Single driver speakers - opinions

I suggest you investigate older designs such as Hartley/Lowther etc. - old whizzer cone designs or stuff used in car audio. Don't expect great linearity and bear in mind you will be forced to compromise between high levels of distortion/ringing/breakup/linearity but you can definitely achieve something that will be as good if not better than many audiophile designs....an have lots of fun!

One option would be to use the emminence bass guitar woofer - in fact some of you may recognize this as it is modified for use in a well known audiophile speaker. If you stick in a phase plug then you can probably get this to cover 40 Hz to 12 Khz really quite well (on axis - off axis will probably be a nightmare) and at impressive SPL levels (without a phase plug then I think it will roll off around 6 to 9 Khz - still usable).

Good luck and remember that in DIY it is safer to emulate a proven design rather than try to break a new path (unless you are a masochist!!).

If you really want to go first class, seriously, get in touch with Johnk. He uses fantastic parts quality and he has experience with a wider range of fullrange drivers than anyone I know, and is highly competent in enclosures that get the most out of a widerange driver. I have never seen one of his speakers up for sale - maybe it happens, but very seldom.

Or if you want to DIY, then scour the internet for Johnk's comments on fullrange drivers and use what he uses... you won't have his enclosure designs but you'll have a good starting point.

I used to make an "augmented fullrange driver" system, with a helper woofer on the bottom and a supertweeter on top. This is because I wanted to stay below the price range dictated by a fullrange driver and cabinet combinations that are worthy of the name, and besides it would probably take me years to learn how to coax sufficient bass out of a fullrange driver.

I'm not saying there aren't other good fullrange driver speaker manufacturers out there besides Johnk; there certainly are. Names that come to mind are Omega, Hornshoppe, Maxxhorn, Cain & Cain (now Lovecraft), Tonian Labs (mostly augmented by a supertweet), Rethm, and no doubt others that I can't think of offhand. Heck, it could probably be argued that SoundLab electrostats are technically a "single fullrange driver"... but that's probably not what you had in mind!

Give Johnk a holler. He's not as well known as some of the other guys out there, but do not let that hold you back. He is an artisan who does world-class work for a very reasonable price and we're lucky to have him participating here. He has the expertise to be able to do custom designs for his customers without killing you on the cost. Doing that would take me so long that it could never be cost-effective, but John is extremely fluent in loudspeaker system design, multi-way as well as single-driver.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer

1.Jean Hiraga in his new speaker prototype, using lagendary -
Great Plains Audio's coaxial Altec Company (reissued)15" woofer and 1.75" compression driver in horn-loaded enclousure.
Drivers are not cheap but not expensive either. Seems to generate quite a buzz in audio industry.
2. Not 100% single driver but......
Rethm Saadhana, using custom Lowther DX 55 driver in horn-loader enclousure. Seperate build-in amp is powering 2 peerless custom 6" drivers responsable for bass duties in each speaker.
From what I have heard - I could live with this design.
3.The last but least - Newcomer , CarderSound Madison v2 double horn-loaded design that uses a custom Fostex 8" driver.
Cabinet is similar to Olson-Nagaoka (Sachiko) design and is based on the same principles. From my understanding the cabinet is custom designed with moded Fostex in mind and verious cabinet tweaking was still nessecary to get the desire sound that IMO - was one of the best SD horn designs of lately.

I do agree with most that SD speakers are not for everyone, difficulte to design to sound right and other complaints.
Coloration , sometimes can be benefitial.......do not get me wrong....It is the accuracity that we all seek but what if it sounds pretty good??

Far from fanatic or big fan of SD or open baffle designs for that matter however, if done right - it is very interesting concept ( at least for me it is).

Shadorne
- you are on to something with The Masochist guess.
In fact, plans are being made to use some very strange ideas for my DIY projects. hahahahah.
If it won't work.....(and it probably will not) , I will stick with ready & proven design.

Mariusz

Oh yes,
thanks to all.
Duke & JohnK
you are quite knowlodgble and all I can do is look up to you and pick your brain.......in sneaky, dark, foxy ways.hahaha.
Cheers

M.S

The Carder Sound design has caught my eye as reasonably practical (though still very big/tall) and potentially highly effective in delivering the most satisfying sound from a single conventional full range driver at reasonable cost. I would consider these if/when I have room for another pair of larger full range speaks.

In terms of the best single driver design to work from that I've heard of (meaning fewest limitations overall) I'd say the Walsh driver design concept found in many Ohms and the larger (and expensive)German Physiks speakers (DDD) is the best.