What type of speaker would sound better?


 

1. mid-tier 3 way with multiple lower quality drivers and parts OR

2. High end 2-way with premium crossover parts and speaker drivers. 

Either one could be a stand mount, small tower, or anything in between.

For example you listen to a well recorded symphony in a 15 X 30 living room. You have 250w @ 8ohms. You start on a mid tier 3-way and then on a high end 2-way system, which do you think would sound better?

 

dtapo

There are great and poor examples of all kinds of speaker designs, so it depends.  I’ll take better parts and better design any day over more of something lesser.

Better parts and better design at a given price point tend to lean more towards neutral with better clarity, so it’s easier to evolve the system with placement and associated gear to sound natural with a wide range of music.  I can easily add an active subwoofer to smaller high quality speakers if bass seems shy in a given space.

Bigger boxes and more drivers of lesser quality tend to have more of a sound signature or coloration, which to me makes it tougher to ever achieve clarity and  neutrality for a wide variety of music.  A colored speaker can still sound good, depending on how you define good, but clarity can’t be added after the fact.  To get the best of both worlds tends to cost more. 

There’s really no way to do it wrong as long as you enjoy what you hear.

Bruh why was my comment deleted? I didn't say anything denigrating anyone so why? This is the 7th time a comment of mine was deleted because I used something like "ass" "trash" in my comment.

 

Anyway here's the comment again and I won't add the supposed words that apparently triggered someone here to report my comment.

 

"no tier. A well designed with the least compromises for your space is what you should be aiming for. So, doesn’t matter if 3-way or 2-way if it is not designed well it will sound terrible. You can get exotic drivers like Purifi Ushindi Woofers and Scanspeak, SEAS, Bliesma tweeters. With exotic crossover parts. If you use the wrong parameters and modeling, you'd make this sound terrible and there are examples of that @dtapo 

The drivers matter but the room and integration do as well.

Even in driver manufacturing there's an issue of diminishing returns and questions about whether you can hear the difference between say a specific $500 midrange and a $50 dollar one.  Money here is also subjective.

Having said that, I think Fritz repeatedly demonstrates what a good 2-way system in a modest room with proper mid-treble absorbers can do. 

On the other hand, if you must rock, those excellent speakers with excellent parts won't fully satisfy you.

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Whichever ones your ears like best. I prefer horn loaded speakers some do not.