULL range. 
Again, for my tastes in orch, its more full rich ofa  image vs a  1 inch dome tweeter.
I'd a  whizzer cone can be considered full range as in the sense 90% of the music is voiced by the driver.
A better name for these drivers is a  90./
Other **full range** were not even 90%
More like 70% of the fq's voiced. 
making these lower Q drivers , near worthless for my usage/intentions.
Lii fast 8 old model 70% 
DavidLouis Diatone 6.5 70%. 
The Vox was even lower.