Single driver vs traditional 3 way loudspeakers

Well not exactly a single driver, my Canterbury’s sports a dual concentric 15” surround with a embedded 2” aluminum/magnesium alloy dome.

Frequency response is pretty impressive as well...28 Hz - 27 kHz (-6 dB) with a crossover frequency of 1.1 kHz.

In my opinion a good "fullrange" driver can do many things well, but the frequency extremes are generally not among them.  I'd be inclined to keep bass frequencies out of it and use a dedicated woofer, and to add a tweeter to improve the top-end dispersion (and extension if needed).   

There's a speaker company in New York that does this.  I think their name is Bache Audio, or something like that. 

;^) 

My first commercial effort fifteen years ago was almost that (6" Fostex + powered bass section + tweeter), but I made the fatal mistake of not high-pass-filtering the "fullrange" driver.   Might give it another go some day.  

The best single-driver, truly fullrange speakers I've heard are the big SoundLab electrostats. 

Duke  
disclaimer: I'm a SoundLab dealer

Of course, this is a great subject to recommend DIY experimentation.  Madisound, among others, has a number of affordable full-range (single driver) kits you can play with while you are stuck at home with the kids. :)

I prefer a single full range driver to multiple drivers. I have a pair of Charney Audio horns and love what they do. Over the years I’ve had multiple driver towers, 2-way bookshelf’s, open baffle, etc... None have ever come close to the intimacy of a single driver horn. Charney Concerto and Lumaca with the 8” Voxativ and AER drivers will do exceptional full range sound. 

Parts express have full range speakers..yes tweeter is paper wrapped around the cone... but they have been using them since the 40-50s.