Quarantine Project--A Full Range Speaker Kit
Being in full lock down mode, I looked for a small project to give me something to do on weekend evenings usually spent socializing. I decided to purchase the Mark Audio Tozzi One kit from Madisound. ~$160 with drivers and cabinets. It's a ~3" full range driver with no crossover. The cabinet is handsome in a very modern way.
This is an extremely simple kit, and something you could do with older children that have an interest in audio.
As for the sound...well, this was my first foray with modern full range drivers. First the bad points: (1) these are small drivers, so there's very little output below say 100hz. (2) I believe the cones are aluminum, and I don't think I'm fooling myself into thinking there is a "metal cone" coloration to the mids -> lower treble. I know it's there, but it's not too distracting.
That all being said, and keeping in mind these cost $160/pair, I think they are rather remarkable. The clarity / purity is really tremendous. And they image really nicely. Treble extension is fantastic; there's no sense of missing a dedicated tweeter whatsoever. I am now motivated into experimenting with the higher end (and larger) Markaudio drivers. They are really onto something.
For fun, I hooked them up to my home theater system so that I could hear them with a subwoofer. It seemed to highlight the fact that they throw up a rather small soundstage, but other than that they were really enjoyable!