Crossover-less Speakers

I'm with Macrojack on this one. I couldn't start to list all the speakers I've been through over the past 30 years, but Zu's are something special; especially with tubes.

Supravox's 8" field-coil driver in the factory-recommended enclosure is probably the best-sounding high efficiency crossoverless speaker I've heard (I've never owned a pair). Incredible imaging (I'm not normally an imaging freak, but these really do it well). Very close overall (and in some ways better than the Supravox) is the PHY 12" fullrange with a piezo tweeter-on-a-stalk, which I did own and enjoyed very much. Either of these can stand on its own without help from other drivers, provided you don't expect room-shaking bass power. They are finesse speakers. Now when I've used other, less expensive and less capable fullrange drivers, I've often augmented 'em with a powered woofer section and sometimes with a supertweet as well.

Macrojack, maybe this is none of my beeswax but...

You aren't by any chance a Zu dealer, are you? It sure looks like you're claiming to be one over on audiocircle.com. Tagline under your avatar: "I am a dealer for Grado and Zu."

If so, how long have you been one?

Is the correct term "Zu Listening Post"? Who else here is a "Zu Listening Post?"

Anybody else think us industry affiliated folk ought to disclose our affiliation when plugging a product that we sell, especially when we also put down ten competing products by name in the same post?

For the record, I'm not presently a dealer for any crossoverless fullrange loudspeakers.

Thanks.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer

Definitely listen to all the advice and experience being offered above. I purchased my crossoverless speakers from commonsenseaudio.com -- you can see them at my system page. They feature the Lowther DX3 driver.

It is hard for me to imagine going back to a multi-driver, with crossover, speaker again. Try to listen for yourself if you can.

I was pressured into declaring myself a dealer after I mentioned that, as a "Listening Post", I have the potential to receive a commission.
All Zu speakers are sold factory direct. I have no inventory to sell. However, if you come to my house and audition my speakers and buy a pair from Zu and keep them beyond the trial period, I can be paid a small commission. Since I live in the middle of nowhere and no one has ever come here to audition my speakers in the 15 or so months this arrangement has been in place, I haven't felt too much need for disclosure in every comment I post. The guys in Audio Circle chose to make a big deal out of something that only exists in theory.
I do not advertise for business and the only speakers I have sold have been my personal pair. I sold my Druids and MiniMethod sub to my former neighbor who replaced a pair of speakers he had bought from me 18 years earlier. I replaced the Druids with a pair of Definition Pros which I sold after a year to purchase the upcoming Zu Presence speaker. At present I don't have any Zu speakers but that is supposed to change within 2 weeks.
I am certain that I have influenced the sale of many pairs of Zu speakers and I have never received any money for my efforts. I guess you could say I am evangelical about the topic.
So, Duke, you or someone else can divert this thread further by making me the topic - or - We could return to the topic at hand.
If I understand correctly a field coil driver uses an electromagnet rather than a permanent magnet in the motor. Is that correct?
Have I survived scrutiny?

Thanks for responding, Macrojack, and fully disclosing your affiliation with Zu. I was pretty rough on you there, but now I can see that there are two sides to it.

In my opinion the readers have a right to judge for themselves whether or not an affiliation matters, or is merely theoretical. Some will misjudge you out of an innate prejudice against anyone who believes in a product enough to be officially affiliated with it, but methinks it best to err on the side of disclosure. Of course, memakes not the rules.

To answer your first question, yes - a field-coil driver uses an electromagnet rather than a permanent magnet, typically connected to a battery or a power supply. I've been told the theoretical advantage is that a battery or power supply's voltage is more constant than is the flux of a permanent magnet (even an Alnico one) under dynamic conditions, but don't know whether that's really true. One very cool thing about an electromagnet is that you can vary the strength of the magnet (and thereby the Qes, and thereby the frequency response) by adjusting the voltage applied to the field coil. You can tailor the driver's characteristics to the enclosure, to a certain extent.

To answer your second question - I think you did great!

Duke