Single driver vs traditional 3 way loudspeakers
Love this topic! FR speakers certainly have their limitations. They have a very specific sound signature that may not be to everyones taste. I've built a couple, for myself and friends. My "Pitch" to my friends if they already have something good, but a bit "generic" in their system, is "these will sound very different than what you have, why build another like the one you already have?" They breathe in my experience of them. There is an openness and airiness that comes through quite beautifully. I find them not fatiguing in any way and can have them on all day. Running a single 4" driver, I don't find I'm missing much from the manifold horns I built. An 8" pair I built for my friend really kick!!! 105db and no strain whatsoever. Granted, it was harpsichord music, but it sounded effortless. As did the Gregorian Chant we were playing at similar volume. The "Serious Fun" by Lester Brown, which is not an easy recording to reproduce, came across beautifully!!! No strain, nothing out of place, just nice (albeit loud...) And I did tell my friend, that if we get complaints and the neighbours call the police (we were playing this at 1am in a residential area downtown) I would just leave and let him explain the harpsichord being played so loud. I'm a fan for sure. Will be transitioning to Coax drivers I suspect, using a similar cabinet design, but utilizing a crossover for the tweeter. Here is a link to some I've built: https://www.frugal-horn.com/downloads/SpawnHorn-v2-planset-181117.pdf Also built these, still to be completed... https://www.fostexinternational.com/docs/speaker_components/pdf/recom_enclose/108ez_encl.pdf All this to say, I like low power, single FR speakers... |
I have Maggie’s in two other systems, but I built a single-driver speaker after building the Pass Amp Camp Amp (8 watts class A). I was so pleased with the amp’s pure sound that I built another, and then a Pass diy Balanced Zen preamp. Each of these use minimal components and simple circuits with the goal of leaving the signal as unmolested as possible. So the next step in the simplicity chain was the speaker, diy of course. The result, after experimenting with sealed vs. ported and various degrees of acoustic stuffing, was a 6.5-inch “full-range” driver in a smallish bookshelf, ported enclosure. I went with a 95-dB Dayton Audio driver from Parts Express. It had a neodymium magnet in a cast frame and other recommended attributes, and then a Kevlar/paper cone with a whizzer and phase plug. It’s pretty good sound, similar to the Boston Acoustics HD5s they replaced but much more efficient. I later added a Martin Logan 400 sub, since my Dayton mic and sound software confirmed a pretty steep roll off below about 100 Hz. It’s all a trade-off. No crossover, but not “full-range“ either. Small enclosure, but I didn’t have room for larger. Still, in the all-important midrange, it’s very good. And that’s my diy “simplicity” setup. |
