Which sounds better 2 way or 3 way speaker design

Dear @kjl1065   : Everything the same 3-way is a superior MUSIC reproduction where a 2-way ( almost any. ) has a way higher Intermodulation Distortions that per sé goes against MUSIC in front of the 3-way design.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,

R.

Am I correct to assume that a 3 way design will give the listener a much better chance to hear the full audio spectrum as opposed to a 2 way design?

Depends on what you mean when you say, full audio spectrum.

If full audio spectrum to you means more prominent low frequencies, than in my opinion I think you would have a better chance of achieving that with a 3-way design, though not necessarily a much better chance. As far as the speakers you have listed, the cello should have 3 db more low end output due to it having two dedicated low frequency drivers, at volume levels approximately 83 db or less (measured at 1K Hz) depending on the dynamic range of your source material and many other factors.

But with any real world test, the proof is in the pudding, so the only way to really know is to do an actual listening comparison.

See  here a two way monitor with attributes of a three and four way design.

Mike

Implementation is everything.

However, while designing a new speaker, choosing a 3-way may remove a number of constraints a similar 2-way would have, related to distortion and dispersion and dynamic range.  I wrote more about this here.

Having said all of that, trying to judge 2-way speaker A vs. 3-way speaker B is a fool’s errand.

We can start to think about the benefits along the same lines of "why use 2 drivers instead of just one?" Similar benefits will appear when asking "why use 3 drivers instead of just 2?"

It is of course possible to go overboard and design a multi-way monstrosity that sounds horrible.

@rauliruegas

Dear @kjl1065 : Everything the same 3-way is a superior MUSIC reproduction where a 2-way ( almost any. ) has a way higher Intermodulation Distortions that per sé goes against MUSIC in front of the 3-way design.

There’s never a free lunch. You stated a potential benefit from choosing a 3-way design, but there’s a flip side.

A 3-way system typically puts a crossover point (a series capacitor) in the 300-800hz region, and it induces any associated delay and degradation from the capacitor. That’s right square in the middle of the vocal range, which covers the primary music range of a lot of instruments. All things the being the same, that’s most definitely a theoretical disadvantage to at least some aspects of the sound.

Every speaker designer faces lots of those choices. Dealing with all those pros and cons, is simply a matter of picking your poison, and mitigating it as much as possible, but no design is immune.