What type of speaker would sound better?


 

1. mid-tier 3 way with multiple lower quality drivers and parts OR

2. High end 2-way with premium crossover parts and speaker drivers. 

Either one could be a stand mount, small tower, or anything in between.

For example you listen to a well recorded symphony in a 15 X 30 living room. You have 250w @ 8ohms. You start on a mid tier 3-way and then on a high end 2-way system, which do you think would sound better?

 

dtapo

Showing 2 responses by knotscott

There are great and poor examples of all kinds of speaker designs, so it depends.  I’ll take better parts and better design any day over more of something lesser.

Better parts and better design at a given price point tend to lean more towards neutral with better clarity, so it’s easier to evolve the system with placement and associated gear to sound natural with a wide range of music.  I can easily add an active subwoofer to smaller high quality speakers if bass seems shy in a given space.

Bigger boxes and more drivers of lesser quality tend to have more of a sound signature or coloration, which to me makes it tougher to ever achieve clarity and  neutrality for a wide variety of music.  A colored speaker can still sound good, depending on how you define good, but clarity can’t be added after the fact.  To get the best of both worlds tends to cost more. 

There’s really no way to do it wrong as long as you enjoy what you hear.

2 way allways have a midrange hole 

Not the case.  Some speakers with a very large woofer mated to a tweeter that doesn’t play low perhaps, but most 5-8" woofers can mate seamlessly with many tweeters.  Their downside would be tend to be limited of deep bass output, not a midrange hole.