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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
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn OP
8,570 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
1,650 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

bondmanp
1,807 posts
 
I once heard a DIY speaker that used a Manger driver.  IIRC, it was augmented in the bass range, either by a built in woofer or stand alone sub.  It sounded really good, but it will not do really deep bass without help.  It may be similar to a flat Walsh driver, as you put it, but it was still mounted, when I heard it, in a box, with all the issues that come with enclosures.  Now, if there was a way to build a speaker with a Manger driver in free air...
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn OP
8,570 posts
 
glennewdick, thanx. I had heard of Voxative but not Lii. Voxative certainly has nuts. $59K for a pair of 8" drivers with leather surrounds no less. But, they do have more reasonably priced units.
I'm thinking an 8 of 10" speaker. The larger driver will beam the midrange more making the speaker more directional which I think is one of the best ways to avoid room interaction. Pulling the deep bass out of it should lower distortion quite a bit. I was thinking of using a pair of Nelson Pass's Amp Camp amps on them, a MiniDSP and a pair of my model 4 subs. Part of the game here is trying to make a killer system for as little money as is reasonable. The Fostex still gets the node for value not sure about sound quality yet. The Lii's are Chinese and I am on a hiatus from their products for the time being.
ncdogdoc
33 posts
 
I have heard the Manger setups at the major audio shows and very much liked the sound. I think single driver or planar speakers do better in the smaller room environments at the shows, as both tend to project a very solid coherent sound for my ears. I am not one for a lot of bass, so I cannot comment on that.
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