Full range speakers the way to go?

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I have owned a number of well regarded 2 way designs including the PSB Stratus Mini, Audio Note AX-Two and Polk LSI9 among many others. All of these were very good in some ways , but for some reason Iv'e never been satisfied. I'm not sure if its because I listen at a very close distance of about 5-6 feet and maybe this isnt enough for multiple drivers to integrate, or maybe its because they all have crossovers. I dont know. Perhaps its the rest of my system to blame and im way off , either way id like to maybe give single driver full range speakers a shot. Why not you know ive tried everything else.

Anyways id like some ideas as to which single driver speakers will be good in a small bedroom, listening in the nearfield to rock/pop/alternative music. I like rock but im not talking about Slayer at concert levels, just some occasional Metallica and iron maiden but always at very moderate levels. Most of my listening is 90's alternative while I am getting into my mid twenties and have starting noticing im liking more and more female vocals and more refined types of music. I need a speaker that will handle all types of music well, kind of like a PSB speaker.
 
dave123456@mail said:
Anyways id like some ideas as to which single driver speakers will be good in a small bedroom, listening in the nearfield


Exactly what I'm dealing with at the moment. For one, I can very highly recommend the Fostex FE103E drivers. See my thread... Fostex FE103E Lots and lots of great information packed in there!

I have well over 1000 hours of constant, fullrange break-in time on totally stock Fostex drivers with a simple BSC network and they sound excellent, especially with vocals of all kinds, need no tweeters what so ever and can easily fill a small room like ours with 5-8 watts or less. You will definitely need a sub or two to fill in below say 150hz or so, depending on the enclosure you build for them. I would recommend stereo bass as it really helps out a lot. I've already tried a single sub and even though it sounded decent, you could tell the overall staging and imaging was off balance.

If you want a little more efficiency, a tad bit more bass and the same kind of excellent treble extension, take a good look at the slightly larger 4.5" FE126E and FE127E drivers. Again, you'll need some larger drivers to fill in the bass however, again one for each channel recommended.
 
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Re: Re: Full range speakers the way to go?

chops said:
If you want a little more efficiency, a tad bit more bass and the same kind of excellent treble extension, take a good look at the slightly larger 4.5" FE126E and FE127E drivers

In a small room you might find you can live without additional woofers... here is the story of a bass freak (and bass player) finding that Fonkens served him better than his larger boxes...

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=124320

dave
 
Also,

I also tend to push the small fullrange (often with sub) option also for those wary of a lack of bass. Its a cheap way to "try out" the full range speaker scene and a decent sub is tuneable within a fairly wide range, and the small full range drivers are relaxed enough, yet detailed enough to handle crazy music with lots of high frequency energy with less fatigue. (For me it is dirty blues mixed with some heavy metal like you, BTW).

To give you an idea, the commercial speakers I build use full range drivers no larger than 5 inch...

-Clark
 
Full Range Ceiling Speakers

I have just completed my first building project using 5" 4ohm ceiling speakers and 5" 90 degree plastic air venting. I don't think I got the maths for the downward pointing (plus spikes) bass reflex design quite right and possibly should have kept them 'closed'. Luckily they sound OK and this project was for a mp3/T-Amp (from China) powered set up for a kids bedroom.

My next project involves a pair of 3" Monacor SPX-32M's - using similar amplification. If I was building these for myself, I would probably go for a back-loaded design similar to that used for Fostex 87's and try and get the maths right this time.

However, I am intrigued by the Ikea wooden bowl ideas talked about on this site. I also have a spare bass/midrange driver from a Mission 700 - could I incorporate this speaker in the design in tri-mode (like the old style car set ups) or is this a big no no?
 
Like my music production on Soundcloud, I try to get the most from as little outlay as possible apart from my PC set up which is connected to Linn amp/PMC monitors. Most of the software iI use is free and I built my own PC from bits acquired through Ebay. The Monacors were £20 so my budget for a project based on them will be quite small. What did you have in mind?
 
Float balls

I think I've found an alternative to the Ikea wooden bowls for housing the Monacor SPX-32M's - 150mm cistern float balls - got these for less than £2 each!:
 

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