Single driver speakers - opinions

If you want a full range and ability to be dynamic with very good response at extremes. You will need to look into very costly full ranges. Some will need large BLHs to produce low bass. These can sound very good not limiting as some think. Many try the wee cheap drivers then find them lacking. You get what you pay for in transducers cheaping out will always sound cheap. Your asking for a driver to do it all and this requires great cost to be done right. Sure this depends what your expectations ar some like the 3-6in afordable full ranges but seems the above 2 poster might not;) I do know of 2 Full ranges that don't need massive BLH for bass. These are Fostex f200a, SEAS exotic. F200a does best in large ported cabs. SEAS in AS about BBC monitor size. Full range benefits point source, phase time correct no crossover. Once you hear a proper designed full range driver loudspeaker with quality drivers you understand why folks who own such like them so.

Single driver is great in theory, but doing it right is hard and usually too expensive to have mass appeal.

For example, I am most familiar with the Ohm line. Over the years, Ohm has been very successful in delivering very good designs that leverage highly omnidirectional single driver technology to various extents in a cost effective manner.

The Ohm F and A of years past are legends in this category.

The newer Walsh CLS designs from Ohm have built on this approach using a similar but different wide range driver that covers most of the frequency range that most people can hear, but uses a separate phase aligned super tweeter for the very top end.

If there were a true single driver speaker out there that did it all in a reasonably compact design for a price I could afford, I would be very interested.

Serious limitations with SDs, as others have noted. Fine for noncritical low level listening, in other words, background music. Certainly, they have their plusses, but looking at the big picture, they don't cover much ground. Unless there's some sort of equalization applied, they'll always have some anomalies in the frequency response linearity, and unless that EQ is applied before amplification, you've lost most of the benefit of an SD.

Would you mention the two commercial designs that you liked?

I suggest you investigate older designs such as Hartley/Lowther etc. - old whizzer cone designs or stuff used in car audio. Don't expect great linearity and bear in mind you will be forced to compromise between high levels of distortion/ringing/breakup/linearity but you can definitely achieve something that will be as good if not better than many audiophile designs....an have lots of fun!

One option would be to use the emminence bass guitar woofer - in fact some of you may recognize this as it is modified for use in a well known audiophile speaker. If you stick in a phase plug then you can probably get this to cover 40 Hz to 12 Khz really quite well (on axis - off axis will probably be a nightmare) and at impressive SPL levels (without a phase plug then I think it will roll off around 6 to 9 Khz - still usable).

Good luck and remember that in DIY it is safer to emulate a proven design rather than try to break a new path (unless you are a masochist!!).