Full Range Drivers

Darkmoebius, I would be able to handle the wood working skills no problem. My father gave me a beautiful Jet table saw with a Biesemeyer fence, an amazing plunge router with a more amazing router table that I can't remember the make of. It's all a matter of getting my a$$ out of the listening chair. I didn't want to go this route out of pure laziness, but a 12" driver holds my interest like a beach in Brazil. I'll look into the Hammer kit. If I lose a digit or two along the way, I can always press the shuffle button with my nose.

Donjr,

The FullRangeDriver.com(home of the FullRangeDriver Forum) still maintains it's original SingleDriver Website archives. Inside of that is a priceless resource that has in-depth theory, construction, and upgrade/modification information on a lot of the most popular designs a few years back.

But, most importantly, they maintained the Hammer Dynamics Super-12 Tweaks page. It documents the evolution of the Super-12's from the late creator's, John Wyckoff, original kit to better tweeters, crossovers, wiring, cabinet reinforcement, etc. Some really talented and enthusiastic people experimented every which way to squeeze the best performance possible out John's speakers. And their final tweaks take it to a whole 'nother level.

I think John's wife, Colleen, has incorporated a lot of those final tweaks into the kit now, so there may not be much to do anymore. I think the upgraded Fostex FT17h supertweeter now comes as part of the stock kit along with the better Solen hepta-litz wire wound inductors. Send Colleen an email, she is very nice and helpful. Supplying the kit is way to keep her late husband's dream alive. It's been a few years since I last sent her an email, so I can't say for a fact that she's still doing it, but the website is up, so i guess so.

If she isn't, I have an extra kit that I bought for my brother years ago that he never ended up building due to his first kid being born.

I have the Super-12's and still love them even though I have a much, much, more expensive and complex system now. There are things that a large single driver does well that smaller ones cannot match, bass being the most obvious. But, there is also a difference in the sonic presentation.

The Super-12's can rock with the best of them and still do jazz and chamber music extremely well. Vocals are eerily real. The Super's are a true 97dB efficent, so the whole range of flea-powered SET amps are perfect, from 2wpc 45's to "monster" 845's and 211's.

But, they also do extremely well with low-powered and larger push-pull amps. I preferred more power for most complex music, but have used them with 8 wpc 300B SET and 6wpc PX-25 amps with superb results. They also do well with good solid state amps.

The Super-12's are a great way to experiment with all types and designs of amps because of their relatively high efficiency.

I have owned Lamhorns, Beauhorns, C&C Abbys, C&C Bens, Tonian TL-D1s, and 2nd Rethms. The two speakers I occasionally miss quite a bit in that bunch are the Lamhorns and Tonians - both have qualities that are quite remarkable and really set them apart.

But I have moved on to multi-driver speakers, chasing real-world performance instead of theory. While some wideband-drivers (a better general term for the genre than "single-driver" IMO) speakers are indeed very good, IME all have some Achilles heel. (Then again, to get a speaker with truly no real weaknesses is hugely expensive.)

On the theoretical side, the fact is that there is some misinformation that is regularly repeated. To start with, a wideband driver with a whizzer is not "crossover-less" - it has a mechanical crossover. Obviously there is a point where frequencies transition from the main cone to the whizzer.

Secondly, even with a whizzer most wideband drivers are producing some of the range via cone breakup. That doesn't necessarily have to be regarded as "bad"; it is what it is. This has to do with the commonly rising response (which some wideband drivers DO avoid!) and somewhat ragged frequency response. (Smart shoppers realize they are trading flat frequency response for generally better dynamics and drivability.)

I have found that a well-implemented two-or-three way with well-chosen crossover points can be very nearly as "direct" as a wideband driver but without the weaknesses, which range from mild to glaring.

Great point, Paul. Of course, there are wideband drivers w/o whizzer cones, too. Like the Fostex FE-E Sigma range in C&C speakers(I own IM-Bens). But, as you say, there is always some limitation to every driver and design.

I'm in the planning phase of my next big system change, it's looking like large Apogee ribbons or line arrays. But, I still really love widerange speakers for jazz and vocals.

"But, I still really love widerange speakers for jazz and vocals."

That's why I'm interested in them. (jazz & vocals) That's what I love the most, but I have to throw percussion in there as well. I'm not talking about Keith Moon style percussion. I prefer the stuff like bongos and beating on a coconut with a stick.