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Most single-driver speakers that I'm aware of are "high-efficiency" designs and the people over at the High Efficiency Speaker Forum are certainly aware of many of these designs. I was wondering, though, what some of you "low-efficiency" people might think of such speakers.The single-driver "crossoverless" designs that I've heard so far seem to share some common sonic characteristics, namely: an overall sense of clarity and a certain smoothness and coherence in the most critical part of the midrange. The high frequencies are generally less satisfying, though, sounding less smooth and less resolving than the highs reproduced by good multi-way speakers. YMMV, of course...
There is what might be considered to be a sub-category of single-driver that I think of as "hybrid single-driver". I recently acquired a pair of these very interesting speakers, manufactured by an Italian company called Royal Device. The models all use female names and this one is called "Laura". It is essentially a "single-driver, crossoverless" design, as the main driver is responsible for reproducing all frequencies between zero and approx. 10,000 hz. A solid hardwood phase plug with a very unusual shape provides phase filtering and increases bandwidth. A separate time/phase coherent tweeter unit (what I might think of as a "supertweeter") named "Miranda" (another beautiful female name) comes into play at around 9000 hz and is mostly used to provide a bit of HF "airiness" and sheen to the presentation. The 8" main driver is horn-loaded so that bass extension reaches approx. 40 hz. The "Laura Studio w/ Miranda", being a fairly efficient hybrid, seems to me to be a viable compromise between ultra-efficient single-driver designs and typical multi-way loudspeakers. Most single-driver designs use "whizzer cones" for high-frequency reproduction, something that I consider to be one of their primary weaknesses.
The Laura/Miranda Studios provide a very smooth, coherent, and relaxing sound which makes it very easy to forget about their presence and concentrate on the music.
Having listened to single-driver and/or hybrid single-driver designs, what are your impressions so far?
Edits: 08/24/14 08/24/14 08/24/14 08/24/14 08/25/14Follow Ups:
I dumped a pair of Dynaudio 1.8MKII speakers and a pair of OCOS wire after listening to the JTM's for 10 minutes.
Can't say I never looked back but Ronnie replaced my JTM cabinets for a pair of JSM and a pair of transmission line subwoofers using the 7" Jordan driver.
So I no longer have a pair of single driver speaker but the subs play from 25hz to somewhere around 1150hz.
These are the most dynamic, live sounding speakers I have ever heard.
Plus they play live dynamic sounding form 50db's on up.
Great for late night listening. But when played up the high 70db range you just can't believe how stunning they are.
The original 4" Jordan driver's were replaced because my granddaughter damaged one. THANK YOU Jessica!
I replaced them with a pair of EAD E100 driver's.
EAD bought Jordans speaker company and improved just enough on the original driver to make them even more stunning. More extended in the high range.
As soon as I find a picture of them I'll post it.
.
I have listened to a lot of whizzer coned drivers and disliked the upper-mids/lower-treble of all I heard.IMO&E assisted WR 'single cone' drivers, with simple crossovers, are a very good idea. You might need a bass-capable driver from 100-200 Hz down and a good super tweeter and a 1st HP. High quality single-cone direct-radiator full-range drivers are not possible now, and may not ever be.
I have concluded that keeping crossovers out of the 100/200 to 3.5kHz at least range is a very good idea. Acousticians and scientists of perception tell us much the same. I am also persuaded that full-range HE (> 96db/w?) with direct-radiator drivers is a tail-chase, for me 91db/w really is enough.
One other lesson learned? Parallel R and C - to keep the impedance curve of dynamic drivers flat - are a good idea. You should consider putting those components across the amps' spkr terminals. Can't hurt?!
Bass drivers near the floor have an issue. Deep bass voices can get down to 120-150Hz - Russian basso profundos - so it is best to avoid having them seem to be singing on or near the floor.
Following on from this I have been puzzling and asking around for a good while about a new DIY main speaker system.
