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Manger Audio Loudspeakers. Has anyone listened to these?

I am particularly fond of full range loudspeakers. I am not terrifically fond of whizzer cone designs because to make them work you have to decouple the main cone from the voice coil at high frequencies, a mechanical crossover.
As I understand it, the Manger driver is a flat Walsh driver. It will cover 120 Hz to 40 kHz! This will just make it down to subwoofer territory. Other full range drivers include Cube Audio and Fostex both of standard construction and both decouple the voice coil from the main cone at higher frequencies. Is this really all that bad or can it be done maintaining high fidelity? I have not heard any of them. Both the Manger and Cube drivers are very expensive, in and around $5000 for a pair. So, I can not afford to experiment. The Fostex is cheap in comparison but it looks well made and specs fine.
I plan on making a pair of open baffle "full range" speakers crossing to subs in and around 100 Hz. Which driver to use?
128x128mijostyn
russ69's avatar
russ69
3,419 posts
 
Single driver systems are seldom "full range" so they are compromised from the start. That is not to say they are not enjoyable. 
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn OP
8,448 posts
 
@russ69 ,Very few multi driver systems go low enough in the bass. So you cross over to subwoofers at 100 Hz instead of 80 hz. No big deal. I certainly know that full range ESLs image better and I am wondering if a full range driver will do the same thing for point source speakers full range ESLs do for line source speakers. Is it the use of multiple drivers and crossovers that interfere with a speaker's ability to develop the best image? Obviously there are other factors but, I have only ever heard one multi driver point source system with a state of the art image and that was probably more by accident then intent. The owner was playing Waltz for Debbie. Within a few days I had 10 Bill Evans albums. It was the first time I ever heard a system imaging really well and I worked at the only real high end store in the area! Our store sold none of the equipment this fellow had. He was a grade school teacher who also like Alpha Romeos!

glennewdick's avatar
glennewdick
1,619 posts
 
Have a look at LII Audio they are making some very nice full rangers that are proving to be quite good for the money, cheep enough to experiment with. I'm experimenting with the big 18" full ranger but that's just an experiment they have a 15" full range driver that's getting very good reviews and may give you more bass to get lower to the sub crossover. 

Home - Lii Audio, unique speaker, amplfier, quality and cost-saving parts for HiFi DIY (lii-audio.com)

for a better but much more expensive option is the Voxative drivers  , sound wonderful some of the best, IMO, made today. 

Voxativ FULL-RANGE DRIVERS

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