Hello babyseaotter99,
i can speak a bit to this topic, with limitations, of course. I built a pair of single driver speakers to use with a tube amp kit (Bob Latino ST-120 kit, 70 wpc). The drivers are Mark Audio Alpair 12p, cabinets are a slight variation of the Pencil design. The rest of the chain is Rotel CD player with Arcam irDac, ProJect Carbon Debut w/Ortofon Blue cartridge, Schiit Mani phono pre, Schiit Saga preamp. My experience has been this: single drivers are very nice for smaller scale music, but they fall short on bigger more complicate stuff, as to be expected. These particular drivers have a very long break-in (Mark Audio suggests 300 hours, the first 100, I think at very low volume), I’ve had them over a year and it feels like they are still mellowing out. Bass is very substantial for an 8” driver, and of nice quality too, considering the cabinet is vented (I’m learning that sealed cabinets are my thing!). Midrange is very pleasingly detailed on good recordings, especially on those less complicated ones (think jazz trios, chamber quartets, etc.). Where they fall very short is in treble quality, which can often sound etched and unnatural, sometimes even at low volumes. The pros: you can build your own speakers for pretty cheap, $300 drivers, $80 MDF, $30 other parts, no crossover, so simple and straightforward. The cons: they simply will not rock like a multi way, of course, so the program material they can handle is limited. Rickie Lee Jones and a piano will sound great, Metallica will not, especially as the volume goes up. For an investment of $400, you can have some fun and some speakers that can go head to head with ones I heard at Axpona this year that go for $4000. It’s much harder to get that kind of value in a multi way speaker.
i can speak a bit to this topic, with limitations, of course. I built a pair of single driver speakers to use with a tube amp kit (Bob Latino ST-120 kit, 70 wpc). The drivers are Mark Audio Alpair 12p, cabinets are a slight variation of the Pencil design. The rest of the chain is Rotel CD player with Arcam irDac, ProJect Carbon Debut w/Ortofon Blue cartridge, Schiit Mani phono pre, Schiit Saga preamp. My experience has been this: single drivers are very nice for smaller scale music, but they fall short on bigger more complicate stuff, as to be expected. These particular drivers have a very long break-in (Mark Audio suggests 300 hours, the first 100, I think at very low volume), I’ve had them over a year and it feels like they are still mellowing out. Bass is very substantial for an 8” driver, and of nice quality too, considering the cabinet is vented (I’m learning that sealed cabinets are my thing!). Midrange is very pleasingly detailed on good recordings, especially on those less complicated ones (think jazz trios, chamber quartets, etc.). Where they fall very short is in treble quality, which can often sound etched and unnatural, sometimes even at low volumes. The pros: you can build your own speakers for pretty cheap, $300 drivers, $80 MDF, $30 other parts, no crossover, so simple and straightforward. The cons: they simply will not rock like a multi way, of course, so the program material they can handle is limited. Rickie Lee Jones and a piano will sound great, Metallica will not, especially as the volume goes up. For an investment of $400, you can have some fun and some speakers that can go head to head with ones I heard at Axpona this year that go for $4000. It’s much harder to get that kind of value in a multi way speaker.