I have I think a final project for a point-source vertical array using the Foster FW202 (*) and the Coral 5-inch frame WR drivers. Later with Mangers in the middle instead of the Corals.
Viz. One bass driver and enclosure close to the floor - WR driver and enclosure in the middle, and a matching bass enclosure on top. Possibly just 1st order HP and LP passive-line-level (PLL). But with 3rd as an option using an active 2nd box I have and will blue-print if it's needed.
Triangular steel rod frames with tree vertical rods.
If I can borrow or hire the necessary measuring gear - a mike and a RTA with a screen - the array will be time and phase aligned. Otherwise by ear and friends' ears. ;-)
LBNL is there any RTA software that can run on a tablet? Which tablets? Do such have /take a good sound card, and can they feed a DAC?
I have a tablet in mind and can post its spec. page.
* Foster FW 202? See
http://www.theanalogdept.com/tim_bailey.htm OR
http://www.audioasylum.com/reviews/Speakers/Audiosphere/Model-3/speakers/173913.html
Warmest
Tim Bailey
Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger
Edits: 08/28/14 08/28/14 08/28/14
Thanks for the rundown, Timbo. Stay busy.
While its really not a true single driver - (it has a full range Fostex 8" supplemented by a ribbon tweeter) the sound is nonetheless coherent & dynamic, with a midrange that is very special. The highs were clean, sweet and never fatiguing...sorry I sold them. I also had Omega speakers too (which are true full range) they were good also. Although the highs could not compare to the Tonians.
mike
I would love to hear the Tonians. Maybe someday...
If you can find them.
I am using a pair of Cornscalas now that I am very happy with also.
They retain a lot of the virtues of single driver speakers while being a lot more dynamic.
If I come across a used pair of Tonians I would buy them just for a different "flavor" - very enjoyable speakers...
I have tried a couple of different Mark Audio Alpair drivers in the recommended "Pensil" enclosures.
The Alpair 7s has a very good dynamic range considering their size and can reproduce good bass at moderate listening levels. They have very good high frequency extension and a reasonably smooth overall response. Imaging and coherence are quite good as expected.
I have had mixed results with the Alpair 10s in their respective Pensil enclosures. The have really good bass extension and a smooth and extended frequency response, but can exhibit come breakup with some instruments (particularly "bright" trumpets). There is little dynamic limits with the 10s.
IMO, the best of both worlds is to use a "helper" woofer below the Alpair 7s to handle bass below 250hz or so (6dB x-over in each direction should suffice).
Would you recommend trying a passive woofer?
I actually bought a pair of Peerless 12" 830669 (IIRC) for sealed boxes for use with the Alpair 7 drivers. Had picked up the components for a first order passive crossover. Got sick and never finished the project.Alpair 7 should probably have a 15 ohm resistor across the speaker (in parallel, not series) to help stabilize the impedance so that a single cap can be used. 160uf will put the first order crossover point at around 220hz with a 15 ohm parallel resistor. Put a 20 ohm resistor across the woofer with a 4.0 mH choke in series and the crossover should be pretty close.
At least that was my design.
Edits: 08/26/14
One large driver from bass to upper mids, and a "supertweeter".
Similar concept, yes. Primary diffs include a top-mounted, adjustable Seas "supertweeter" and triple-fold horn loaded cabinets for the Laura.
There are good examples of each. Theoretically and practically a somewhat low crossover point to a woofer at 150-300Hz - depending on room size allows a small format driver (3-5") to cover up to the range of audibility without breakup modes (maintaining somewhat phase linearity. Also Planar electrostatic and some ribbons also have this characteristic. Take a full range 3 inch driver and combine in a line source and now you have even better dynamics and you can stretch the bottom end!
I'm currently building a system with 12 of these in a line source - crossed over to a sub for the bottom end. Prototype (mdf cabinet) listening was promising - though in a narrow tower a baffle step compensation needs to be applied. This customer will have them wall mounted on a curved baffle - with subs covering up to 180Hz or so.
