darkmoebius900 posts01-20-2010 3:14pmOne thing that should be made clear is that "Full Range" is a bit of misnomer for the average listener of moderate income and room size. Very, very, few speakers of any driver design actually cover 20Hz-20kHz(-3dB) accurately. Very few do 30Hz(-3dB) accurately. Those that do are usually very big, very heavy, and very expensive.
Fullrange single drivers have their advantages and limitations. I think the first sonic benefit that most fans, like myself, will tout is their musical "coherence". What does that mean? That the entire musical spectrum seems to emanate from one, seamless, sonic tapestry without any inconsistencies. It's very hard to describe in words, but once you hear it, it is very hard to accept anything else.
Why do they seem more "coherent" to some people than other multi-driver designs? I think most of us, like Macrojack, will cite no, or 1st order, crossovers and no need to transition between differing drivers at the crucial midrange frequencies where the ear is most sensitive to anomalies. Seamless transition between drivers of different size and construction materials is not easily done and fairly rare.
The downsides - like all speakers, bass. There are only three ways to deep, accurate, bass; 1) large driver surface area, 2) long driver excursion, 2) big cabinet. Usually, two of the three are necessary unless lots of power is needed.
And single drivers generally need really large cabinets to go deep with any authority. Even then, they won't move the same amount of air as good multi-driver designs. But, well-executed designs will have very fast and clean bass, which can be supplemented by good subwoofers.
Which brings us back to - is that really a single driver system? No, not in the strictest sense. But, single driver advocates are primarily concerned with a driver covering the most critical section of the frequency range in it's entirety - the full midrange (400Hz-6kHz). Most single driver proponents would even like to push that out to 8kHz-10kHz.
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The earlier Full range/wide band/high sensitivity speakers did lack fq extention in bass and highs.
This is correct.
Starting cerca 2010, time of your post, there were 2 new labs making single wide band drivers that were developed to correct these limitations.
These mew kids on the block now boast bass and highs.
So if we consider these new developments, then Wide band single drivers are superior to any speaker witha xover.
as we all know xovers get in the way of the original musical source. Its a **add on** and causes depletion of energy = efficiency = enter in distortion.
Besides the xover variety in order to acheive FULL fq extention, requires drivers that handle bass, midrange and highs.
Not as easy as it sounds.
Bass, yep, got that. Mids,,hummm, issues here, Highs, again, issues.
To attempt all 3 witha xover, = big heavy speakers and very expensive. + by gaining rock solid bass and some high fq;s, you end up with so-so midrange.
Lets consider darkmoebius final comment.
**But single driver advocates are primaarily concerned with a driver capable of covering the ~~MOST critical section~~~of the fq band ~~in its entireity~~~The Full MIdrange , 400hz-6khz,,,
Very nice assessment from darkmoebius.
This is pretty much what we , wide band fan-atics are after in a speaker. Voicing midrange with clarity, presence, lowest distortion as technically possible.
And if bass is there, = bonus,
Highs are there = yet another bonus.
We are not after the ultimate FULL Range.
We are only after the midrange section.
Nothing more.
Here is where most xover designs fail. The mids always have issues,.
Of course the xover fans don't want to hear what I hear.
At least when it comes to challenging music genres,
As i full symphony orchestra.
Any weaknesses in mids , while trying to voice a full symphony orchestra, these weaknesses will most certainity, will surface.
I can hear this liability, they can not.
We have 2 camps,
'The xover/inefficient camp, And the wide band/high sensitivity camp.
The very best xover speakers are comming out of Troel Gravesen's lab.
Not cheap, these are super high end and as i say, bring your AMEX Gold card, you will need it.
These TG's are the very best of the best in xover designs.
Hats off to Troels, guy is a genius in choosing drivers and xover components. Nothing 2nd rate in his speakers.
But now along comes the new high tech wide band drivers to match what Troel's is accomplishing with xover designs.
. But the wide band is more suited for my musical taste and budget.
Not to mention speaker size/weight.
Troel's speakers tend to be rather large and heavy.
The new wide band as i see it ..is a
~~Win-Win-Win~~ speaker set up.
vs xover designs.