Speaker of the Century Award Goes To ....

The 2.5 way speaker.


You guys probably thought I was going to fanboy over a brand, and I'm not. I'm going to fanboy over a speaker design. IMHO the 2.5 way speaker is THE ideal high end speaker for the majority of enthusiasts.


First, what is a 2.5 way? It is a speaker with 3 drivers, but the mid range lacks a high pass filter, so  it shares output with the woofer.  It has a number of advantages over smaller and larger speakers:

• Similar footprint to stand mounted 2-way speakers
• Ideal bass output for apartments and modest homes
• Easier to integrate than big speakers
• No subwoofer
  
• High sensitivity compared to a 2-way using similar drivers
• Reasonably priced
  

A number of brands have taken this approach including:

• Focal
• Joseph
• Monitor Audio
  
• DIY kits like the Klang Ton Ophelia, and Zaph Audio

So for the average enthusiast who is not a San Francisco billionaire I argue here (for the sake of an argument) that the 2.5 way speaker should be considered one of the great technical innovations in terms of users and results.