Picture here is not my design. ClairAudient LSA 16
"The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat" - Confucius
Specifically I was thinking about "single-driver" and/or "augmented single-driver", but "full range" is close enough. BTW, I see that the efficiency rating for those LSA 16 speakers is about 99 db - not too shabby!
The only single driver or crossover-less speakers I've heard in recent years that don't have the downsides you speak of are the Tocaros. The 40's have a single 10-inch driver; the 42's have the same driver plus a wood/laminate tweeter -- no crossover. If you come to the 40's from a full range speaker, they will initially sound a little compromised on top and a bit bass shy. That is how they sound coming from the 42, which is a bit more open on top and fuller overall thanks to a larger cabinet. What's interesting is that if you come to the 40's from live music or after not having heard a full range speaker in a while, they sound very natural and satisfying. You don't miss anything. Partly, I assume, because you're distracted by the smaller Tocaro's remarkable coherence. I'm speaking here of the 40E's and 42E's, which are the current versions whose main drivers have been upgraded/tweaked.I don't know the bandwidth of Tocaros. The 40's are 97dB, the 42's 99dB.
The speaker the Tocaro is descended from, the Rehdeko, used a whizzer cone, I believe.
Every single driver I'd heard before the Tocaros, which to be fair is barely a handful and not in a long time, was conspicuous for both virtues and defects. I could hear the price being paid for coherence, speed, and clarity.
Edits: 08/26/14
Single-driver speakers aren't for everyone, that's for sure. I suspect that, for many of those who absolutely love them, a range of delights slightly narrower than usual is enough to fill the void. I'm more than happy with my "augmented single-driver" Laura speakers at present, at least when certain types of recordings are on the table. Interestingly, while "coherence" and "clarity" are definitely two of their prime virtues, "speed" is not one of the first things that comes to mind when I listen to them. They sound warm rather than cool, I'd say. I'm hearing a smooth, slightly distant presentation that seems to be devoid of peaks and troughs. While this type of speaker may not be the best thing for rock music reproduction, it works quite well with other types of music.
Those Tocaros would seem to be among the very special ones based upon most of what I've heard about them...
Tocaro promotes them as jazz speakers, which I understand. They do have a lot of jump and impact. But that's not how I'd characterize them - as a jazz speaker. I'd say they are very realistic sounding, which is what people who hear a lot of live music like about them. For those who prefer comfort, ease, richness, charm, they're probably too much. I don't intend this to sound judgmental. There is an argument to be made for not bringing the dynamics and energy of live into the living room. I would say the opposite speaker to a Tocaro might be Spendors or the larger Harbeths. There is room in the world for both extremes, right? I mean I've got Audio Note E's and K's playing alongside my Tocaros. They acknowledge each other but with more cordiality than affection!
Nicely said! I also have two distinctly different types of speakers in my listening area, so I think I know what you mean...
I don't think I would own a single driver system, but, I have heard such drivers implemented in multi-way systems that sounded very good. The only reasonably smooth, not to peaky sounding single driver system I heard employed the hideously expensive Feastrix fieldcoil driver.
Among the very best two-way systems I have heard is one that employed an old Jensen 13" fieldcoil driver in an open baffle enclosure with a tweeter covering from something like 8khz on up. The system was very clear and dynamic, full and harmonically "dense" sounding and free of gross midrange coloration (lacking the "transistor radio" midrange shout typical of many full-range drivers). The downside is a lack of truly deep bass (not that important to me) and a very high price tag for the Jensen driver/fieldcoil power supply in perfect working order.
