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Why Aren't More Speaker Designers Building Augmented Widebanders?

Over the years I've owned a number of different speakers - KLH, Cerwin Vega, Polk, Opera Audio, Ars Aures, and Merlin VSM. One thing they all had in common was a crossover point in the 2000 hz (+ or -) range. I've read reviews of speakers where the reviewer claimed to be able to hear the crossover point, manifested as some sort of discontinuity. I've never heard that. My Merlin VSM's for example sounded completely seamless. Yet my new Bache Audio Metro 001 speakers, with a single wideband driver covering the range of 400 hz to 10,000 hz, augmented by a woofer and a super tweeter, sounds different from all of these other speakers. The midrange of the Bache 001's is cleaner, more coherent, more natural than I have heard before. Music flows from the speakers in a more relaxed manner, and subjectively dynamic range is greater, with no etch or brightness, and no loss of resolution compared with the Merlins. I have to conclude that Bache's design has an inherent advantage over more traditional designs with a crossover point or points in the midrange frequencies. I wonder why more speaker designers haven't tried this approach?
128x128cellcbern
seanheis1
632 posts
 
Another good design is the Silverline Minuet Supreme. 3.25 inch woofer crossed to the tweeter @3500hz. The little woofer can play very high and the tweeter only comes on for the highest notes, delivering the airy and delicate top end that a widebander can't. Crossed over to the sub @60hz makes for a really nice small room or desktop setup. Icing on the cake is that it's easy for a tube amp to drive.  
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
My mistake on the Altecs! They are the 755 series, with the 755A's being the most desirable because they claim to be built by Western Electric. I had a pair of 755E's. Not as rare, but still sounding fine (and a lot cheaper!). An excellent DIY choice for a 1 driver system. They particularly excell in the midrange!
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
And in a two- cubic foot box they have quite satisfying bass - and high sensitivity, too!
ddriveman
171 posts
 
I have a Feastrex Full range driver, 9inch field coil. It practically covers from 60 Hz to 18khz. I augment with a pair of subwoofers (REL) and Supertweeters (Townshend Ribbons). I agree with cellcbern that the midrange of widebanders offers something special compared to conventional multiway speakers and that's why I've stuck to fullrangers/widebanders for many years.
I think the issue is not just the crossover point but also the phase. Additionally you can't ignore that below/above a crossover point, the music is handled by different drivers with different impedances, sensitivities etc. Hence, its hard to get music to sound coherent as it crosses the crossover point frequency. 
What you gain in coherency though you give up in other areas e.g. frequency range, dispersion, power handling and hence dynamics etc.
But for me, I've found the strengths of fullrangers/widebanders to outweigh the negatives. YMMV though.
cellcbern's avatar
cellcbern OP
61 posts
 
Thoughtful, well written post from Teo_Audio.  However at least one company - Zu Audio has made augmented wideband speakers enough of a "pull" product to be successful.  
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