single versus multiple driver?

Been there and back and then back again only to leave(kinda).

I've had very modest single driver experience so take this with a major grain of salt. Had Ed Schilling;s little horn, and now Omega's Super 3 xrs. In between I've had Magnapan;'s LS3 5a's, Devore's etc....

Single drivers can be extremely musical, even revelatory if your tastes in music cooincide with their strengths. Utimatley I think that you can get "there" a bit easier with multiway's than with singles but others will disagree.

I've heard lowthers, phy's, and many fostexs in various configurations and some were very very serious attempts at full range sound. They all were mighty impressive but....

Right now I'm intrigued with my current setup. 4.5 inch hempcone(Omega xrs) with a foutek ribbon tweeter on top with just a single cap as a crossover, very nice and the process of picking the right cap teaches you a lot about speaker voicing.

Every serious audio nut should try it. If I had the luxury of multiple listening rooms there is no doubt one would be a single driver setup. Not having a crossover in the critical midband is something that is hard to give up once experienced.

Musicfile,

I started with Omega's super 3xrs which is a small floorstander. I was a little dissapointed in the overall balance, which certainlty could be how they are placed in my room(close to front wall). They were surprisingly, a little too warm and rich for my tastes.

I did a little research, noticed some speakers that I admired with ribbon tweeters, and ordered a pair of fountek neo2.0s from madisound. From there is was a mater of experimenting with the proper cap value(.47uf for me) to achieve the right balance. This took about a month of experimentation. The fountek added that wonderful air and extension that balanced the xrs's slighty rich sound. It sits on top of the speaker and is not attached other than to be shimmed slighty to get the right level.

As stated above by others, a 4.5 incher is ideally suited to smaller rooms and lower volumes . This happen to be my priorities/situation fortunately and this combo is a superb low volume solution. I listen to a wide range of music from classical, jazz, world and alternative.