Check out Charney Audio, Somerset, NJ. I own his Concerto horn speaker. You can see my commentary on his web site.
Single driver loudspeakers
I know some friends who have built single driver horn loudspeakers with 6-7 inch 'full range' drive element and seem very happy with the sound. However I wonder about those selling 94 db sensitive 12 and 15 inch full range drive elements and recommending 2-3 cubic ft bass reflex cabinets and 7 watt SET amplifiers. Is it possible for a 15" 'full range" driver driven by 7 watt SET to provide state of the art sound without audible distortion, deficient frequency extremes and 1950 style sound? This is an inquiry not a critique. Thank you for helping me to understand full range drive units.
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I have had some very expensive multi-way speakers and when starting to design my own I saw some single driver speakers, so I bought a pair of 8 inch alnico Audio Nirvana drivers and had a cabinet builder make cabinets using the design shown on the Commonsense Audio website. The alnico magnet drivers had a much smoother frequency response that that of ferrite and neodynium magnets. I was completely taken aback with these, especially when mated with my JL Audio subwoofer, which completes what I consider the only real achilles heel of single driver speakers: bass dynamics. They can certainly plumb the depths but cannot move air like real woofers and subwoofers. So I then sold these and bought the AN 12 inch drivers and a larger (5.6 liter versus 2.8) cabinets, and they are a significant step up in most parameters. As far as treble, after hearing these I wonder why anyone makes tweeters, even approaching the sound of the ion tweeters in a pair of Acapellas I once had. And the midrange is simply unreal, as well as soundstaging and immediacy. I unfortunately cannot answer your question about the low-powered tube amps you mentioned as I use as powerful solid-state amp and a tubed preamp and phono stage. I would think the tube amps to be a good match with the high sensitivity and easy load of the speakers. Remember, your amp is driving the speaker voice coil directly, and IMO, I can hear what multi-way speakers with crossovers do wrong. |
Make sure , on size I had cabinets custom made with 3/4 inch Russian birch ply and AudioNirvanas best 15 inch Alnico driver in a 5.6 CF cabinet 44Tall X 18-3/4W X15 D my wife seen that I had to rearrange our little room now I have to sell them to stop the in fighting. I am in New England .great deal if so one has a SUV . too bad though ,stay single, |
For what it's worth, here's a relevant thread that I started a couple of years ago. You might find some useful info there, too: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/single-driver-speakers-without-the-pitfalls |
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