full range + woofer OR full range + tweeter ?

[33Polkhigh]

I haven't owned any of the huge full rangers but there is a case to be made that they give more consistent directivity over more of the crucial range, than say a 6 or 8 inch. But something that directional needs some distance. And the top end is not going to be flat no matter what. Equalization is your best bet to get as close as possible,

I can say the peerless tc6 sounds wonderful, I did treat the dust cap on it with nail laquer (mostly nitrocellulose)

If the drivers are spaced within a quater wave they in theory should sound as one driver. This is the same as crossing when they are omnidirectional unless you are spacing them very far apart for some reason. But they will blend like using a good subwoofer.

Using a woofer and full range isn't that much different than designing a three way but not using the tweeter. The same rules apply.

 

[Paul Joppa]

Fellas, certainly these are all valid options, none of these approaches are wrong and neither am I saying otherwise. I was simply pointing out that I started this thread to explore the pros and cons of the two options traditionally accepted as still being in the spirit of Full Range because the XO is at one extreme or the other, even if the moniker of Full Range may not be acceptable to all who like to debate such things (railway modellers call these folk ‘rivet counters’).

Fair enough.

In that case, I would opt for cleaning up the bass on the grounds that you can make a more well-integrated crossover. Planet10's comment on 1/4 wavelength maximum spacing is relevant here. I've done this with a Fostex FE167 in a sealed box, cutoff around 100Hz. By crossing at the cutoff, you can include the box response as part (or even all) of the highpass function.

 

[Bigun]

I could see 1/4 WL spacing being much easier to achieve if adding support to a full range at the woofer side but depending on XO design (PLLXO as per planet10 recommendation) the woofer won’t necessarily be time aligned i.e. there could be some phase wrap. I’m not sure I’d be bothered by that down at 300Hz as it likely won’t be audible.

 

[33Polkhigh]

You would want to select drivers that are flat into treble and in phase with each other and don't have any impedance issues around the crossover point. More so if you're doing a first order. The sbacoustics woofer looked good to me, though they don't publish phase. Some of the dayton rsp stuff and the papyrus cones look good.

SB Acoustics SB23NRXS45-4

Dayton Audio RS180P-4 7" Reference Paper Woofer 4 Ohm

Fellas, certainly these are all valid options, none of these approaches are wrong and neither am I saying otherwise.

Obsessive audiophiles trying to tell each other what to do. How unusual