Is it possible to cover the whole spectrum, high SPL, low distortion with a 2-way?

Actually, the problem of loudspeaker behavior at low levels is is scarcely studied and practically there is no papers on the topic. At least, I have no found systematic study when I was interested on the problem. However, I have found several interested articles. I remember interesting experimental study presented at the AES convention 126 by I.Djurek, A.Petosic and D.Djurek. The authors investigated the cone displacement at different levels and how suspension and spider influences it. Unexpectedly to me, they have observed, that at low signal levels (<1mA) the spider was unable to move due to residual strains and viscoelastic properties of the spider material. Thus, your assumption is not baseless. It seems, that under a certain conditions certain loudspeakers, actually, can behave quite complicated when they are driven by low dynamically changing signals :).
Interesting find! These men have published a number of papers on electrodynamic loudspeakers.

This is one of those:
 

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For loudspeakers low signal levels would not be an issue as it is in electronics where it is likely the most significant issue.

I'm not exactly sure why I thought that low signal levels might be an issue in loudspeakers. I've never seen this to be an issue. I did do a lot of testing on thermal modulation and could not find any effects that were clear. At any rate, today I would say that testing loudspeakers at low signal levels would be a waste of time.

We will just have to disagree on this one. I think it is worth exploring.

You can't. You'll just have to take my word for it. It was done the best two PhDs could do, one being a psychoacoustic and experimentation expert (not me!)

To paraphrase a great guy - in God we belive, everyone else we verify.
 
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... Unexpectedly to me, they have observed, that at low signal levels (<1mA) the spider was unable to move due to residual strains and viscoelastic properties of the spider material. Thus, your assumption is not baseless.
Thanks Dmitrij. Was it only when trying to make the spider move from still, or during every other "zero position" crossing?
 
Actually, the problem of loudspeaker behavior at low levels is is scarcely studied and practically there is no papers on the topic. At least, I have no found systematic study when I was interested on the problem. However, I have found several interested articles. I remember interesting experimental study presented at the AES convention 126 by I.Djurek, A.Petosic and D.Djurek. The authors investigated the cone displacement at different levels and how suspension and spider influences it. Unexpectedly to me, they have observed, that at low signal levels (<1mA) the spider was unable to move due to residual strains and viscoelastic properties of the spider material. Thus, your assumption is not baseless. It seems, that under a certain conditions certain loudspeakers, actually, can behave quite complicated when they are driven by low dynamically changing signals :).

Thanks Dimitrij.
 
This is interesting. Do you know what kind of driver this was? It sure seems like those heavy duty silicone damped spiders used in prosound speakers would need more drive level to reach normal working parameters.

Makes these seem more interesting.
MAIN DESIGN PRINCIPLES | ILUMNIA SPEAKERS

It was conventional electrodynamic loudspeaker, but materials of the parts are not specified (total moving mass of the system is 14.8g).
As for silicone damped spiders, once I was triyng to measure Bl factor of loudspeaker having double silicone spider by adding a weight of known mass and measuring current through coil required to hold the cone in the rest position. I used laser position sensor to control the cone displacement. I was surprised how long the cone was relaxing to the rest position after I have added a weight (several hours !). This was the reason why I became interested in viscoelastic phenomena :).
 
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...and my comment is not really off topic as vinyl mastering induce mono-ed low end, giving a nice punchy sound to the vinyl masters versus the digital ones.
This is enhanced by the fact you can't limit as much with vinyl masters as you can in digital domain so overall vinyl mastering are often 'better' to the ears than digital one.
 
Thanks Dmitrij. Was it only when trying to make the spider move from still, or during every other "zero position" crossing?

Hi, it was harmonic excitation . Here is a quote from the paper:

Finally, in the third step the same measurements were performed after removal of the membrane cone, leaving only the spider and voice coil (configuration L3).
<...>
It is worth emphasizing that, in the third configuration (L3), for driving currents lower than 1 mA (amplitude less than 0.05 mm), the system can not be put into vibration and measurements were not performed. This was being led us to a conclusion, that there is a considerable amount of residual strain accumulated in the spider material, which in turn acts as a friction giving rise to the over-damped non-oscillatory mode, similarly as in a conventional LRC electric circuit, when R is much higher than ωL. The mass is analogous to the inductance L, and over-damping is stimulated when membrane cone mass is removed. At lower rates of change, residual strain in the spider affects strongly the effective stiffness, and resistance to vibration is higher, that is to say, effective stiffness is higher. For increasing driving currents, that is, for higher rates of change, residual strain resistance is gradually suppressed and effective stiffness decreases, which results to the decreasing resonant frequency.
 
