Full range speakers the way to go?

[dave123456@mail]

I have owned a number of well regarded 2 way designs including the PSB Stratus Mini, Audio Note AX-Two and Polk LSI9 among many others. All of these were very good in some ways , but for some reason Iv'e never been satisfied. I'm not sure if its because I listen at a very close distance of about 5-6 feet and maybe this isnt enough for multiple drivers to integrate, or maybe its because they all have crossovers. I dont know. Perhaps its the rest of my system to blame and im way off , either way id like to maybe give single driver full range speakers a shot. Why not you know ive tried everything else.

Anyways id like some ideas as to which single driver speakers will be good in a small bedroom, listening in the nearfield to rock/pop/alternative music. I like rock but im not talking about Slayer at concert levels, just some occasional Metallica and iron maiden but always at very moderate levels. Most of my listening is 90's alternative while I am getting into my mid twenties and have starting noticing im liking more and more female vocals and more refined types of music. I need a speaker that will handle all types of music well, kind of like a PSB speaker.

[Henkjan]

how about a small BR cabinet with the Tangband W5-1611SA? the design called "Sarah" is a big hit on this side of the pond...

I have a horn speaker with this TB and it is absolutely brilliant (see this thread) but they might be a bit large for a small bedroom

klick for (german) pdf

[rjbond3rd]

Hi guys, since this is for a small bedroom, I concur that a small-ish BR might be the way to go, and I would personally add a sub (on the drivers that I have used, various Fostex).

[chops]

Originally posted by dave123456@mail
Anyways id like some ideas as to which single driver speakers will be good in a small bedroom, listening in the nearfield

Exactly what I'm dealing with at the moment. For one, I can very highly recommend the Fostex FE103E drivers. See my thread... Fostex FE103E Lots and lots of great information packed in there!

I have well over 1000 hours of constant, fullrange break-in time on totally stock Fostex drivers with a simple BSC network and they sound excellent, especially with vocals of all kinds, need no tweeters what so ever and can easily fill a small room like ours with 5-8 watts or less. You will definitely need a sub or two to fill in below say 150hz or so, depending on the enclosure you build for them. I would recommend stereo bass as it really helps out a lot. I've already tried a single sub and even though it sounded decent, you could tell the overall staging and imaging was off balance.

If you want a little more efficiency, a tad bit more bass and the same kind of excellent treble extension, take a good look at the slightly larger 4.5" FE126E and FE127E drivers. Again, you'll need some larger drivers to fill in the bass however, again one for each channel recommended.

[planet10]

Originally posted by chops
If you want a little more efficiency, a tad bit more bass and the same kind of excellent treble extension, take a good look at the slightly larger 4.5" FE126E and FE127E drivers

In a small room you might find you can live without additional woofers... here is the story of a bass freak (and bass player) finding that Fonkens served him better than his larger boxes...

As James Brown (almost) used to say... "Make it Fonken...!"

dave

[blumenco]

I also tend to push the small fullrange (often with sub) option also for those wary of a lack of bass. Its a cheap way to "try out" the full range speaker scene and a decent sub is tuneable within a fairly wide range, and the small full range drivers are relaxed enough, yet detailed enough to handle crazy music with lots of high frequency energy with less fatigue. (For me it is dirty blues mixed with some heavy metal like you, BTW).

To give you an idea, the commercial speakers I build use full range drivers no larger than 5 inch...

-Clark

[dave123456@mail]

I want to also add the reason I think most conventional speakers dont work for me- its a lack of coherance. The sound always sounds "confused" to me and I would guess its the x-overs. Also, most of them seem to have too much treble for my small listening room.

[Henkjan]

yep, sounds like full range is the way for you