Recently, I heard a two-way system made by Surreal Sound that utilizes a Lowther driver modified by Dave Slagle (turned into a fieldcoil driver) as a midrange/high frequency driver. I have heard this driver before and found it to be too peaky and "shouty" for my taste, but, in the Surreal Sound implementation, most of that peakiness had been tamed. The bottom end (from 133 hz on down) is handled by an unusual vertical array of powered woofers in a dipole arrangement (requires equalization to compensate for dipole cancellation). This is one of the very best modern speakers I have heard. The buyer supplies amplification for the midrange/high frequency driver, which being 99 db/w efficient, does not require much power at all (good for me as my current amp only outputs 5 watts). The only obvious weaknesses of the system, to me anyway, is some peakiness/hardness in the upper midrange, and an obvious difference in "speed" of the bass driver and the upper end driver--the integration is surprisingly good, given the blazing speed of the upper end driver, but it is not perfect. I am actually seriously considering purchase of this system.
You are right in saying that some of the best and most natural sounding single-driver designs can be pretty darn expensive. Not all of them are priced outside of the embittered grasp, however. Tekton and Omega come to mind when I think of "affordable" designs that sound and look pretty decent.My Royal Device Lauras were not inexpensive speakers when they were new, but now that I own a pair I can understand why someone whose ears are sensitive to crossover colorations and/or who likes low-powered amps might be willing to shell out some clams for speakers like these. They don't use whizzers but they do use a very unusual looking phase plug. The sound is very smooth indeed and they are completely free from nasty colorations, as far as I can tell so far. Perhaps the most surprising thing about them is the soundstage, which is both huge AND easy to forget about - both good things, IMO.
Some of the best single-drivers avoid the use of whizzer cones for high-frequency reproduction, and I think that is usually a step in the right direction.
Edits: 08/26/14 08/26/14 08/26/14
Yes, there are some good reasonably priced fullrange drivers. I heard Tangband drivers from Taiwan that are surprisingly good for the money. But, expensive or reasonably priced, I still prefer use of such drivers as "wide range" drivers in multi-way systems. The tradeoff with multi-way is that the loss of "seamless" continuity/coherence, but, I don't think the tonal balance is satisfying for my taste when drivers are run full range. Still, I can understand why someone with different sonic priorities will go with full range. A friend's Feastrix system sounds quite good and I can see why he eschews adding bass drivers and a crossover which will inevitably compromise some of the coherency of the system.
You can find some reasonably priced 8-inch drivers out there that cover the full range of frequencies except above 10,000 Hz.An easy DIY project is to add a tweeter for supplementing the frequencies above 10,000 Hz with a simple cap on it. Choose a tweeter of similar efficiency to the full range driver, and you have an easy DIY build.
for example
http://www.amazon.com/Visaton-BG20-8-Full-Range-Speaker-Whizzer/dp/B000K8CE88/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409007914&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=8+woofer+whizzer+cone#cm_cr_dpwidget
.
There are a LOT of "fullrange" drivers out there, varying considerably in size, price, and quality -- not to mention efficiency and power handling.
Even the really good ones (Fostex comes to mind), with extended reasonably flat response from below 100Hz to above 16kHz, require some EQ to compensate for baffle step diffraction loss at lower frequencies, unless they are to be wall-mounted. This can be done passively, with an LR shelving filter and an impedance-leveling Zobel (so the filter tracks correctly), or preferably at line level with parametric EQ. The passive route throws away 6dB of sensitivity in the mids and treble right away.
Dispersion will of course narrow with rising frequency, much more so than with a 2-way system with a dome tweeter. They will beam like a flashlight at frequencies where one wavelength is equal to or less than 1/8 baffle width, so on-axis listening (serious toe-in involved) is required to hear whatever high treble they can manage.
These problems addressed, there is something quite appealing to the absence of a crossover in the most critical region of hearing sensitivity. The "coherency" thing is definitely audible, and pleasing. I built a system awhile back with some older, surprisingly good little Rat Shack 5" "fullranges" mounted in 6" cubic enclosures. With a Zobel of 16uF/8.2 Ohms, a BSC shelving filter of 10 Ohms/1.8mH, and a highpass filter of 100uF (all external to the little enclosures), they cross nicely to a small active sub at around 120Hz, and extend reasonably flat on-axis to above 12kHz. I think they sound quite nice in a low SPL nearfield setup, toed in to aim directly at the listening seat.