I can only imagine the capabilities of the software that can be available. But when I first started doing the crossovers (decades ago) nothing could do what I needed so I wrote all my own stuff. At the time I considered this to be an incredible competitive advantage and mostly kept this to myself. Today my code would be a joke as we found out some time back when we tried to bring this to the mainstream. Someone tried to rewrite the code in a more contemporary language and it just kind of collapsed due to the difficulty of doing it. I was sorry that this happened, but well, time moves on.

I was doing what Klippel is selling today, and had a patent along these lines, about ten years before Klippel. His system is impressive, but so is the cost. He has a staff of engineers, I worked alone.

And interesting sideline experience of mine:
Some years back (many years back) I was interested in expanding my business. I went to NYC for a few days to meet with a potential investor who had bought my speakers. His comment was that it was clear to him that I was passionate about my technology, but not so much about my product. In other words, I was a great scientist, but a poor businessman. He respected my position but he declined to invest. In hindsight, he was right of course and I never again thought of expanding since it was very clear that the business just didn't interest me. The science did.

Thanks for sharing that interesting info and history.

Having a strong business/finance background, I'd call you lucky and wise, to have realized biz isn't where your heart/mind are, and not be tempted by it further. So many folks understandably trip up there...

It's awesome you have the math and coding skills to have mated crossovers design with polar measurements.
I really need to learn some more simulation skills, but i guess my passion is trial and error building, along with measuring...being one of those thickheads that needs to understand things in simple from the ground up terms...

The Q-Sys Designer software shown earlier continues to blow my mind with its capabilities. I've only begun to understand all the components that can be placed in a schematic.
One capability i really like for speaker development, is the ability to instantly switch designs. The changeover can be between entire speaker systems for usual a/b comparisons;
or even better, it allows instantaneous complete processor settings changeover. Like going from an IIR built crossover design, to a FIR design.
Allows real time FIR file exchange. Real time signal probing/tracing ..even lets you place dual FFT analyzers anywhere in the schematic.
And I haven't even got to the control side of q-sys yet, which allows conditional logic into a design. For instance, I can see trying to make an accurate, fairly continuous, level dependent, fletcher-munson EQ adjustment.
 
Actually, the problem of loudspeaker behavior at low levels is is scarcely studied and practically there is no papers on the topic. At least, I have no found systematic study when I was interested on the problem. However, I have found several interested articles. I remember interesting experimental study presented at the AES convention 126 by I.Djurek, A.Petosic and D.Djurek. The authors investigated the cone displacement at different levels and how suspension and spider influences it. Unexpectedly to me, they have observed, that at low signal levels (<1mA) the spider was unable to move due to residual strains and viscoelastic properties of the spider material. Thus, your assumption is not baseless. It seems, that under a certain conditions certain loudspeakers, actually, can behave quite complicated when they are driven by low dynamically changing signals :).


"Stiction" ~ Friction dynamics. At very low power inputs, the spider remains a source of non-linearity, more so with woofers with heavy moving masses and a strong spider.
 
We will just have to disagree on this one. I think it is worth exploring.

"Stiction" ~ Friction dynamics. At very low power inputs, the spider remains a source of non-linearity, more so with woofers with heavy moving masses and a strong spider.

Yes, "stiction" is the correct term and, as I said before, I have seen this before in a protype speaker, but that was a single case in thousands, so it remains to be seen if this is a common problem. I highly doubt that it is.

That said, I'll look at any data along these lines. It is an easy experiment to do. It's identical to the one that I did for amplifiers. You simply look at the Harmonic distortion spectrum on an FFT as you lower the signal level. (Mic very near the cone.) The harmonics will rise as the signal lowers if stiction is present. If you run into noise issue (the harmonics fall below the noise floor,) which is likely, then you can do some tricks to average down the noise and raise the harmonics out of it. I can describe that process although it takes some custom software to do it.

As of now however, we only have a few instances of this occurrence and no real data showing its significance. Without that we are all just guessing.
 
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The standard was $103USD, but now free. It embodies the work of Floyd Toole and Sean Olive and others wrt how a neutral loudspeaker should measure (and sound). It also provides the basis for estimated in-room response calculation. I.e. providing a usefully accurate preview of how a given loudspeaker might perform in a typical domestic listening room. While the predicted curve is quite accurate, it cannot estimate the effects of room modes below transition/Schroeder. But we know how to take care of that ;)
 
If subwoofers are considered a third "way" then "no", no two way can get there. But for mains 2-way is probably ideal since even 2plus-way will still require subs. So to me we are only taking about mains and then the answer is "yes" 2-ways can do this.

"Is it possible to cover the whole spectrum, high spl, low distortion with a 2-way?"

That simple question has a simple answer: No! Subwoofer(s) must be added, and the "ways" you divide up the audio spectrum to do so, is 3 or more, not 2. WHG

Said about horns... <snip>
Given all this rational, why not build upgraded EV Pat4s? or Klipsch Jubs? A superb 3-way implementation is possible using today's technology if room corners are available in your listening space. WHG