What is a fullrange loudspeaker (an explanation)?

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frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
Paid Member
Zu Audio Unions at the Sydney Audio and AV show recently. They have a full range driver, but they intentionally cut it off at 12kHz and use a tweeter in a coax configuration to cover 12kHz to 22kHz. There is apparently no crossover to get in the way

This would be considered a FR + helper tweeter. Don't beleive them when they say no XO, there is at least a cap on the tweeter. The is no cut-off on the wide-range, that is just where it rolls off naturally (and i'd guess struggles to get that high. A diy version of this would be an eminence 12LTA with a coaxially mounted Fostex FT17.

dave
 
There is apparently no crossover to get in the way.
Taken from their site:
"The tweeter’s high-pass is, by design, a simple, single component network, a single polypro’ capacitor."

Quite common when crossing over that high.
despite it technically using 2 drivers, I would still consider them to be a full range speaker.
It's a fullrange with a helper tweeter, often called a supertweeter.
Perhaps it would be better to say that it is a speaker that projects music from a single point?
Yes, it's called point source, one of the advantages of FR and coax systems :)
 
There is apparently no crossover to get in the way.

Although you can find hundreds of arguments about whether inductors, resistors, and caps are audible, there is virtually no debate that the acoustic problems created by a cross over far exceed any problems created by the components.

In other words, that's all nice and dandy that they've avoided any parts in the signal save for a single cap, but they're not immune to the greater issue of what a cross over does.

Lucky for them, it's so high it's likely inaudible and it is coaxed.
 
If I were to take the definition of full range from the audio engineering profession, that would be a speaker that could reproduce 40-20khz with high output and low distortion. A limited range speaker would span from 80-20khz with high output and low distortion, and a extended range speaker would be from 20-20khz with high output and low distortion.

This is how the audio engineering community makes its distinctions.
 
Why 40? It can't reproduce 5-string bass guitar, organ, piano.
And why 20 KHz? 8, 12, or 16 Hz may be sufficient. It may be enough to cover all specified range. For different classes of equipment different ranges can be specified. For bass guitar, for solo guitar, for pocket radio, and so on, ranges will be different. In "audio engineering profession" before engineering anything we have specifications. Without specifications it is not an "engineering profession", it is more like a hobby.
 
Most domestic situations don't require really high output. And what kind of distortion? A single FR driver inherently lacks certain distortions introduced by any speaker with an XO.

dave

I guess it could be also said that no single driver can cover a very wide frequency range like a three or four way can.

A single driver may lack certain distortions, but a single driver trying to reproduce deep bass, and high frequencies at the same time is going to have a bit of trouble.
 
Why 40? It can't reproduce 5-string bass guitar, organ, piano.

Their white paper recommends that you use a subwoofer for full and limited range speakers to extend the response to 20hz.

And why 20 KHz? 8, 12, or 16 Hz may be sufficient. It may be enough to cover all specified range.

Maybe because that is the upper range of human hearing, and sufficient is not enough for some folks.

For different classes of equipment different ranges can be specified. For bass guitar, for solo guitar, for pocket radio, and so on, ranges will be different. In "audio engineering profession" before engineering anything we have specifications. Without specifications it is not an "engineering profession", it is more like a hobby.

Hence why the audio professionals that created the different speaker distinctions did what they did. They set playback specifications for different size speakers in the studio environment.
 
diyAudio Member
Joined 2007
Better add in "Sounds balanced" as I understand it we hear things differently when the sound has too much bass or too much treble, so if we are using a single driver then what I have read seems to say that if we want to include deep bass we need at the same time extended treble. So please give me some indication of where that desired bandwidth is. I personally find the "Telephone" bandwidth (300 - 3000Hz)acceptable for a mid range but definitely lacking in a so-called full range speaker.
I can how-ever quite happily listen to most reasonable 8 and 10 inch woofers run without crossovers and most of those stop around 7 or 8k. So is it 60 to 10,000hz or something a little narrower? 100 to 7500Hz??
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
Paid Member
I guess it could be also said that no single driver can cover a very wide frequency range like a three or four way can.

A single driver may lack certain distortions, but a single driver trying to reproduce deep bass, and high frequencies at the same time is going to have a bit of trouble.

40-20kHz (or 30-15k) is certainly doable with the best of today's FR drivers. What is usually given up is ultimate levels & dynamics. If you don't listen that loud then no big deal.

If you look at most multiways, few go down to 30 Hz, & a typical 1" dome is starting to fade above 15k. And each XO you introduce brings a whole slew of distortions.

dave
 
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