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Advantages of multiplying drivers?

Can anyone briefly explain what are the advantages /disadvantages of multiplying drivers (Triangle Magellan, Tyler Woodmere to name a couple) vs. more traditional designs (1 tweeter, 1 medium, 1 woofer)?
My intuition would be to allow for better vertical imaging but at the expense of integration and since this is the true Art & Science of speaker building, why would anyone flirt with the disintegration risk?
beheme
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,662 posts
 
Better horizontal imaging if the drivers are arranged vertically and if the cabinet width is reduced.

Kal
stevecham
3,340 posts
 
Disadvantages include lobing effects when there are multiple drivers that perform in the same audio band.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Multiple drivers increase the cone area, so that each driver needs to work less hard. This is a step in the direction of a planar speaker. If you want to get the dispersion characteristics identified by Kal you really need a "line array" consisting of eight or more drivers.
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