Fullranges for me are the zen of audio... what is there and what is not there exists in one driver, no more and no less. For soothing my neuroses the idea of one radiating surface clears all the second-guessing of crossover design or components or phase or integration or so on is quite comforting.
There are fullrangers and fullrangers - the worst make a pigs ear of just about everything and pass it off as something special by virtue of being 'full-range'.
The best, as well as obviating the need for crossover seem to have a host of other benefits. Of course the coherence and integration is great and lack of crossover distortion a real benefit, but as well as this they seem to gave enhanced transient response over other speakers over a vast frequency range. This is not just do to lack of crossover, but is something that been consciously built in to maximise the tremendous potential of the concept.
Then there is the imaging - here again it is not just by virtue of lack of crossover and single drive unit. There are other considerations that can be optimised, including the cone profile
Then there is the ability to be included in a compact single chamber transmision line
It all comes down how close the full-range design is to the theoretical optimim for all these qualities - the best being outstanding and the worst being a compromise too far.
Merry Christmas All,
Kevin
Acoustic Insight
The best, as well as obviating the need for crossover seem to have a host of other benefits. Of course the coherence and integration is great and lack of crossover distortion a real benefit, but as well as this they seem to gave enhanced transient response over other speakers over a vast frequency range. This is not just do to lack of crossover, but is something that been consciously built in to maximise the tremendous potential of the concept.
Then there is the imaging - here again it is not just by virtue of lack of crossover and single drive unit. There are other considerations that can be optimised, including the cone profile
Then there is the ability to be included in a compact single chamber transmision line
It all comes down how close the full-range design is to the theoretical optimim for all these qualities - the best being outstanding and the worst being a compromise too far.
Merry Christmas All,
Kevin
Acoustic Insight
agreed on all points, except for the parsing of comment re transmission line - IMO, this suggests that an excellent enclosure topology (or lack thereof) that works for one circumstance is "ideal" for all users/applications
this does great disservice to the very talented designers who have enabled many DIYers to be very happy with the performance of a much wider range of designs
it takes varying lengths of time for each of us to come to terms with exactly which compromises we can live with - kinda like life🙄
this does great disservice to the very talented designers who have enabled many DIYers to be very happy with the performance of a much wider range of designs
it takes varying lengths of time for each of us to come to terms with exactly which compromises we can live with - kinda like life🙄
I've been using a good pair of active two-ways recently (tsk) and they match the fullrange systems I've heard for naturalness, transient response etc. Plus they have immense headroom. What they can't match is the 'lock-in' effect of the imaging, the way everything stays put as you move off the centre line when using single, widerange drivers.
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