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Coaxial Ribbon Midrange/tweeter - Can a small midrange ribbon actually do midrange well?

Fellow Members: my apologies if you may have caught a similar discussion under Piega 511 Coax Loudspeakers. That title may not reflect the general interest I am hoping for.  

I am wondering, from a technical standpoint, how the Piega 511/711 Coax loudspeakers use a relatively small coaxial ribbon mid/ tweeter array driver to cover the entire midrange.  I always thought of smaller ribbons as excellent tweeters only.  If it does cover the entire midrange, can it move enough air to make
an impactful presentation for large orchestra or rock music, for example. Reviews praise the speaker’s agility, resolution and accuracy. It sounds like a most worthy competitor in its price range but I want a loudspeaker that can do most genres well.....not just vocals, chamber music and jazz.  Thank you in advance for your input. 
audiobrian

Showing 3 responses by bdp24

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
10,110 posts
 

@erik, are you forgetting about the Apogee Acoustics full range ribbon loudspeakers?

But let me back up. I asked if you meant to say "ribbon" in your sentence "this is not the first time a planar midrange has been envisioned". I did so because the "this" in the sentence I took to be referring to the speaker the OP is asking about, a loudspeaker with specifically a ribbon midrange, not a generic planar one.

In regards to planar midrange drivers, of course the Piega 511 is not the first speaker to employ them! My God, that goes back to the 1950's. QUAD, KLH, and Dayton-Wright ESL's, Magneplanars in the early-70's, the Infinity IRS and RS-1b, all the ESL's introduced in the 1980's and later, the ET LFT's, and many more.

So Erik, what do you mean by "a planar midrange"? 

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
10,110 posts
 
Erik, I assume you meant to say "ribbon" midrange. As you know, there are many planar midrange drivers---the other Eric (with the inferior spelling ;-) .
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
10,110 posts
 
The Eminent Technology LFT-8b uses a pair of magnetic-planar drivers to cover 180Hz to 10kHz, crossover free within that frequency range. I ribbon tweeter takes over at 10k, and an 8" dynamic woofer at 180Hz. The 2014 Robert Greene review of the speaker in TAS is worth a read.
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