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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
sm2727

Showing 2 responses by erik_squires

erik_squires
16,592 posts
 
2 1/2 way speakers have real advantages. Like any other speaker, cons too, but I've sometimes thought that these speakers were the ideal small home speaker.

Small foot print, high sensitivity, plenty of bass.

Are you going to find some super speaker which is better? Of course. Are you going to find a more expensive speaker? Sure.

But for the foot print, and live-ability factor, 2 1/2 way speakers have a lot going for them.
erik_squires
16,592 posts
 
I'm just going to kind of throw out some things in the hopes of spurring your interest and to tell you that there's more to a speaker than shopping for drivers. Each speaker designer is focusing on answering different problems. Hope you continue to learn.

In general, you want to search for "line arrays." thought the Legacy is more complicated than that.

Sadly, McIntosh has some ... odd resonances which make them less than ideal exemplars.

For better, look at Genesis and Infinity.  Electrostatic loudspeakers (ESL) are also kind of going in the same direction.

With all of these speakers, whether ESL, line arrays or balanced multi-way speakers, even down to simple D'Appolito speakers, the speaker designers are playing with the speaker's dispersion.  That is, how the wave travels after leaving the speaker.

On the opposite end of this, we might put co-axial speakers, or multi-axial.  See TAD and KEF for these. Instead of trying to control the dispersion.


Best,

E
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