More drivers gives you a larger surface from which the sounds seems to be coming. The big flat panel speakers, like Maggies or Martin Logan electrostats, give you a "big picture. A small bookshelf speaker (LS3/5a ?), radiates sound from a small area (in sq. inches) and simply cannot supply a large "sound front." Also, with lots of drivers sharing the work, each will distort less. Use really good crossover capacitors (Mundorfs) and your speakers will sing at their best. It is easy to build really good speakers if you are not afraid of sawdust and glue. Try open baffle designs. Contact me if you like. I've been building speakers for 60+ years.
So many drivers.....better sound or just more sound?
I am sitting in Seattle cut off from my job by the virus: the world all around me is going nutsy....so naturally my mind drifted to the question....."why so many drivers in some speakers?" This has bugged me since i first heard the Pipedreams (twenty or so 4 inch drivers all the same in a row.... such a different design principle. I would think you would want the best driver you could afford for a given application....cover the frequency range as accurately as you can afford and then worry about volume level, air moved etc. For instance, i heard some McIntosh speakers at a friend's house a few months back. they had 12 mids and 4 high drivers if i remember. I guess maybe a bigger sound stage ? That wan't obvious to me in my listening to them. Am i missing something obvious? Legacy speakers use like 11 drivers in a set of speakers.....how can they do that? I would love to know the cost per driver of various speakers. Not a deep subject but, i am addled by rain, boredom and the fear that my 401 k is gone..........
Thanks
Thanks