Coaxials - Reality vs. Experience?

@mulveling 

Maybe you could be more specific about the sound qualities you ascribe to concentric drivers.

@tomcy6 For me: Coherent, natural sound with solid & sharp imaging, because the tweeter and mid/woofer covering the critical midrange crossover point act more like a single point source rather than a tweeter and woofer barking at you from different locations.

Yes, coherent is the word. I'd say it's a little bit like listening to a mono sound source like a single driver kitchen radio.

It's a less busy sound, more laid-back and one that's easier to follow, but one that still strangely seems to have plenty of detail.

As you said earlier, "Tannoys are not for everyone - you either "get them" or you don’t."

I own some older small KEFs I use as nearfield studio monitors (and have owned some nice largeer KEFs) and they sound great. Also, I don’t think anybody should equate a single driver/whizzer cone with a true coax. I used old Altec coax stuff years ago in studios and they were superb, heard Tannoys sound great, and although I haven’t heard the new Andrew Jones MoFi speakers they’re certainly getting great reviews, and his explanation of the design is interesting. 10" speaker moves very little providing some serious loading to the tweeter.

Running altec 604-8G  coaxials in 9 cu ft cabinets with phase aligned crossovers.  Really lovely to listen to, and have heard nothing comparable. 

Best to give a listen to a good coaxial implementation and make up your own mind.  Different people have different ears, different perspectives, and different objectives.

@russ69 Did you really start this thread with a "times moved on" argument against coaxials and then admitted to using Ohm Walsh’s, a design from the early 1970s? lol

I was really thinking about my Dad's coax driver from the mid sixties 😁....I'm not knocking coaxial drivers, I just said they aren't the ONLY way to go, or at least that was what I was suggesting. I do have a pair of KEF LS-50s in my garage, so there is that....

@johnah5 and @nationalbar, it was interesting to see your comments on the Hsu speakers.  In my elder years I'm looking at simplifying and downsizing my system and the CCB-8 is on my list.

A few years ago Dr. Hsu gave a demo to our audio group with an earlier model of smaller stand mounts with a single sub.  He made a point of using a very modest system including a low-powered AV receiver, inexpensive CD player, and literally zip cord.  That offered amazing sonics and musical satisfaction for such a modest system.  It left me wondering how good it might have sounded with better components?

Then a couple of weeks ago I saw the video you posted.  I've been to his house and while I didn't hear his Hsu system, I can appreciate the particular care he exercises in component selection,  BTW, his comments on Hsu begin about 10:35 for those not wanting to search through the whole video.

But I've not heard the CCB-8 yet myself so both of your comments are appreciated.