2. misc-audio
  3. 194095-11297

There is no substitute for cubic inch or in this case surface area

After listening to quite a few speakers, my conclusion is that if you want large enveloping soundstage, you need a lot of drivers.  

I once had a speaker with two 12in. drivers and the soundstage is just floating in the air.  None of my other speakers could do that.

Currently I have a pair of Thiel CS2.4.  It is a very good speaker but with small drivers there is really limitation to what it can do in term of soundstage size.  I really miss that.

andy2
jsalerno277
362 posts
 

@andy2 ​​​​@ronboco 

Modern, long throw woofer designed have significantly advanced so there is very little measurable distortion. The technology has advanced to produce drivers with accurate pistonic diaphragm movement reducing breakup effects.  Rigid diaphragm materials also prevent breakup effects.  I recommend reading reviews on Vivid and Vandersteen  speakers  and peer reviewed literature on the benefits of their IP on this subject.  What you state was correct 20 years ago, may be correct today for improperly designed speakers today, but is incorrect for well designed speakers form audiophile companies on the market now.  I see the woofer excursion on my Vivids vividly and the distortion rating is <0.5% second and third harmonic over frequency range.  

fatdaddy2
448 posts
 

That's the great thing about extolling the virtues of home-built; nobody else has a means for comparison to confirm or refute the claims.

raam
112 posts
 

The term for the combined cone area and how far they move is called SD.

Also in consideration if how long the voice coil is compared to how far they can move and being under control properly.

Multiple small drivers can do what any big driver can do as well, if used correctly can even be used to cancel out issues many particular drivers tend to have.

I like the sound of big drivers but also the sound of small ones designed and used correctly, both can be very satisfying.

I have had horn systems that would blow away most all big driver systems in dynamics and incredible overall live sounding output and they used very small drivers.

I was also designing a very high end and complex system for a car project with massive horns built into the vehicle and dual 21" infinite baffle subs before I decided to go full time RVing so I sold that project off.

There is simply no one solution for what can be archeived for any particular size of drivers. Then of course first and foremost the space it will occupy and room treatments being top priority, always.

My next DIY speakers are going to be Frugel-horn Joan with Mark Audio MA200 eight inch full range drivers just because I have not done this before and it should work really well in our full time RV where my Egarhorns are the wrong design and far to big, line arrays I have might work, wanted to go with OB but not a good place for it....I could end up building something else but I like the idea of no crossovers and my little Baby Sophia 10w PP amp, fully upgraded of course.

 

Rick

tmortsd's avatar
tmortsd
46 posts
 

My Martin Logan classic 9’s with their 9”x44” panel provide for an incredible sense of “there” in the room….im suspecting that large radiating area has a lot to do with that. 

audioman58's avatar
audioman58
4,366 posts
 

Not totally necessary if you have good design vented speakers with dual woofers 

you can get very good deep bass $$ is the limiting factor.

great stand mounts ,with a pair of good subs click all the boxes 

your $$ budget makes or breaks the speakers design,build quality 

from my experiences.

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