Point-source and the argument of less ways= coherency

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hey everyone

There seem to be an aspect of multi-way speakers that is often overlooked which is the importance of point source.

yes, a 3 way make every drivers perform at their best in their specific range, but once placed on a baffle and you have say a 15 inch then a 6.5 inch mid then a 1 inch tweeter, the distance between the woofer and the treble is obvious and the ear definitely can pick this up if you compare it to a wide band speaker or a coaxial.

I can say I have never heard nor own a 3 way that I could live with because I could always either hear the transition from the big woofer to the mids, or the woofer and tweeter seemed disconnected.

it seems only Geithain build their 3 way with the point source in mind.

Anyways, I wanted to start a conversation about this topic and know your thoughts on that aspect.
 
There are so many ways to what one thinks is better.

There is a large following for point source for a good reason.


I understand about the handoff.
Currently, i am sensitive to x-over in voice / bass range.
Middle c is what 440hz, where we would tune for band in school ?
Much is happening an octave below that.

But i had luck with thiel cs2 (6db time aligned 3-way), but woof was far from mid/tweet, so 10' distance + was beter to my ears.


And yes, this thread may get hot !!!!
 
it seems only Geithain build their 3 way with the point source in mind..
Dayton-Wright electrostatic cells were mounted on panels forming a segment of a sphere, hence origin was a point source by design intention. Some would definitely put those speakers in the running for greatest speakers ever ever.

Many other ESL speakers are curved or have cells arrayed on a curve although that is to address high freq beaming issues.

For sure, the notion has been nascent for a long time for obvious physics-science abstract logic even in the absence of any psychoacoustic-science support that i can recall.

Aside from the amusement benefits of this thread predicted in a previous post and whatever the value of a point source origin (or phases or time adjustment or XO curve or....), let me be clear that from my perspective, you are exceptional in hearing stuff none of us terrestrially limited souls can hear. (Unless there's something notably faulty about your system that anybody else can immediately detect.)

With your drivers set up vertically, you seem to be very sensitive to vertical localization. That is exceptional, at least in the absence of blind-test disconfirmation.

B.
 
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You don't like bass?

Think it's the Multiway fever that does it, some people in this section are cultist followers of the ultimate one-driver-per-octave god.
They do not think any single driver can function at all over 5 octaves absolute max.
(Shhhhhh! Don't tell anyone about this or they'll flame us FR forum goers without mercy!)


AHEM! Very nice compact setup you got there picowallspeaker, mind sharing some measurements and xo settings?
 
What about a coax....say 6” or 8” Crossed low to a 12” in the same box?

Don’t really see much of that in three way design ....is there a reason?
My surrounds are an 8" coax with a 15"midbass.

I've also built a number of active Tannoys with either a 10, 12 or 15" coax with a 15 or 18"pro midbass. Made for smaller enclosures and much better midbass and midrange.

Edit:
Here is one:

Coaxial Speaker Build Thread with FaitalPro 6HX150

And to answer your question: I don't know.
Thank you Charles, I hadn't seen that thread. I'll have a read now. Mine are AE TD15X and Faital 8HX200.
 
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There are so many ways to what one thinks is better.

There is a large following for point source for a good reason.


I understand about the handoff.
Currently, i am sensitive to x-over in voice / bass range.
Middle c is what 440hz, where we would tune for band in school ?
Much is happening an octave below that.

But i had luck with thiel cs2 (6db time aligned 3-way), but woof was far from mid/tweet, so 10' distance + was beter to my ears.


And yes, this thread may get hot !!!!
yes, the handoff between large woofers to small mids xo at 300hz seem to be tricky and I do hear some disconnect in all the 3 ways ive had: JBL lsr32, Genelec 1037a, various vintage jbl and every speaker Ive heard using big woofer and small mids.

a geithain arrangement seem very interesting as a solution when trying to "match" big woofer to small mids...

or maybe simply have all the mids up to 1 to 1.5 khz covered by a large woofer then crossed to a HF driver able to handle low XO (large format tweeter- horns, ect) but then this comes with its own issues.
 
yea, currently I'm in love with short horn crossing 1.1khz-1.2khz, but yes, a 12" is not as detailed as my pair of morel 6" with copper caps......

But I get a lot of volume, bass more than 7' from the box, and I'm not paranoid about blowing $240 6" woofers either.

I'm looking at doubling up the 12's for even more midbass.
 
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