Single driver vs traditional 3 way loudspeakers

Someone mentioned WBers have some issues with midrange, bass and highs.
Yes and no, 
there are beautiful sounding midrange WBers and then there are just OK/sos midrange sounding WBers.
Obviously we are all only interested in top dawgs.
Bass, I get pretty  goodbass out the DLVX8 and the DLW4.
The Seas W18E001's add  some nuances 40hz-1600hz
Highs?
No problem
Paper tweet + Mundorf 2.2 SESGO cap, adds some charms.
The whizzer in the DLVX8 is very accurate on vocals and  all instrumentation in jazz/classical/piano, Very neutral.
I've looked over all the newest WBers,  
The 2 that i can afford and find pretty good are the DavidLouis and Tang  Band
About to add a  Tang Band W31878 Its been out some time now, maybe 8 years, has that spiked center phase pulg which eliminates beaming.
Can't wait to add it to the DLVX8 and DLW4.
It will be a  sort of 3 way WBer with dual W18's+ tweeter.
Adding the TBW31878 will make my design the very 1st of its kind.
No one else in the Inet  has made a  WBer 3 way.
My concept is the 1st of its kind.
The TB1878 has to sing as good/better than the W8+W4 or it can not stay.

has that spiked center phase pulg which eliminates beaming.

This conclusion is false. What the phase plug does is prevent cancellation from one side of the cone to the other, so the highs generated can actually be heard. It does not prevent beaming at all; that is simply a thing if you have 'full range' drivers without a tweeter.

FR speakers certainly have their limitations. They have a very specific sound signature that may not be to everyones taste.


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WEll if  we make the 20hz-40hz fq range a  limitation then yeah, WBers fall shot here. 
But again in my classical music, cellos lowest notes are in the low 60hz range. 
Jazz fans also, not much below say 30hz.
Less than 1% of the music is below 40hz
*Signature sound*.
I find xover types all suffer froma  *House Sound*
Bose, B&W's havea  distinct sound,,which we all tend to avoid.
My Seas Thors were extremely neutral, = no house sound, Perfectly natural in voicing. 
But at 87db, = wet blanket sound.
All WBers will differ in sound.
The Tang BandW82145 and the DavidLouis VX8, sounded nearly identical.
I shiped the TB2145 back, although it is a winner, But I just now realized with that aluminum phase plug, it may very well have beamed highs.
The DLVX8 with a  unique phase plug + whizzer has very little beam effect.
**Not to everyones taste**
Fact it, the hard  truth is
 Audiogon is a  xover traditional 3 way discussion board.
Most of the members have yet to hear any WBer in action,. 
Perhaps the old Lowthers, Fostex's back 20 years ago,
Those don't count today.
WBers have come  a  longggggg way since those 2 early models. 

atmasphere9,806 posts10-14-2021 1:53pm

has that spiked center phase pulg which eliminates beaming.

This conclusion is false. What the phase plug does is prevent cancellation from one side of the cone to the other, so the highs generated can actually be heard. It does not prevent beaming at all; that is simply a thing if you have 'full range' drivers without a tweeter.

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Well I may have ead something in the descript about the odd spiked phase plug as helping eleiminate some beaming effect.
I vaguely recall now the Tang Band 2145 8 may have had beaming issues. 
I only had it testeda  few hours then boxed it up and shipped it back
I was unaware of this beaming effect at that time, 3 Months ago,
Its still a very accurate midrange speaker with great bass (considering it is a wide band) and has IMHO excellent highs.
I say IMHO , due to this prejudice that WBers lack the  ultra highs.
If you want ultra highs witha  WBer set up grab any hifi tweet and there you go you got it.
Lack of 20-40hz bass and ,,say 12K++ highs really is not a  issue with me as far as WBers are concerned. 
The mids in my WBer 2 way is a  voicing that i have not heard in any xover style speaker.
My guess is over the comming decades more folks will want to know  more about these WBer *things*.
Looked over the DavidLouis for about 3 years before I made purchase.
After 6 or 7 trial N error I found what I was looking for.

Well I may have ead something in the descript about the odd spiked phase plug as helping eleiminate some beaming effect.

It doesn't. It allows you to hear highs that you would not otherwise.


That is why any 'full range' driver is nicely supplemented by a tweeter, which might operate at only 10KHz and above. I've had them work nicely by having the tweeters firing to the rear so that if you are a bit off-axis, the tonal balance is still correct. When on-axis, if the speaker is far enough from the rear wall, the rear-firing tweeters will help the speaker play a more distinct image.