Sonic Differences Between 2-Way and 3-Way Speakers

Great comments everybody. While I agree (I think we all do) that a single driver is the theoretical ideal, the points that unsound and seandtaylor make are what I was looking for when I opened this thread.

Is there a fundamental "sound" of a three-way that is different from a two-way, in the way that acoustic suspension bass sounds different from bass reflex, or mosfets sound different from other transistors? (This is a purposefully naive question.)

"The bass response of a given design is the easiest to psychoacoustically adjust for.In other words one won't miss it or pine for it's absence or whatever if the speaker is very good in all other frequencies"
I'm sorry .. is this personal opinion, or scientific fact? I have to say that my system is much more enjoyable since I added the subwoofer, and live recordings of some blues bands are in a whole new league since the sub adds the scale of the venue. That is my personal opinion ... if you don't have good bass to below 40Hz you're missing out.

Drubin .. I don't think there is a characteristic 3 way sound, since 3 way designs can vary a lot. My heybooks are almost like stand mounts with a connected sub, since the LF driver is in its own ported enclosure, with the two HF drivers in a small sealed enclosure. Other designs have all three cones driving the same enclosure. I must admit that since I change equipment roughly once every 10 years my experience is quite limited.

If I were to search for a new pair of speakers I would simply pick my price and listen to a number of alternative designs. I wouldn't try to narrow down on the basis of number of drivers, until I heard, and could convince myself that I preferred designs with a certain number of drivers, be that 1,2, 3 or more. All designs can be done well, and all can be done badly. To say that one is always better than another would be like saying that a V8 is always superior to a straight six, or a flat four in a sports car (or vice-versa).

I've gotta disagree with you, brucegel, a speaker not capable of getting down to at least the 30hz region always souds hollow, empty and lifeless to me. It is that visceral bass that makes for much of the emotional connection to the music, the quality bass that is more felt then heard that is critical, at least for the wide breadth of music I listen to.

FWIW, my current "3-way" speakers are very wide at the bass cabinet but use a minimum baffle design for midrange and tweeter, and this design sounds better then the 2-way floorstander I owned that was half a wide overall, yet the big 3-way images better, much better, and even surpasses the majority of monitor speakers compared them to. I've found the really good full range speakers to be more coherent, dynamic, transparent, involving, and more believable then constricted 2-ways, which always sound like speakers to me.

I tend to believe the heart of the speaker is the unseen and less glamourous electronics chosen by the gifted designer, not the drivers themselves, be it their number or quality, or even the box or frame they sit in that are the most important element of a great sounding speaker.

My benchmark for my opinion on bass is always live unamplified music.Once you amplify all bets are off as it were so my psychoacoustic comment applies to live classical,live jazz,live anything.I dont like most recordings with deep bass because they sound inherently hi fi ish to me and thats not what my criteria is for a system.I am hampered to a degree because I work for the SEATTLE SYMPHONY and get to hear what real instrument sound like in real space(there are two halls, one is 2500 seats and one is more intimate at 500 seats)so my orientation lies there.I understand the strong opinions about extension to 30hz and yes it can be more complete sounding and there are magnificent three way designs but I always return to two way designs for critical listening,whether this is mere coincidence or something inherent in design isnt important to me but what is is the greater detail retrieval and lucidity if you will that I prefer with two way but it cuts two ways,I mean both ways depending on your priorities doesnt it? My reference 3A DECAPOS have only a capacitor to prevent the tweeter from toasting otherwise no crossover and that in itself is a reason why they trip my boat but the carbon fibre woofers full range and speed give the impression of deeper than its 42hz spec.I think we can all agree that there are some very talented speaker designers out there that we are the happy beneficiaries of!