Single driver loudspeakers


I know some friends who have built single driver horn loudspeakers with 6-7 inch 'full range' drive element and seem very happy with the sound.  However I wonder about those selling 94 db sensitive 12 and 15 inch full range drive elements and recommending 2-3 cubic ft bass reflex cabinets and 7 watt SET amplifiers.  Is it possible for a 15" 'full range" driver driven by 7 watt SET  to provide state of the art sound without audible distortion, deficient frequency extremes and 1950 style sound?  This is an inquiry not a critique.  Thank you for helping me to understand full range drive units.

normie57
Hello John,
What is your opinion/experience with the PHY-HP 12 inch driver? It has the reputation of being a superb driver. It was used in single driver designs successfully by Ocellia and Musical Affairs in their products.  97 db sensitive and 16 ohms load. 
Charles, 
Another variation is the "full range" four inch Jordan driver in a transmission line cabinet.  I wanna say Carolina Audio (among others) sells/sold this breed of animal.  I've never heard this type of speaker, but I once worked with a guy who owned a pair swore by it.
Check out Charney Audio, Somerset, NJ.  I own his Concerto horn speaker.  You can see my commentary on his web site.
I recently ran across the Audio Nirvana website. Anyone familiar with these full range drivers or their 300B SET amplifier which is very reasonably priced at $1550?
Thanks for all your informative responses!

I have had some very expensive multi-way speakers and when starting to design my own I saw some single driver speakers, so I bought a pair of 8 inch alnico Audio Nirvana drivers and had a cabinet builder make cabinets using the design shown on the Commonsense Audio website.  The alnico magnet drivers had a much smoother frequency response that that of ferrite and neodynium magnets.  I was completely taken aback with these, especially when mated with my JL Audio subwoofer, which completes what I consider the only real achilles heel of single driver speakers:  bass dynamics.  They can certainly plumb the depths but cannot move air like real woofers and subwoofers. So I then sold these and bought the AN 12 inch drivers and a larger (5.6 liter versus 2.8) cabinets, and they are a significant step up in most parameters.  As far as treble, after hearing these I wonder why anyone makes tweeters, even approaching the sound of the ion tweeters in a pair of Acapellas I once had.  And the midrange is simply unreal, as well as soundstaging and immediacy.  

I unfortunately cannot answer your question about the low-powered tube amps you mentioned as I use as powerful solid-state amp and a tubed preamp and phono stage.  I would think the tube amps to be a good match with the high sensitivity and easy load of the speakers.  Remember, your amp is driving the speaker voice coil directly, and IMO, I can hear what multi-way speakers with crossovers do wrong.