I've also heard some "classic" JBLs, featuring some superbly built 8" fullrange drivers above 8" passive radiators, when I re-foamed all the drivers for a friend and of course had to keep the speakers around for a few weeks for further "testing." Heard on-axis and placed close to a wall, these had reasonable bass and treble extension and a really sweet midrange quality.
If you check out the fullrange driver offerings at Madisound, and look at the response graphs, you can see that some have really well-behaved on-axis curves while some measure just plain awful, and would certainly sound that way.
.
I have four pairs of single driver speakers and four pairs of mult-way. Right now I'm listening to Markaudio Pensil towers using the CHP-70 paper coned driver, no whizzer. It's a small 4" and it's the best fullrange I've heard to date. Best acoustic guitar I've heard. I think the whizzer is to blame. And I think you can get the same levels of midrange coherency from mult-way, it's just very very hard to do, and a lot more money.
Guitar seems very realistic on the Royal Device speakers too. I like it.
I've preferred their charms them since I was a teen.
Naturally, the ones I favor are of the large nearly massless dipolar type. :)
Yes indeed. Keep it simple has never been more present in audio than w/single driver. Get a great driver, build a great box and you have a load amplifiers can love. Only one FS peak.
ET
Specifically, which drivers are you referring to?
electrostatic panel using 3 mil kapton diaphragms. :)
I use Sound Lab U-1s in the main system. Pic in my gallery if you're interested. I discovered long ago that I am particularly sensitive to speakers that do not exhibit uniform directivity.
There isn't anything special about single-driver speakers, other than their lack of fidelity, but that's not news.
Add a woofer and a tweeter, and then a single-driver speaker can sound pretty good.
But then it would be a three-way.
:)
My ears tell me that there is something special about single-driver speakers but I'll keep your comments in mind next time I'm listening...
My impression is that the single driver speakers I have heard for the most part do midrange really well. Some of them so much so, that you get lulled into thinking that they are more 'right' than standard multi way speakers. The naturalness and immediacy of voices and some instruments you can get with a good quality single driver and no crossover is beguiling. But you do, as you note, lose the frequency extremes. Sometimes there is just no substitute for real tweeters and woofers for the higher frequencies and lower and lowest bass.
--Matt
"When you think everything is someone else's fault, you will suffer a lot."
--Dalai Lama
Kind of like the argument - I never heard a good two way speaker, if you never did hear a good two way speaker.
Yes I see the grammatical problem with that statement.
A really good design will deflate the single driver argument REAL fast! I've had several single drivers and they all end up needing super tweeters, tweeters and subs. Kinda looses the point.
charles
The "point" (or rather, *points*) or purpose of single-driver is to create an elegant, electrically efficient, crossover-less loudspeaker.Single-driver designs are not perfect, but no loudspeaker is. Every design creates certain compromises while avoiding certain others. The best single-driver designs can be driven on far fewer watts than other types of loudspeakers while eliminating the sonic artifacts of crossovers in the frequency ranges that your ears are most sensitive to. If you prefer the sound of low-powered amplifiers and/or if your ears are particularly sensitive to midband discontinuites, then the single-driver experience might be for you. It all depends though, because there are as many (more?) bad or mediocre single-driver designs as there are really good ones.
That said, I'm not absolutely sure that my single-drivers would be the ones I'd hold on to if my ship was sinking in the frigid waters of the Northern Sea. It would be a tough decision. My Lauras are currently the biggest and most bouyant speakers that I own. My conventional multi-ways sound pretty great but they also seem like power hungry boat anchors at times. My glorious sounding headphones and their long tethers have a tendency to gather seaweed. What to do, what to do?
