Okay, the gloves are off. Let the fur fly

I used to own Vandy 3A Sigs w/a 300WPC amp. I used a REL Stadium for the very bottom (crossed at about 28hz). I loved the setup but.....I now own a single Lowther driver setup w/ the same REL sub crossed over at about 50hz. I now use a SET amp w/ about 8 parts that puts out 2.3 WPC. In both cases I went direct from my Wadia.
Both setups produce as much treble as my ears can detect.Both setups go down to 18 hz or so.Both play very loud without distortion. The Vandys moved alot more air, they had more punch. But I always felt that the electronics were getting in the way of the music. (This was also the case when listening to other extremely good and expensive multi driver speakers at friends ,etc.).
What NONE of the multi driver setups could do was image and soundstage like the Lowthers and SET.Not even close. These drivers (AND this particular amp-a Zen Select) are lightning fast, resulting in inner detail to die for.. There is an immediacy to the music, a nothing-in-the-way quality that is breathtaking and makes me want to listen.
There are tradeoffs in every setup. In components and money spent. I feel I just prefer these tradeoffs. This is the most sweet sounding setup I've heard and it brings me the closest to the music yet. And thats what it's all about.

All interesting from a "technical" point of view. Sometimes "technical" does not all add up in my experience. I have heard some very nice "box" speakers and worked on a few.

Ultimately I think the box is more a problem than the crossover. Drivers in boxes do not radiate power very equally. Linkwitz has done a lot of work on this and open baffle/dipole speakers. He says a lot of interesting stuff at his site and also has a decent crossover.

I understand the less is more theory and even am attracted to it in a way. But when I look at the typical circuits in even the simplest audio chain it is hard to believe that one last filter is going to bring ruin. You do not need a passive typical cheap crossover at the end of the line in any event to make several drivers work.

I do agree that the most popular and horrible speakers are all box speakers. Small ones too. Small boxes create all sorts of endless problems but they seem to be what folks want in their living room. The woodworking is easier and less expensive. The crossovers in most speakers under the 10k level can be dramatically improved for very little $$.

When you you look at the technical weaknesses of a cone with density and mass and mechanical problems (discussed above and elsewhere) you realize that everything is far from perfect. It does not matter is you have 1,3 or 6 drivers. If you are using a cone, even the best, it is very imperfect right from the start.

When you have one cone trying to recreate very complex music you also face certain problems with break up.

That being said I am beginning to love single drivers in non conventional enclosures. I think they are especially nice for folk/jazz. I am even thinking of trying to put together a system with the fewest parts possible just for the heck of it. SET-Single Driver of some sort. I m sure this has been done before. Any ideas or minimalist schematics out there?

Cheers,

The full range electrostat is still my favorite sounding speakers aka Soundlab , ML Clz and the Quad 989. No not perfect but low distortion - no moving cones - and the ML and Eros hybrids get criticized for not having a seemless crossover from woofer to panel. IMHO all 2 way / 3 way designs share the same situation and are indeed hybrids plus the addition of more distortion from cone movement and trying to match drivers .

Sean,

The Lamhorns use Lowthers or their equivalent. I went with a Lowther because the AER driver is 16 ohm and my amp doesn't have a 16 ohm tap. If you are looking to spend this kind of money, the Lamhorns should definitely be on your short list.

http://www.rlacoustique.com

Listener did a review in the current issue.

I think TWL is being a little disingenuous with his question here. He is obviously perfectly well aware (as are all of his fine respondents above) of the various "technical" advantages, disadvantages, and tradeoffs inherent in any of the schools of speaker design. It's just that he is insistent on maintaining that such perfectly legitimate issues as high and low frequency extension, freedom from dynamic compression, fidelity to absolute volume level, and dispersion characteristics and radiation pattern are somehow not as germane to musical "truth" as the qualities he values above these. What he cannot do is "prove" that the tradeoffs he prefers are any less "technically" deleterious to the musical signal than those he disfavors. When such real-world factors as size, cost, appearance, ease of placement, ease of system matching, and the likelihood of a good-sounding overall result are considered, multi-way cone-in-box speakers will often have the advantage. Advances in the applications of digital crossovers, built-in amplification, and unconventional enclosure designs (composite materials, computer-optimized shaping and damping) may further stretch TWL's "point".