2-way vs 3-way speakers

[Pearljam5000]

Other than lower distortion in the midrange in 3-way speakers
What other advantages do they have vs
2-way speakers?

 

[sarumbear]

Other than lower distortion in the midrange in 3-way speakers
What other advantages do they have vs
2-way speakers?

You can spread the crossover frequencies so that the important vocal frequency range can be filter free.

 

[Doodski]

A 3-way can go louder. (?)

 

[sweetchaos]

Speaker looks more expensive due to the extra mid-range and thus has a higher "perceived performance" value

 

[LTig]

Off axis response of a 3-way can be decent without a wave guide.

 

[Chromatischism]

A 3-way can go louder. (?)

Speaker looks more expensive due to the extra mid-range and thus has a higher "perceived performance" value

Off axis response of a 3-way can be decent without a wave guide.

These, but not this:

You can spread the crossover frequencies so that the important vocal frequency range can be filter free.

Unless you can find a driver to do 100 Hz to at least 4 kHz that won't beam or break up, you're going to have a crossover somewhere in the vocal range. And to have a bass driver that crosses at 100 Hz would be a waste. Therefore most 3-way speakers in fact have a crossover in the vocal range, somewhere between 300-800 Hz.

I think 2-ways can do that better. They only have one crossover as a potential source of issues, whereas a 3-way has two. That one crossover tends to be around 2-3 kHz on average.

The other comments tend to be true.

 

[sergeauckland]

With three ways, the 'telephone' band of 300- 3k is more or less handled without any crossover, whereas with a 2 way, there's a crossover where the ear is most sensitive.
Furthermore, a three way is likely to have better off-axis behaviour due to less beaming. It's pretty hard to get deep and loud bass from a small driver, and large drivers will beam long before the crossover of a two way.
A 'proper' full range 'speaker may need to be a 4 way, as it's hard to get more than one decade out of any driver unless pretty exotic.

S

 

[headshake]

crossover somewhere in the vocal range.

Isn't 100hz-300hz all the room?

What other advantages do they have vs

The decay for the midrange. A small cone and domes can STFU faster. A big cone can't stop making noise so fast. Everything is a compromise. Pick your demons.

 

[q3cpma]

Less THD/IMD, more choice in drivers (e.g. metal woofers that will be low passed way before their first resonance), dispersion (especially vertical and power response) can be made more optimal, less need for deep waveguides than can be problematic when not done perfectly, no midrange leakage through ports.

 

[thewas]

Some of the objectively and subjectively best loudspeakers have one or even two crossover frequencies in the famous notorious mid band, so its only a problem when the engineering is poor, resulting in poor directivity matching and other problems which unfortunately happened way too often in the past and helped the creation of this legend.

 

[Jdunk54nl]

The tradeoff of a 5"+ woofer trying to play from 80ish hz to 2500ish hz and play all of it well is very hard. You need to move a bunch of air at the low end but also need to play high frequencies and try to mitigate the beaming / directivity to the best of your ability (this rules out most of the 8" woofers) and mate that to a tweeter's directivity at that crossover point. Hard to design good woofers/tweeters/speakers that can do all of that AND play LOUD!

Go to a three way and you can pick a bunch of 5"-8" woofers that are good at moving some air on the low end but start having issues around 500-1000hz, a smaller driver that can pick up there and match up to a tweeter more naturally and at a higher frequency. This all can improve the ability to play loud and clean.

 

[LTig]

Some of the objectively and subjectively best loudspeakers have one or even two crossover frequencies in the famous notorious mid band, so its only a problem when the engineering is poor, resulting in poor directivity matching and other problems which unfortunately happened way too often in the past and helped the creation of this legend.

Yep, see the Neumann 3-ways (KH310, KH420) or its predecessors (K&H O300D, O410).

 

[Newman]

@headshake yes 100-300 Hz could be said to be “all the room”, but it is also definitely within the vocal range.

 

[dasdoing]

the human ear is most sensitive between 2 and 5 kHz, so that's where you idealy woud have no crossover

 

[Jdunk54nl]

the human ear is most sensitive between 2 and 5 kHz, so that's where you idealy woud have no crossover

Yet that is a lot of speakers that have crossovers precisely there between tweeter and mid or tweeter and woofer

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

the human ear is most sensitive between 2 and 5 kHz, so that's where you idealy woud have no crossover

And what about the disconection between the mid range and the woofers? there is people angry because they can hear the disconection and the coaxia, full range coaxial speakers sounds more natural, example: ls50

Personally i prefer have a 3 way coaxial, i don't hear much that diconection.., but the mids are really good in 3 way speakers

 

[dasdoing]

Yet that is a lot of speakers that have crossovers precisely there between tweeter and mid or tweeter and woofer

tecnical reasons, right?

by the way, back in the 80ies a lot of mixing engeniers would monitor on 1-way full range cubes

 

[Chromatischism]

the human ear is most sensitive between 2 and 5 kHz, so that's where you idealy woud have no crossover

And 3-ways don't avoid that

 

[mhardy6647]

tecnical reasons, right?

by the way, back in the 80ies a lot of mixing engeniers would monitor on 1-way full range cubes

... and not without reason.
(and in the 60s and 70s, too -- when car radio was king)

The Horrortones.

 

[mhardy6647]

It's rare but a case can be made for the "augmented full range" design approach -- with a wide-band "midrange" driver augmented by a "subwoofer" and a "supertweeter" (these monikers all being relative!).

Here's a commercial example from Electrovoice. These were and are surprisingly nice high sounding sensitivity loudspeakers: what the Klipsch Heresy could have been if Col. Klipsch hadn't been hung up on really nasty, peaky sounding horns.

EV Esquire noflash by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

In fact, EV recycled that "vented midrange" idea several decades after the Esquire and its kin had long since faded into the sunset...