Single way or multiway


The founder and builder of the highly respected high-end speaker company Gauder AkustikDr. Gauder, says that using a full-range driver is very bad. He uses 3- to 4-way speakers with extremely complex 10th-order crossovers consisting of 58–60 components.

In contrast, some other well-known and equally respected speaker companies — such as Voxativ, Zu, Cube Audio, and Totem — use crossoverless designs.

Who is right, and who is wrong?

bache

I will take a good quality 3 way speaker every time. Asking a single driver to do all the work seems far more difficult than building a quality cross over. 

Cabinet Design is also not to be overlooked.

A Single Driver is supported as a drive unit substantially, when the Cabinet is designed to assist with producing an extension of frequencies.

Other Benefits are also available through selecting a particular design for a Cabinet, and these will also be inherited by the single driver.

Multi Drive Units used in a typical cabinet design will not be benefiting from what certain cabinet designs area able to offer.

Complications with Cabinet Construction and associated costs are a deterrent to speaker producers.       

I would look at the distribution of speakers on the market... particularly high end ones. Say the most high acclaimed speakers over $50K or $100K. These are intended to be examples of the very best possible sounding speakers with as few a compromises as possible for cost. What are some examples? Magico, Sonus Faber, Wilson, B&W. Notice anything in common?

A well executed two way speaker can deliver excellent sound reproduction. 😎

Mike