As I said in the opening statement, I’m still enjoying classical music as much as can I remember in the past. So, despite some hearing loss I'm pretty happy at the moment. And since a lot of the music still resides below 2 KHz I don’t think I’m missing very much at all.
My question was really with regard to the difference to be expected between a full range and a 2-Way speaker, particularly below about 4KHz.
I like the idea of using a CD, but think at the volume I'll need to run it the sound will annoy my wife in the rest of the house.
I have headphones and have tried them. Not the same for me, particularly for classical music. I like the spaciousness and depth of an orchestra that I get with speakers in a room and don't get with headphones.
Also, the drivers we are talking about are not 3.5" overall. That's really the cone diameter. These would actually be considered as 5 to 6" drivers in product terms.
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phonak hearing aids introduced e new technique called "frequency compression". modern hearing aids are processing the signal in the frequency domain by first FFT the signal, and the after processing, FTT the signal back in the time domain. The concept of frequency compression is to take the harmonics of the signal, the upper bins of the fft, and squeeze them all in the bins below the failing hearing limit. One would argue that the harmonic relationship to fundamental is then lost, but apparently it seems to work. you can try it a a hearing aid center. the first time it was ontroduced was in the Nadia series in 2008
A dome tweeter has the same issues as a fullrange driver (or any driver)... at some point they breakup, beam etc, it just happens at a higher frequency. Doesn't it make sense that if we don't need an octave or so then we can use a 'larger' top driver?
Budget is up to $100 per driver. Not worth it to me to go above that, particularly since I'm not sure that there will be much of an improvement.
From what I've seen looking at specs the low end isn't really much of a concern. Most of the full range drivers seem to do pretty well there.
Good question about missing the shimmering of the brass and cymbals. I'm going to try to evaluate that and see how much I may be missing. Need to find a good classical piece with strong cymbals in it.
I cross to my compression drivers at 1050Hz. If I play my system loud and switch off the subs, bass and midrange drivers there is very little left to hear. I doubt you would be blasting treble around the house even if you boosted by 10dB. (as you stated, there is very little energy in music above 4kHz)
I can hear up to 11khz in my left ear and to 13khz in my right ear. I can hear 12khz loud and clear in my right ear but not at all in my left ear, nothing. Boosting ten db at 12khz for my left ear won`t make any difference at all, I still can`t hear it. I have no idea how much classicalfan can hear above 4k, but if he is like me -boosting above the hearing limit makes no difference.
Back to the original question:
IMO a fullrange driver can sound amazing on chamber music and string quartets, but needs assistance from a woofer to sound good on large scale orchestral music. Cone breakup is not that big of a deal if it is well controlled.
There is a lot of info on woofer assisted fullrange/widerange on this site, I would look into that.
Back to the original question:
IMO a fullrange driver can sound amazing on chamber music and string quartets, but needs assistance from a woofer to sound good on large scale orchestral music. Cone breakup is not that big of a deal if it is well controlled.
There is a lot of info on woofer assisted fullrange/widerange on this site, I would look into that.
Tchaikovsky Symphonies.
He threw the kitchen sink into it.
For stand alone realism...
Beatles, A Day In The Life.... listen to the crash cymbal... it's outstanding.
Traffic, John Barleycorn must die, listen to the triangle... only three or four times in the song...
https://www.talkclassical.com/threads/music-for-a-cymbals-aficionado.7267/
Your OP specifically mentioned hearing loss. You are trying to compensate for that with various means. I understand that.
I didn't think I was missing anything in music either. I learned that I was mistaken, and I likely had better hearing than you have now.
All I'm trying to suggest is that when the time is comfortable and right for you, addressing your hearing issues will give you more satisfaction than any type of compromise or shortcut.
I recall that a few years ago you started a thread wanting to get bigger sound in your room. Don't know how you went with that, but again, addressing the hearing issues directly will really help with getting bigger sound in your room.
But this is all a hard issue for people. I know all about that.
Just give it a thought.
