Woofer or Compression Driver Handling the Midrange?

[Charles Darwin]

You can get maximum room gain over the widest frequency range if you can put your speakers into the corners.

True that!

I had to knock over 6dB off my woofers when a house move and she who has to be obeyed forced me to tuck my speakers into the corners.
Luckily being active all it took was a little twist of two pots to get everything in line again.
I don't really mind as they still sound great and are now a lot less obvious.
Never liked speakers which draw visual attention to themselves anyway and corner placement is quite good for that.

If you got two suitable corners AND are fairly proficient at that carpentering lark you might want to look into building Klipschorns for the bass.

 

[BlueWizard]

In my limited experience, and mostly with rear ported speakers, I find that the bass boost from moving speaker near a boundary usually muddies the midrange. So, you don't gain something for nothing.

Steve/bluewizard

 

[Octavia]

James I can't say anything about the Faital don't really know them. What I do know is that Jeff Bagby knows alot more than I do about making crossovers. I'd trust what he's done on the tempest. I seriously doubt that you will find any issues at all in regards to a 98dB speaker and a 100dB one with every other factor of the speaker design having more of a real listening impact.

 

[Charles Darwin]

In my limited experience, and mostly with rear ported speakers, I find that the bass boost from moving speaker near a boundary usually muddies the midrange. So, you don't gain something for nothing.

Steve/bluewizard

Yeah, you can't do that with rear-ported speakers. One of the reasons I don't like them.
Also with passive speakers you'd have to adjust any baffle step compensation in the crossover accordingly to get decent results otherwise the bass overwhelms everything and would indeed muddy up the mids.

 

[AllenB]

woofer & compression driver which match closely so L-Pad attenuation is not needed, would avoid resistors in the crossover to avoid power loss.

The resistor is consuming power but it isn't the point. You'll just need to make the less sensitive driver more sensitive until you have enough. My mids are close to 110dB and I can get quite loud with 1.5W. 100dB might be OK, it's very subjective.

If you are going to supplement with a powered subwoofer anyway what's the point of going with a 15"?

Sensitivity for one thing, and that can mean a higher fs.

In my limited experience, and mostly with rear ported speakers, I find that the bass boost from moving speaker near a boundary usually muddies the midrange.

Generally I'd agree. However, when you intentionally build the speaker for this purpose the result can be superior.

 

[LineSource]

simple corner-speak

~ 4-6db SPL gain in bass, midbass

 

[davidsrsb]

Corner speakers are going to be very sensitive to the wall construction and the small gap behind them due to the skirting board

 

[Charles Darwin]

For corner placement it is helpful/essential to have dispersion controlled treble and hi mids. In this particular case using a compression driver this not an issue but a bare dome tweet would probably not be a good idea.

 

[Rewind]

I just had a listen to a JBL S3900 + MCintosh MC302.
Nº531H Monaural Power Amplifier | JBL Synthesis
McIntosh |

JBL S3900 Specifications:
•Speaker type: Three-way floorstanding
•Low-frequency transducer: Two 10" (250mm) pure-pulp cones
with ferrite motor assemblies
•High-frequency transducer: 1-3/4" (50mm) compression
driver with an Aquaplas-treated pure-titanium diaphragm and
neodymium motor assembly on a SonoGlass Bi-Radial horn
•Ultrahigh-frequency transducer: 3/4" (19mm) compression
driver with a pure-titanium diaphragm and neodymium motor
assembly on a SonoGlass Bi-Radial horn
•Maximum recommended amplifier power: 250 watts
•Frequency response: 33Hz – 40kHz (–6dB)
•Nominal impedance: 6 ohms
•Sensitivity: 92dB (2.83V/1m)
•Crossover frequencies: 850Hz, 12kHz

I also listened to the more old school Electrocompaniet Nordic Tone - Model 1 speakers + Hegel H30.
Electrocompaniet - The Nordic Tone - Model 1
Hegel Music Systems - H30

Both me and the seller agreed the JBL S3900 were the more interesting speaker. The smallish midrange horn is crossed 850Hz-12kHz, which is very high, and sounds quite tinny.
The two 10" woofers sound surprisingly clean in the mids - but not THAT clean. The bass is chest-thomping, but the bass does not come as easy as for my DIY sealed LAB12 subwoofer. But not having two crossover points between 30-850Hz added something nice. Not as correct as a fullblown 5-way, and with somewhat strained bass and mids, but very nice midbass. Drums were snappy! At 850Hz the woofers sounded kind of dry, but impressively good for a woofer. I have a 15" JBL midbass that has trouble sounding this clear.

The Electrocompaniet speaker with its 90 dB in total sensitivity sounded very dull, but smoother of course. Titanium vs silk dome tweeters - I choose neither! At least the silk does not cut in my ears. What I liked was the SEAS woofers. They presented a somewhat lifeless, but sharply clear midbass that was very nice. Sharp, yet dull, because the HEGEL H30 amps were not exactly nimble!
The cone mids and the silk dome tweeters were a disappointment after the JBL S3900. Like from coming from a live concert to a cafe. It doesn't matter that the mid horn was ridiculously small and crossed to high, and the titanium diaphragms cut my ear. Maybe the titanium compression drivers would have sounded less sharp with a 45 tube amp, instead of the Mcintosh solid state amp. They could have kept the Mcintosh for the 92dB JBL woofers.

It was a nice demonstration on the differences between cone speakers and horns. Still nothin' that can touch my horns at home.