Why Aren't More Speaker Designers Building Augmented Widebanders?

ATC has been hand building a very wide band device for a long time, the 3 inch mid dome. 380 to 3500Hz. I believe its the widest band mid device of its kind and gets around some of the typical midrange narrowing issues by using a dome instead of a cone. A clever piece of well thought out engineering. The incredibly powerful motor and dual suspension avoid some of the "deal killer" issues of earlier wide domes.

There is a very good engineering reason to get the crossover points away from the 750-2500 area where so much is happening musically. Wherever there are two drivers in different locations producing the same sound at the same level you have an measurable/audible artifact in level (the dip at crossover) and dispersion (the narrowing at crossover). Polars always reveal these artifacts while audible issues with "sweet spot narrowing" are typically traced to this same issue. Having these artifacts show up at 1K or 1500 is a significant problem.  Speaker designs with 5 or 10 drivers in one speaker doing the same thing is a dispersion disaster; the live industry (where multiple drivers are required to meet SPL demands) have been working on this very issue for a long time.  Its logical that some of this digital steering and pattern control they have been applying over the last 10 years will make it's way into consumer at some point.    

A wide band discussion cant be had without mentioning the Manger driver, probably the best known wide band driver. I’ve heard one only a few times, and it didn’t compete sonically with a properly executed multiway loudspeaker in my experience.  But there are many who love it so there is something there.  It sure is interesting and one has the feeling that additional drivers operating at the extremes of the Manger could be a fun test to do.

Brad

 Speaker designs with 5 or 10 drivers in one speaker doing the same thing is a dispersion disaster; the live industry (where multiple drivers are required to meet SPL demands)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I pkan to make some sort of 
Wide Band Line Array

Already with the single DL Yellow cone 6 fills the room with pretty good (= high fidelity) sound.
But why stop there?
I have a  DLVX8 arriving, see how that sounds, If acceptable , will go in the  line array.
Just now ordered the TBW82145.
If that pulls off some magic, that guy will also go in the line array.
I was originally thinking duals,,but with another audiogon member giving 2 thumbs up on the TB2145,,I could not resist, but to order.
The 3 YT vids really made a  very convincing display of the power of this driver.
I'm just hoping 3 speaker cables hooked to one speaker line does not produce static..
These WBers are very sensiti9ve.
They seem to prefer a  single dedicated speaker cable.
As I found out with a  8 ohm tweet hooked to the same line as the Wder.
Place the wteet along with the W18's. 
Static gone.
So the shootout will be twix
DLVX8/95db sens
vs
TBW82145/90db sens

Greg Belman of Bache Audio has perfected the use of wide band drivers (covering most of the frequency range) augmented by a woofer and (super) tweeter - no negatives that I can hear with any of his models. My upgraded Metro 001's are extraordinary - 4" Tang Band bamboo wide band driver covering 500hz - 9,000 hz is superb, as is the legendary, out of production Japanese version of the Fostex FT92-EX2 tweeter.

About seven months ago Greg Belman emailed me to say that he had figured out a crossover upgrade that would improve the sound. A couple of months ago he emailed me to say that he had tested an Eton woofer in the Metro 001 as an upgrade of the Tang Band unit currently in my speakers. The Eton produced both deeper and tighter bass but required enlarging the port. I asked if he could replace the air motion transformer tweeter with the Fostex FT96-EX2 he has used in more expensive models, and also rewire the speakers with Stage III Concepts (tweeter) and Dueland tinned copper (wideband driver and woofer). Several weeks ago I finally drove up to Brooklyn to take him the speakers. When I arrived I discovered that he had actually built and tested a prototype with the Eton and Fostex drivers that I could listen to and compare with my current speakers. Needless to say upgrading those two drivers made a significant improvement.  Still breaking in but initial listening suggests significant improvements in sound quality. With the Eton woofers bass is subjectively deeper, more forceful, and more articulate. I was told by the designer that the Fostex FT96-EX2 tweeters, which extend to 33hz, would expand soundstage width and depth, and that is what I am hearing. Timbre is more realistic across all frequencies (particularly noticeable with piano), and images are more naturally fleshed out with no spotlighting. Every piece of music I've played has sounded more natural than I remembered.