Thanks for your input. I appreciate the suggestions, but for now at least I don't feel a compelling need for aids. I thoroughly enjoy listening to classical music even if some aspects of it may be missing. The trade off at the moment is still in favor of doing nothing different. If I can no longer enjoy it, then perhaps a change is needed. But for now, I'm very happy with it.
The bigger sound thing didn't go very far. Most of the suggestions involved adding more speakers or placing the ones I have into unacceptable locations. It's a very small room for listening purposes and I have accepted that it's just not possible to get much of a bigger sound in it. And to the degree that this might be further compromised by any hearing issues I just have to accept it.
The main reason for my first post was just to find out if full range drivers would be a good idea, since I don't really need very much high-end sound. Would they likely be more satisfying than the current 2-Ways.
The bigger sound thing didn't go very far. Most of the suggestions involved adding more speakers or placing the ones I have into unacceptable locations. It's a very small room for listening purposes and I have accepted that it's just not possible to get much of a bigger sound in it. And to the degree that this might be further compromised by any hearing issues I just have to accept it.
The main reason for my first post was just to find out if full range drivers would be a good idea, since I don't really need very much high-end sound. Would they likely be more satisfying than the current 2-Ways.
Any suggestions for a particular full range driver in the 6" overall diameter category. I need something very close to or just under 6" in order to fit the current cabinets, and most of what I have found so far is either too big or too small.
I have found one driver that fits. It's the TangBand W5-2143. None of the Mark Audios fit close enough.
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OK... out of the blue... how about out of the box.... I got one of these that I intend to use in my office ( 12x13 ) to derive two surround channels.
You might not worry about the top end... just add something in the back with this..
https://www.schiit.com/products/syn...MIq4r1guHAhwMVnSitBh1wEAEeEAQYASABEgL_c_D_BwE
I found that quad makes a huge difference... I have used my old, rebuilt, quad receivers ( Marantz 4415 and Akai AS980 ) to very good results in the past. The Schitt unit is much smaller so I got to figure out if I'm gonna use speakers/amps for the rear ( have them ) or use some bluetooth interface to powered speakers ( no cables ).
Also, try a pair of old Quadraphonic headphones with a simple rear decoder. Pop some equalizer in there and you might be in Audio Heaven... The sound imaging with those old Quad headphones is entirely different from the "in your head" imaging of two channel units.
You might not worry about the top end... just add something in the back with this..
https://www.schiit.com/products/syn...MIq4r1guHAhwMVnSitBh1wEAEeEAQYASABEgL_c_D_BwE
I found that quad makes a huge difference... I have used my old, rebuilt, quad receivers ( Marantz 4415 and Akai AS980 ) to very good results in the past. The Schitt unit is much smaller so I got to figure out if I'm gonna use speakers/amps for the rear ( have them ) or use some bluetooth interface to powered speakers ( no cables ).
Also, try a pair of old Quadraphonic headphones with a simple rear decoder. Pop some equalizer in there and you might be in Audio Heaven... The sound imaging with those old Quad headphones is entirely different from the "in your head" imaging of two channel units.
Regarding hearing loss, a properly balanced speaker would make everything sound 'normal' to everyone. Consequently it's not the responsibility of the speaker to compensate. That's not to say you couldn't..
There is rarely ever a compelling reason or need to get hearing issues addressed. You can live quite comfortably. Everything seems normal. Everything sounds just fine. Everything is as it has always been. It is not like when you have difficulty passing the eye test when renewing your driver's license.
Hearing aids are a choice. And when you get them, you don't look back and wonder why. You are just pleased that you finally did it.
The Tangband W5-2143 has a very good reputation. I have the neodymium version and they do take a very long time to "run-in". More importantly, this is more or less standard ~126/153mm diameter cutout/inset for nominal 5.25" drivers so there may be other choices as well that fit your cabs.
p.s. Please measure your cab cutouts exactly unless you're willing to file the holes very slowly.
"The more you cut away the bigger it gets!"
"The more you cut away the bigger it gets!"
At my age (later 60s) I can just hear a little over 10kHz on a good day, disconnecting my tweeters which cross at 8kHz makes the system sound rolled off to me so I run out to 20kHz even though I cannot hear almost that entire octave. (I have horns on mids and highs)