An option you may wish to consider is what we affectionately call a WAW, or Woofer Assisted Wideband. It bridges the gap between a pure full range driver and a traditional multi-way. The concept is usually to use a smallish full-range driver to cover everything down to the 200-400hz range, then fill in the bottom with something larger. The most successful implementations seem to use drivers with widely overlapping frequency responses and low-order crossovers. The result is that you get most of the benefit of the full-range experience (imaging, cohesiveness, etc.) with much improved low end.
Check out my last two build threads, both designed by Planet10/Woden using MA Alpair drivers. The latest, a large MTM, is outrageously good, especially for bass heads like me.
Check out my last two build threads, both designed by Planet10/Woden using MA Alpair drivers. The latest, a large MTM, is outrageously good, especially for bass heads like me.
Chris, Thanks for responding. Good to know forward facing slant has worked best for you. ... as in when my grandkids roll their matchbox cars off the top of the speaker, the cars will land between the speaker and the listener, Not the speaker and the back wall, correct?
Quatro, I am very on-board with the WAW practice although I am sure I could benefit from a better woofer implementation. I presently use a small sub with both my FH3's and my FHL. I've yet to build a bi-polar, such as the Castle design and am kind-of curious about what that "Magic" is about.
Apologies for the sideways pics...evidently I needed to take them in "landscape" mode.
Someone mentioned about omnis not having a sweet stop, but not having much of a sweet spot, I agree with that.
Instead of having just one forward facing full range, you could use two with a cap across the bottom driver - these sound good but don't do deep bass, even slammed against the wall.
Another option I tried on my " traffic light " speakers, four identical full range drivers in each speaker, three forward facing one rear facing ( although if making them again I'd have two forward, two rear ). the centre driver in the front is run full range, all other drivers bass.
I like the idea of sub assisted full range speakers, you can increase or decrease the bass to suit room acoustics, perhaps have a graphic equaliser just on the bass.
I also listen to low volumes, I find class d amps best ( although my ONKYO does a decent job on some speakers ), I find ESS DACs take the dynamics out, even at high volumes. Omnis don't have much life at any volume.