Over the past couple years I have been testing many (...😅) drivers for a (preliminary) three or four way speaker design. Having tested nearly everything of interest to me, my conclusion is that a single low mass yet robust 4"-5" full range driver is ideal. Furthermore a speaker like the Omega Super 3 is an interesting adaptation of this simple, utilitarian, and most optimal approach. The optional incorporation of a tweeter at 1000hz or higher and a woofer at 100hz or lower yields additional advantages depending on the goals of the builder and listening distance.
Having tested the majority of drivers of interest to me, I'm curious what the absolute best sounding bookshelf speakers of all time that feature proprietary drivers. One example that comes to mind is the Audience A3S2. In addition having heard the KEF Meta Blades I prefer the performance of small diameter Mark Audio drivers over KEF coaxial. A coaxial driver is ideal though the higher mass of the mid section of the KEF driver is its limitation compared against the lower mass small Mark Audio drivers. Is there a proprietary 4"-5" driver, unavailable to the DIY community, that exceeds the performance of what is available to the DIY community?
Having tested the majority of drivers of interest to me, I'm curious what the absolute best sounding bookshelf speakers of all time that feature proprietary drivers. One example that comes to mind is the Audience A3S2. In addition having heard the KEF Meta Blades I prefer the performance of small diameter Mark Audio drivers over KEF coaxial. A coaxial driver is ideal though the higher mass of the mid section of the KEF driver is its limitation compared against the lower mass small Mark Audio drivers. Is there a proprietary 4"-5" driver, unavailable to the DIY community, that exceeds the performance of what is available to the DIY community?
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lots of people seem to like Jordan and Lowther full range bookshelf speakers. Their drivers are available to DIYers though. I just know them to be super expensive. No idea if they're better than MarkAudio and the like
Are you asking about 4-5" fullrange drivers in the multi-way forum?
Anyway, my favorite small midwoofers include Monitor Audio (proprietary aluminum cones); Eve Audio fiberglass honeycomb (proprietary but available grey-market-ish); a recycled, maker-unknown-to-me high-end pancake 5". I have 8" Tannoy Precision not their smaller 5" coax.
As for fullrange, my favorite 5/5.5" are the so-called "drum paper" drivers I often mention in the fullrange forum; the bigger one sold as diy but the smaller sold in custom cabs (high gloss piano-black).
Anyway, my favorite small midwoofers include Monitor Audio (proprietary aluminum cones); Eve Audio fiberglass honeycomb (proprietary but available grey-market-ish); a recycled, maker-unknown-to-me high-end pancake 5". I have 8" Tannoy Precision not their smaller 5" coax.
As for fullrange, my favorite 5/5.5" are the so-called "drum paper" drivers I often mention in the fullrange forum; the bigger one sold as diy but the smaller sold in custom cabs (high gloss piano-black).
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In terms of compact bookshelf speakers, the most recent Bowers & Wilkins 706 S3 was quite outstanding. The speaker uses a new carbon dome tweeter and excellent mid-woofer. There is some Fletcher-Munson bass lift for listener preferences and some care has been put into a medium wide polar pattern.
The mid-woofer could be pushed to as much excursion I dared, without making any extraneous noise or audible distortion. In my opinion, they are better than the older 805 diamond.
Unless one was going to use the very pinnacle of top performance tweeters and mid-woofers in an FEA designed enclosure, which I don’t really see often in DIY, they would be hard to exceed, in my view.
The mid-woofer could be pushed to as much excursion I dared, without making any extraneous noise or audible distortion. In my opinion, they are better than the older 805 diamond.
Unless one was going to use the very pinnacle of top performance tweeters and mid-woofers in an FEA designed enclosure, which I don’t really see often in DIY, they would be hard to exceed, in my view.
Too many variables……near field listening?….on a bookshelf or out in free space?…..with a sub or without? Classical/orchestral music with wide bandwidth and high dynamic range?
For nearfield, I've really been impressed lately with the Klipsch Synergy Black Label B-100 when used with a powered sub.
Wanted larger Klipsch bookshelf speakers which would sound better, but I did not have the space for larger speakers.
Wanted larger Klipsch bookshelf speakers which would sound better, but I did not have the space for larger speakers.
There is no best/greatest, depends on the needs and tastes of the end-user,
A place i have been for awhile. They have their drawbacks but what they bring to the party… If i had my druthers a MAOP 7 in an optimal trapezoid miniOnken would be my choice. I am biased,
Woofer yes (ie WAW), tweeter more problematic.
dave
I am very fond of the MAOP 7. I have a blog post somewhere where I list the drivers that I've tested in order of preference.
I get why some people prefer a single wide range type driver.I have owned some very good two way stand mounts using typical crossover points of around 2000hz to 3500hz and am yet to hear a really convincing one.They can sound quite good but never great.However there are some alternatives to that type.There are some that use tweeters that can be used lower which enables a crossover point of more like 1000-1500hz .Tannoy dual concentrics are like that.Another really good two way is the Mark and Daniels Maximus .It uses an AMT tweeter and crosses over in that lower region.
Then there are compact 3 ways that avoid crossover points in that 2000-3500 hz problem area.
Single wide range drivers avoid some of the problems of typical two ways .But they bring their own set of compromises and weaknesses.They are an alternative rather than a solution.
Then there are compact 3 ways that avoid crossover points in that 2000-3500 hz problem area.
Single wide range drivers avoid some of the problems of typical two ways .But they bring their own set of compromises and weaknesses.They are an alternative rather than a solution.
Maybe these Raidho drivers are an example of what you’re looking for? https://www.raidho.dk/td-series-membrane
https://www.raidho.dk/td-series-driver
Speakers are like wine; there is no “best in the world”. Taste/preference plays a big part, and there are decreasing returns as you spend more money.
Audiotechnology Flexunit 4? Nice underhung motor (for midrange that one is quite essential) and small enough to do high midrange and high. But I’d trust a Purifi 4” midrange probably equal to that task. Don’t do anything under 100Hz though as excursion will always screw up.
Looking at the specs I'm fairly certain the Flexunit 4 will not be nearly as performative as the far lower mass Maop 7 and other comparable drivers.
Is this the post you're referring to?
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...nge-you-have-heard.405952/page-2#post-7518593
Best bookshelfs speakers in the world are those that I accidentally built based on ac-130f1 midbass with fountech ribbon tweeter in parts express box tuned to 30Hz.
The myth about the superiority of the lower mass diaphragm is annoyingly persistent even today, although it was debunked long time ago. Higher mass diaphragm (within reason!) just needs stronger magnetic motor, to perform equally good as lower mass.
Ideal is far from the correct term given the low technical performance of a small wideband driver speaker compared to a multidriver speaker designed to provide high fidelity.
What to give up in order to achieve the small size of a bookshelf speaker is a certainly an interesting challenge. If the budget is tight in the region of a few tens of pounds a full range driver may be a reasonable approach depending on other design constraints. For higher budgets though the low technical performance compared to multidriver solutions of various configurations will remove full range drivers from consideration unless there are pretty strong design constraints that favour them over technical performance.
A manufacturer of a high technical performance speaker will almost always optimise the design of the driver to best match what the speaker design requires. It is only among a subsection of DIY speaker folk that the tail wags the dog and a speaker is designed around drivers. Nothing wrong with this as a hobby interest of course but you will likely have to provide the spec of the speaker before anyone could provide a meaningful answer. Given some of the optimum solutions you have suggested that speaker spec is likely to be rather different to more conventional ones. Again nothing wrong with this and indeed the spec of many successful audiophile designs is far from conventional.