Which SPEAKER for the 21ST century?


Cones vs Electrostats vs Ribbons Can we all somewhat agree that the speaker is the most important component in our system? We are all familiar with the cone driver. Has the old tech cone(mid/high) driver reached its potential zenith? Does the electrostats have the potential to become more efficient? Size less overwhelming? As well will the prices ever become reasonable? And last will the new tech(mid/high) ribbons become the choice drivers for high fidelity music reproduction for the new century? All comments are well appreciated.Thanks
tweekerman
Since 90% of classical (and others) music is in the midrange. And since ATC makes the best midrange. Then the 21st midrange is the ATC's. In woofers the winners are the Seas and Skaaning. There are many very good dome tweets out there. The Hiqulaphon at like 160/pr stands out for value. There are many good ribbons as well , Raven ESg Philips.
If 90% of music is in the midrange, then why not use a great single driver speaker? Keep studying Tweek, you will eventually find out that I have been right all along.
The reason in a nutshell, Twl, is that you won't be hearing what the composer intended you to hear. Some folks aren't bothered by that but many of us are not content to recompose standard works, especially from the "classical" repertoire. I wrote a long diatribe on this a few weeks back so i won't repeat it here. Suffice it to say that lots of folks want to hear all the notes the composer wrote and that you cannot do with virtually any single driver design, luscious midrange to the contrary notwithstanding.

will
Twl, with any driver there are + and - I'm sure the Fostex are nice. Like Bishop says a single point driver will not perform in the lower hz's like a Seas or Skaaning, and will not perform in the upper 's like a great tweeter or ribbon. And for mids the ATC midrange is suppose to be tops. Bishop explain "to the contrary notwithstanding"?
Bishopwill, I humbly and completely disagree with your point of view about not hearing what the composer intended. The same could be said about any speaker, whether it be 1 way or 6 way. If I said that a multi-way speaker did not produce the 16Hz organ note that is heard once in a blue moon, would you say it cannot produce the performance the way the composer intended? Almost every speaker in the world is rolled off somewhat on the low end. Are they all to be tossed out as well? My single drivers will reproduce even 20Hz albeit at quite a lower level than the average SPL. This conception that single drivers cannot reproduce bass information is just incorrect. It is there, just rolled off some. Just like many other speakers. And when you consider the problems encountered with crossing drivers in and out, with the response lumps, phase anomalies, and loss of signal information, would you say that these irregularities would be preferred by the composer as "more acceptable" deviations from his intended presentation. Are you saying that crossover distortions and losses are part of the composition? There are very few speakers in this world that are truly flat and accurate at 16Hz. And many of them sacrifice far more in musicality throughout the other areas of the spectrum in order to achieve that low end. I respect your opinion to disagree with my point, but I think when pressed in this way, you will have to agree that no speaker really presents the performance exactly as the composer intended and that most of them are deficient in the bass frequencies to some extent. You just seem to think that a single driver with a rolloff that begins at 40Hz is not producing bass below that point and that somehow multi- driver speakers are. You may be surprised to learn that the majority of multi-way speakers are not flat below 40Hz or even higher. I guarantee that if you heard a good single driver system, you would not have the opinion that you have.