I really like all types of speakers because I think that they all have something uniquely good to offer. I'd gladly own several pairs.
Edits: 08/26/14 08/26/14
... three way? ;)
Cheers,
Presto
Perhaps, some would say so. The main driver might be covering a wider band of frequencies than usual, I guess. And, maximum efficiency might be maintained as well.
Edits: 08/26/14
I don't really have an issue with that design... I like the idea of crossing in the sub(s) nice and low, or letting the wide-range driver roll off naturally to minimize the crossover.
For the high-end though, I am not a fan of crossing over from a larger 8" driver to a supertweeter at 6-10k due to comb filtering.
Concentric tweeter... now that just might do it! ;)
Cheers,
Presto
Now that I've spent more than just a few hours evaluating the wideband driver concept I can better understand that almost everything in audio is a compromise of some sort. More than ever, I think that it might be better to own a stable of different speaker designs than to be stuck eating the same old sonic meatloaf every night.Headphones are to blame for getting me started down the wayward path of audio polygamy, as there are so many different sonic presentations, personal comfort considerations, and aesthetic considerations to consider in the headphone world. Now, I find it nearly impossible (or even "sinful") to be satisfied with just one sonic spouse (may God or gods be praised for the openness and humor which pervades every sonic corridor!). Likewise, the more I listen to loudspeakers, the more I feel that it's almost necessary to own several pairs. It could be that every genre of music has it's ideal transducer, but only headphones are compact enough to allow me to indulge in serious explorations along that vein. Sadly, I have not much room left for another pair of speakers.
Edits: 08/25/14
If you take some new BOSE 901 series 6 mk2's and coat all those speaker drivers with "paint stain":..front and back side "TOO":...4 coats on front side of cone and one coat on the backside of cone "TOO"..."MAGIC HAPPENS".. AFTER ONE YEAR BREAK-IN !!.."HIGH END HAPPENS" !! let's keep this top secret !!..
.
Are you sure that this process won't make my testicles shrink?
What difference does it make if your speakers sound better. You have to set your priorities!
I guess I panicked, thanks for straightening me out! It's just that I'd hate for anything to affect my tap-dancing...
Edits: 08/25/14
I hear ya! Sometimes we just gotta move on with life, though! ;-)
My speakers are not high-efficiency, but they have a point-source midrange/tweeter that operates from 300-Hz to 26-kHz. I don't know the crossover point from midrange to tweeter, but all crossover slopes are 6-dB/octave and they supposedly produce linear phase to ±10-degrees. The crossover from midrange to woofer is 300-Hz. These speakers are very realistic in the midrange with surprisingly smooth highs. They are somewhat lacking in deep bass, though, so I use a subwoofer. The impedance curve is amazingly flat at 3-ohms ±0.5-ohms from 60-Hz to over 20-kHz. However, they are not very efficient at about 86-dB SPL for 1-watt at 1-meter.
.....
Your comments on coaxial drivers reminded me of a very old and interesting coaxial, the Hartley 220 MS 10 inch driver, claimed response 32 to 20 KHz, still being made. They go back to at least the 60s and yet use a non-paper construction. Highs are handled by a decoupled dust cap with a shorting ring. The crossover is mechanical and the shorting ring is powered by the same magnet as the main cone. And most interesting is their magnetic suspension. The driver uses an iron ring on the voice coil to keep the voice coil centered. When it's not centered the unequal magnetic forces on the ring bring it back to center.
Edits: 08/25/14
Your response piqued my interest and I found a description of the Hartley 220 MS 10 inch driver in what appears to have been an auction.
Coaxial drivers such as yours or the ones used by KEF and others can produce very nice results, that's for sure. I like them.The whizzer cones used in many single-driver designs are generally not as smooth sounding as true tweeters are, but coaxials like yours are usually much less efficient than true single-driver designs are. As a compromise, I think that the "augmented single-driver" (what I call "hybrid single-driver") design is most appealing.
