Single driver speakers without the pitfalls?

i think Eric prefers the big solid state amps for his speakers, but I've heard of plenty of people driving them with flea watt tube amps. I have driven the Lore S with the Dennis Had Inspire amp - 8 watts? though I prefered the power of my 30 watt push pull, the regular Lores are more efficient. I say go for it. Won't need a sub.

"There will always be tradeoffs."

That is a fact.

Practically, I think the best approach is to minimize the # of drivers. Two drivers done well is enough in most cases. THree can work well also but keep the crossover points out to the frequency extremes as much as possible. The tradeoff is multiple drivers have to be integrated optimally for teh best results. With today's digital processing tools and techniques, its very doable. With just the technology of 50 years ago alone, a lot harder.

I am not rushing out to sell my De Capo's anytime soon. Of course, I want to hear what they sound like with my new amplifier. However, the Lore is a very interesting proposition. Looks like an almost unbelievable value and the reviews are universally very positive. Plus, it would be almost a full range speaker. So, my mind is open but I want to see how the new amp sounds in my current rig.
By the way, there is also a 2.0 version of the Lore but using a different tweeter. The website doesn't really make clear what the differences between the two, and Eric only said that they use different tweeters but they both sound great.

There are MANY tradeoffs associated with single driver speakers, so that whether the offsetting positive attributes make them desirable is largely a matter of taste and how a system is used. The most common deal stoppers for most listeners is the limited bass response, peaky upper midrange, and limited volume level. I have heard some very nice fullrange systems, but, on balance, I have not heard one that I would prefer over a high efficiency multi-driver system. I have not yet heard the Voxativ system which I have been told is one of the best at overcoming most of the problems with fullrange systems.

What I have been very impressed with are systems that use one driver to cover a substantial part of the frequency spectrum. One of the best systems I heard had a Western Electric fieldcoil 555 driver that was run fullrange (not rolled off by a crossover) into a Western Electric 15A horn, with a tweeter filling in the very top of the range and two 18" woofers in a horn-based cabinet. The BIG downside to this system was the size of the speakers--it is like standing two Smart cars on their rear bumper in one's living room.

Another system that makes very good use of a wide-range driver is the Surreal Sound system. I recently heard their active crossover two-way system that utilizes a fieldcoil Lowther driver for the midrange and tweeter. Six woofers provide bass from a separate dedicated amp. This 99 db/w efficient system sounded absolutely fantastic and exhibited very little problems in the way of peaky or rough frequency response. I had previously heard a different system from Surreal Sound that used the fullrange Tangband speaker as the midrange/tweeter. This system sounded very good too, just not as good as the one with the fieldcoil driver.

I have heard a number of fullrange systems that use the Tangband driver. These systems sounded pretty good, particularly given the price of this driver. I bet a system designed around this driver as a midrange driver would be quite price competitive.

Reb, I would definitely not ditch the Decapos until you get the chance to get things ticking in your new "dedicated" room. I predict the Decapo/SET combo might really shine in there eventually, but you know, "famous last words".....