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Why Aren't More Speaker Designers Building Augmented Widebanders?

Over the years I've owned a number of different speakers - KLH, Cerwin Vega, Polk, Opera Audio, Ars Aures, and Merlin VSM. One thing they all had in common was a crossover point in the 2000 hz (+ or -) range. I've read reviews of speakers where the reviewer claimed to be able to hear the crossover point, manifested as some sort of discontinuity. I've never heard that. My Merlin VSM's for example sounded completely seamless. Yet my new Bache Audio Metro 001 speakers, with a single wideband driver covering the range of 400 hz to 10,000 hz, augmented by a woofer and a super tweeter, sounds different from all of these other speakers. The midrange of the Bache 001's is cleaner, more coherent, more natural than I have heard before. Music flows from the speakers in a more relaxed manner, and subjectively dynamic range is greater, with no etch or brightness, and no loss of resolution compared with the Merlins. I have to conclude that Bache's design has an inherent advantage over more traditional designs with a crossover point or points in the midrange frequencies. I wonder why more speaker designers haven't tried this approach?
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roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
+1 bdp24! LFT-8b's might do the trick!
seanheis1
594 posts
 
Many of the most popular designs deal with the 2k crossover challenge in different ways. You may not realize it, but you are hearing the challenges of a crossover in the presence region.

It expresses itself as a lack of coherence, which can be discovered when you hear a good speaker that is not playing with overlapping transducers or is using a very simple, low sloping crossover.

Thiel, Vandersteen, etc. deal with crossover induced phase shifts caused by woofer tweeter integration by using a first order crossover. Omega runs their widebanders without tweeter support. Spatial Audio uses compression drivers that are crossed low enough to mostly get out of the way.

The above design examples create different compromises, but how they deal with the coherence challenge is a big part of their secret sauce.    
seikosha
218 posts
 
I thought the exact same thing after I converted to single/wideband driver designs  I think the main reason is the ragged frequency response and the marketing issues this introduces.  Buyers and manufacturers want to be able to justify their products/purchases with impressive specs.  I’m past that, sound first, measurements second.
avanti1960
1,411 posts
 
ive often wondered the same question.  in my car i have 3 way acitves that feature a 3" wideband driver made by hybrid audio technologies that is cspable of 200 to 18000 hz.  it does not sound its best running like that but it sounds amazing using it from 400hz to 5000hz which gives you the keat of the music in a single coherent point source.  it also allows the tweeter and woofer to run miles away from their break up frequencies and puts the crossover points where phase issues are easy to manage.  the system sounds clean, loud and spectacular and i would love to have a home audio speaker with similar approach.  
economics may play a factor because wide band drivers are typically lower sensitivity and multiple drivers may be needed in passive setups to prevent padding down the woofer and tweeter so heavily.  still quite feasible and desirable though, imho.  
seanheis1
594 posts
 
Not many folks realize this, but you can stick a $50 wide band driver on a 48x60 inch piece of plywood (with just a hole cut for the driver) and get mind blowing good sound from a current source amp...and if you use the right driver you can get bass below 50hz that gives a smoother room response than a sealed sub.
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