Single driver speakers - opinions

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.

Here's a resource discussing DIY Walsh designs:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread/t-14337.html

I've read some things on the web published by ebay member Mamboni as well that seems to provide practical guidelines for constructing a DIY Walsh speaker.

I have owned many speakers of all ilks and am now really enjoying a pair of Lamhorn's (AER MK-1's with likely upgrade to AER MD3b's) with OTL amps (Tenor)....a very simple and direct system that I can listen to for hours. As others have mentioned, and as is the case with all designs, there are compromises and limitations but in my system and in my room and based on my tastes these speakers/drivers represent an excellent set of compromises where the considerable strengths (tonality, immediacy, resolution, staging and imaging) significantly outweigh the disadvantages which are largely represented by the lack of the lower two octaves.