3 way floor standing speakers with 8 inch driver

[JeanMiK]

Hi!

How come there are very few home floorstanding speakers with 8" bass driver on the market?
People don't like having these big coffins in their room?
I am lucky to own a vintage pair of that type in very good shape (Audax kit from the 1980'). I got them from a guy in the neighborhood, he was moving and could not host them in his new apartment.
I had of course some work to do, new caps on the crossover and some new parts for the mediums and tweeters that were still available.
Are there technical (or any other) reasons to prefer 6 or 7 inch drivers (often a pair of them) instead of one 8" ?
Less distortion with new drivers materials?
What about the tortured impedance curve of the speakers having a pair of 6 or 7" - varying from 2 ohm to more than 20 ohm .... and the need of powerful power amplifiers - usually very costly.
Thanks a lot for your lights.

JMK

 

[Rja4000]

I like mines
https://www.focal.com/en/home-audio/high-fidelity-speakers/aria-900/floorstanding-speakers/aria-948

 

[JeanMiK]

Hi !
You can get them these days for a bargain price here: 1581.10 €uros & free delivery (1 pair)
But that does not answer my question: why no 8" drivers anymore ?

JMK

 

[617]

Hi !
You can get them these days for a bargain price here: 1581.10 €uros & free delivery
But that does not answer my question: why no 8" drivers anymore ?
JMK

7" and 6.5" drivers have been optimized to deliver low bass in relatively small boxes while having more extended treble than an 8". Generally speaker manufacturers will use 2-3 of these drivers rather than one 8". The baffle width also stays relatively narrow - an 8" driver needs a 10" wide baffle. I'm designing the bass unit for a 3 way right now and I've decided to go with 2x 18cm drivers over one 22.5cm driver - I'm getting less extended bass but better efficiency.

Generally for traditional 3 ways with big woofers you start at 10". There are exceptions of course, the Revel Gem 2 and many diy designs for example.

 

[Rja4000]

Generally for traditional 3 ways with big woofers you start at 10". There are exceptions of course, the Revel Gem 2 and many diy designs for example.

Well, Focal has quite a few 8" 3 ways (and 2 ways).

 

[JeanMiK]

What about the crossover frequencies in either instances ?
I had the opportunity to listen to quite some of them, I find the single 8" driver option more consistant for the bass,
when the other option (1 pair) has a medium a bit more forward.

JMK

 

[617]

What about the crossover frequencies in either instances ?
I had the opportunity to listen to quite some of them, I find the single 8" driver option more consistant for the bass,
when the other option (1 pair) has a medium a bit more forward.
JMK

Speaking very generally, two 7" drivers can be crossed over at 1.8-2.2khz to a conventional tweeter. An 8" driver can't do this, and in a 3 way will generally go anywhere from 300-800hz.

Given similar driver technology, the 8" will be less efficient but go lower, the 7" will have a bit more output but not go as low. There are high end 6.5" and 7" drivers which will put out a lot of bass, however.

 

[Soniclife]

Speaking very generally, two 7" drivers can be crossed over at 1.8-2.2khz to a conventional tweeter. An 8" driver can't do this, and in a 3 way will generally go anywhere from 300-800hz.

There are loads of 8" drivers being crossed over higher than 2k, harbeth go to 4k I think. Dispersion is an issue the higher you go.
For a 3 way you would be crossing over to the mid way below 1k normally.

 

[KozmoNaut]

There are still some beefy speakers with 8" woofers or larger out there. The entire Klipsch Heritage line, for example. Cerwin-Vega also offer a number of models with woofers up to 15" (even multiple 15" woofers!). JBL has a number of speakers in their Synthesis and professional lines with large woofers as well.

I also miss the big fridge-sized speakers. The fact that I can only really list three manufacturers that make speakers with big beefy woofers is depressing.

I have the money to afford a set of CV XLS-215s. If only I had the space for them.

 

[Rja4000]

For speakers, the market is much more regional than for typical electronics.
That's probably due to logistics costs.
In US, you find US made speakers, in Europe, you'd rather find european ones...
Except for some global brands, of course.

 

[Severian]

I am the proud owner of a pair of BIC RTR-EV15s - 3-way monkey coffin towers with 15" woofers, 5" midrange, and a horn-loaded tweeter - and maintain that they are the best value going in speakers, inclusive of DIY.

 

[cookiefactory]

SVS Ultra towers look to be a 3-way with 8” woofers.

 

[leonroy]

WAF and appearance is a main cause of the move to smaller drivers and narrower enclosures (according to a little bird at a major UK speaker manufacturer).

 

[JeanMiK]

WAF and appearance is a main cause of the move to smaller drivers and narrower enclosures (according to a little bird at a major UK speaker manufacturer).

I was almost sure that was the answer I would get. Nevertheless you may wonder why people want to have huge TV screens in their room - the bigger the better, but no room for best speakers .... And very often no speakers at all beside the tv's.

Correction: my vintage speakers (see above) have 10 inch bass drivers, no 8". And they are not that wide, 38cm only!
I'm not familiar with inch measurements ..... But that does not change my question.

JM

 

[KozmoNaut]

Not very many people had huge TVs back when that meant making room for a rear projection set. CRTs generally topped out at 28" for 4:3 sets and 32" for 16:9 sets. I know Sony did make at least one 40", but that was absolutely stretching the limits of what was possible. And of course even normal-sized CRTs were bulky and heavy.

Now that flat TVs are the standard, they may have a much larger picture size, but they are much less bulky and don't really take up much space when hanging on a wall.

In comparison, the speaker equivalent of a flat TV would be an electrostatic speaker, and those are absolutely a compromise, you cannot get around the need for a box (or structure, at least for dipoles) of a certain size for bass. To move air, you need physical volume.

 

[Ron Texas]

Revel F208.

 

[KozmoNaut]

For 8" drivers in floorstanding speakers, there are also the Monitor Audio Platinum PL300 II, Gold 300 and Silver 500, all of them with dual 8" woofers.

 

[therobin]

I'm looking forward to buying these next year or 2021 at the latest. They use 9.5" woofer.
http://www.salksound.com/model.php?model=SS+9.5