Edits: 08/25/14 08/25/14
I'll second that. I let my first pair go to a friend who was just getting into the hobby. I may have to buy another pair of M's (or maybe the Lores) someday so I can enjoy the flavor of a truly efficient speaker again.
Sorry genungo. Meant that to be posted under your M-Lore comment.
No offense taken.
For fun 2 examples of an 'augmented single driver' speaker, both 3 ways with augmentation at both top and bottom.
A true high end example were the Pipedreams line sources. The main drivers ran from about 65 Hz to 6 KHz.
An old forgotten bookshelf was the Rectilinear X from the late 1960s where the main driver(with whizzer cone) went from 100 Hz to 8KHz. And the crossover was a rare example of a series crossover.
,
m
Beatnik's stuff http://web.me.com/jnr1/Site/Beatniks_Pictures.html
.
Ive had a good couple of fullrange drivers:
alpair 12p
fostex fe127
coral beta 8
ultimately while they can be really good, the highs are definitely lacking as well as air and details.
and the bass is also compromise due to the need to use really light cones for the FR to go up high.
Too much compromise for me!
I hear ya, and that's why I think that the very best "single-driver" designs are the "augmented" ones. Every design is a compromise, the degree of compromise being the thing to wonder about...
I got curios one time and purchased some Audio Nirvana Super 8 drivers and built a cabinet to their specs. All the characteristics that you mention apply to this speaker. It was a little raged around the upper mid-range. The bass wasn't deep but wasn't bad. I was going to add a super tweeter but decided I wasn't a speaker designer so I left them alone. I destroyed the cabinets but still have the drivers somewhere. I now use Tekton Designs M-Lore with a 8" full range driver and soft dome tweeter that I believe crosses over @14khz. Boy what a difference when someone knows what they are doing.....
I think that those are very nice hi-efficiency speakers for not a lot of dough. A good example of "hybrid single-driver" (my term) design done right.
Edits: 08/24/14 08/24/14
no bass
Yes, I think this is a valid complaint as bass deficiency is a problem with many single-driver designs.
Triple-folded horn loading (as used in the Royal Device Laura speakers) is less common than simpler box designs which often require the use of near-wall placement and/or the addition of subwoofers in order to obtain deep bass extension. It is hard to make a horn loaded cabinet that accomplishes it's intended purpose without creating unwanted resonances and noises in the process, but the sturdy Laura seems to go about it's business in quiet fashion - which is pretty amazing, all things considered.
Your Laura sounds kind of like a Zu: 10 inch full range driver with a tweeter on top that checks in at 10kh.
I heard the Zu Definition speakers at the Capital Audio Festival in July, and I was gobsmacked. I need to hear them again before I pull the trigger, but I'm already laying the groundwork with my wife.
Happy listening,
Jim
"The passage of my life is measured out in shirts."
- Brian Eno
... about the Laura/Miranda is that the top-mounted tweeter is NOT attached, so you can slide it back or forth to adjust the time alignment for different listening distances. I like these speakers but they took some getting used to after I first fired them up. The Laura is not as dynamic as some ultra-efficient horn designs but it sounds smoother and more transparent than some of those speakers. The Laura is a deceptively clever design and a beautiful one, too. The heavy birch ply cabinet and it's solid hardwood tweeter enclosure are made by one of Italy's best woodshops and it shows.
I think it's a keeper...
do you think this is a true single driver or separate cabinets for each driver without a crossover? Sound interesting though..
I think of it is as being a "single-driver" speaker *at heart*, but then I might label it "hybrid single-driver" design because of the horn-loaded tweeter's limited duties. That said, others might refer to it as a "two-way". Strange brew.The top mounted tweeter employs a filter to enable smooth transition with the main driver, but the manufacturer seems to refer to the Laura as a crossover-less design...
Edits: 08/24/14
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