Crossover-less Speakers


I'd like to hear from those of you who transitioned to crossover-less speakers. I have a pair of Thiel CS 2 2s. I like 'em but I'm curious about the full-range crossover-less speaker types. I'd like to know what speaker you have and what speaker you traded up from. Are you getting the full range from your spkrs? Are you experiencing any peaks and valleys in the frequency response? Are you happy with the lows or are you augmenting with a powered sub? Thanks.
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Showing 3 responses by inpepinnovations

Eldartford, it would be easier if you had the series II 901s, which were essentially an acoustic suspension design with the rolloff set at about 6db/octave starting at around 200Hz. The boost at 30Hz was about 20dB! I was driving those with a HK Citation 16 in circa 1976. pipe organ recordings drove the HK to 200watts easily and the speakers responded nicely!
The low frequency curve on the newer 901s is more complicated since the design is now a complicated vented design. there is also some high frequency compensation.
There are also multiple driver speakers that are still crossoverless. The Bose 901 comes to mind! But heaven forbid that anyone mention that as an option.
Even the 'breakup' phenomenon that Eldartford mentioned is minimized by the use of multiple 'small' drivers.
Albeit the 901s are difficult to set up properly in a room (in spite of the marketing that says these speakers are very easy to set up), when they are set up properly, with the help of an RTA, their sound can be quite satisfactory and seamless. My 'B' room set up features these speakers and they are flat from 25-10K Hz, with a rolloff above 10K that I inposed on them for a more natural sound. No crossover distortion there!
After the chuckling has subsided, maybe one should consider the 901s as a legitimate candidate in the search for a 'crossoverless' driver(s) speaker!

Bob P.
Eldartford, you should use one of your RTAs to help in the set-up. The 901s, due to their reflecting and non-parallel driver baffles, tend to have less concurrent nodes and thus averaging of microphone placement tends to be less critical.
The high-frequency contouring offered by the equalizer will be quite handy in your highly reflective environment, I suspect.