Coaxials - Reality vs. Experience?
Should say "hype vs. reality" in the headline.
Coaxial speaker design has been around in one way or another for a long time. I often think I’ll be absolutely blown away by them, but in practice traditional vertical layout speakers often have sound as good, or have other features that make them sound better.
Thiel, KEF, Monitor Audio, Tekton, Seas are among the many players attempting such designs, but none has, by the coaxial drivers alone, dominated a segment of the market.
What are your listening experiences? Is it 1 coaxial speaker that won you over, or have you always preferred them?
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. |
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. |
Hard to beat the imaging of some of the KEFs and Tannoys IME. Otherwise there is nothing particularly remarkable about the scheme. I owned the previous Spatial Audio M series which consisted of Eminence woofer with a coaxially mounted compression driver at its center. The imaging was not nearly as good as I expected from such a design but I chalk that up to the size of the woofer. |
Definitely, nobody is claiming coax or DC to be a perfect scheme, and in particular Tannoys do not look good in measurements. Fortunately I enjoy music, not measurements! The Tannoys with a 15" DC (like my Canterbury) are probably pushing that woofer a bit far, asking it to do 1,100 Hz at crossover. They are technically "beaming" at that point but the dispersion of the horn tweeter helps cover for it, somewhat. Within Tannoy fandom you’ll find fans specifically of certain driver sizes, or of the tulip vs. pepperpot wave guides. I love both the 10" and 15", and both in tulip and pepperpot, but they certainly do different things. For some reason I haven’t been enamored by a 12" DC yet; you’d think that would be the good compromise. As far as Tannoy tulip vs. pepperpot waveguide: pepperpot (usually paired with a single alnico magnet which is VERY expensive) is capable of a more vibrant, lifelike and gorgeous midrange with very fast transients and "startle" factor, but on the flipside its top end can get a bit rough and requires careful system matching to keep this in check! Tulip (dual barium ferrite magnets - this makes the drivers MUCH cheaper) is more even keeled and a great all-around performer, but can’t quite get the midrange exactly as lovely as a good pepperpot. |
