Attached is a picture of 4-way speakers; Acoustic Research AR9. Is it feasible to redesign these speakers to be 3.5-way? It might be achieved by redesigning the crossovers with the elimination of the high-pass filters of the cone midranges. As you can see, the AR9 has an 8” woofer as the mid-bass driver. Why did manufacturer not use that 8” driver to help woofers playing bass? If it’s because of preventing distortion, they also have 8” woofer models in the conventional 3-way bookshelf series. Or the X.5-way speakers MUST only have midrange drivers as large as woofers, is this a criterion?
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Given it has 2 x12" woofers for the low frequencies an 8" would not add significant SPL, would distort early at the low frequency end trying to keep up with the larger woofers and would increase distortion at the high frequency end due to modulation from the large low frequency deflections. I can't see any benefits in a well designed speaker. Perhaps for an audiophile speaker depending on the associated marketing stories.
Not sure I follow your question about 5 ways. If a speaker has 5 ways that is usually because it is seeking to achieve something other than high technical performance. Examples might be very high SPL, full range horn loading, and the like.
Not sure I follow your question about 5 ways. If a speaker has 5 ways that is usually because it is seeking to achieve something other than high technical performance. Examples might be very high SPL, full range horn loading, and the like.