Single driver speakers - opinions

I (finally) found a variation on the single-driver concept that sounds great to me. Check out the Hawthorne Audio site. Great folks, wonderful product. This uses, as I understand it, a "pro" driver concentric design. A tad "rolled" on top, none of that hideous tilt in the upper range which every other single driver speaker I tried displayed. I have tried Omega, Hornshoppe. Both fell apart for me other than the "speed" criteria. Both had me wondering what the hell others like about them because the tonality seems all wrong to me. I think they actually "ring" at some frequencies. Listen to the Hawthorne. It is easy to appreciate, getting you into the performance, and the price is more than fair.

If you want a full range and ability to be dynamic with very good response at extremes. You will need to look into very costly full ranges. Some will need large BLHs to produce low bass. These can sound very good not limiting as some think. Many try the wee cheap drivers then find them lacking. You get what you pay for in transducers cheaping out will always sound cheap. Your asking for a driver to do it all and this requires great cost to be done right. Sure this depends what your expectations ar some like the 3-6in afordable full ranges but seems the above 2 poster might not;) I do know of 2 Full ranges that don't need massive BLH for bass. These are Fostex f200a, SEAS exotic. F200a does best in large ported cabs. SEAS in AS about BBC monitor size. Full range benefits point source, phase time correct no crossover. Once you hear a proper designed full range driver loudspeaker with quality drivers you understand why folks who own such like them so.

Single driver is great in theory, but doing it right is hard and usually too expensive to have mass appeal.

For example, I am most familiar with the Ohm line. Over the years, Ohm has been very successful in delivering very good designs that leverage highly omnidirectional single driver technology to various extents in a cost effective manner.

The Ohm F and A of years past are legends in this category.

The newer Walsh CLS designs from Ohm have built on this approach using a similar but different wide range driver that covers most of the frequency range that most people can hear, but uses a separate phase aligned super tweeter for the very top end.

If there were a true single driver speaker out there that did it all in a reasonably compact design for a price I could afford, I would be very interested.

Serious limitations with SDs, as others have noted. Fine for noncritical low level listening, in other words, background music. Certainly, they have their plusses, but looking at the big picture, they don't cover much ground. Unless there's some sort of equalization applied, they'll always have some anomalies in the frequency response linearity, and unless that EQ is applied before amplification, you've lost most of the benefit of an SD.

Would you mention the two commercial designs that you liked?