Opinions on Full-Range/single driver speakers

Hi, Chayro,
I believe you're right about the room. Steinway in New York makes (among others) five grand pianos, the model S, M, L, B and D in order of increasing size. They're all top quality, but are made for specific sized rooms. At Ithaca College, where I study piano performance, we have large Steinways (model B - 6'10") in one small practice room, but they don't sound their best. When I practice, I always try to get a Model M, which sounds great in the small room.
Thanks for your help!
Listiac

Here at The Galileo Company (a research firm; we don't sell any audio equipment) we've designed systems (Wh3) to evaluate single drivers. You can see the systems here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/listiac
Over the past several years, we've evaluated quite a few single drivers. I can't publish our numerical results, but I'm allowed to give my own impressions:
My opinions change, but, as of tonight, my favorite all time single driver is the Altec 755C, built about 40 years ago. Some fanatics will pay $3000 a pair for Altec 755A's, but we can't afford them and haven't tested them.
Many of our listeners prefer the Fostex 200A. It's got great tonal balance, but our research with the Audio Nirvana super 8 cast frame has caused some of our best listeners to switch allegiances. The AN can seem thinner in the bass, but the clarity and imaging is quite special. The Fostex 206E is quite similar, and I'm not sure our listeners can distinguish them in a blind test.
We've tested many, many other speakers, but I don't want to speak disparagingly about any brand. Other speakers we like a lot are the JBL LE8T, the ElectroVoice SP8B, and the 8" Stephens, all over 40 years old. They have nice balance, good imaging, but not at the level of the Altecs, Audio Nirvanas and Fostex 200A and 206E.
We make measurements galore, but I'm not sure we know what to measure. Frequency response is only a very small part of the package. My best measure of a good speaker is that I listen to the music I'm using to test it. I know a speaker isn't very good when I keep switching songs and albums to find something that sounds great. I know I'm listening to a great speaker when I forget I'm testing the speaker and spend too much time listening to the music.
I also know now that a lot (most?) of high end audio is self hypnosis. Listening is the only cure.

Hi, Saki70. The speakers are all tested in our Wh3 enclosures (USPTO Application #: 20080199032) , which you can see here:
www.youtube.com/user/listiac
They are triangular rear loaded folded horns a little under 10 feet in total length.They don't have any boxlike sound to them.

Johnk, I didn't say the 200a sounds like the fe206; I said that the audio nirvana super 8's sound like the 206. Although we make lots of measurements, it's what listeners tell us that matters. We're not really interested in speakers; we're interested in how people hear and perceive music. One of the most highly rated speakers we use (the altec 755) has the most restricted frequency response of all of them. We know, for example, that the same speaker sounds different to different listeners...

Hi, JohnK. I didn't say the Fostex 200A sounds like the 206E; I said that the Audio Nirvana Super 8 sounds like the 206E. While you don't care for the 206E, some people prefer them. David, of Commonsense Audio, a dealer for Fostex among other brands -- http://www.commonsenseaudio.com/ -- says this:
"The FE206E is the most detailed, the most extended, the most efficient, the most natural sounding, and has the best bass of all Fostex speakers." So that's what makes horse races. People hear speakers differently, and frequency response alone isn't a good indicator of how good a speaker will sound to any particular person...

In our lab at The Galileo Company, we're not studying speakers, but people's perceptions of speakers. In this forum, I notice huge disagreements among honest, thoughtful people about how speakers sound. A good example: David Dicks, an experienced supplier of drivers and custom loudspeakers, says the fe206 is the best speaker Fostex makes (he sells Fostex and other drivers) In this forum, JohnK, an experienced supplier of custom loudspeakers, says the 206 is (perhaps) the worst speaker Fostex makes. He prefers the Fostex 200a. But Dicks says: "Two of these speakers have huge magnets and cast frames. They are very expensive. These are the FX200 and F200A. They do not go high enough in the treble to be truly satisfying. And the midrange is somewhat veiled, soft, and lacking in detail compared to the FE206E."

Since studying peoples' perceptions is my business, I'd be interested in your opinions on two questions:

1.) How is it that experienced, thoughtful, honest people can disagree so much about how the same loudspeakers sound?

2.) What does that say about the current state of loudspeaker design theory?

Listiac