Impressions on very efficient single driver

[Purité Audio]

Drivers aren’t loudspeakers, although I suppose it’s not too taxing to ‘design’ a single driver loudspeaker.
Keith

 

[Koeitje]

Can you list the other worst speakers you have ever heard.

Probably Zu Audio. Those speakers are an offense to anyone with functioning ears.

Edit: Yep, @Purité Audio called them some of the worst speakers he ever heard a while back .

 

[Purité Audio]

Just visit Munich ( Vienna) , there are more than you can shake a stick at, you only need a good back story no engineering prowess required.
Keith

 

[MAB]

All the full range drivers mentioned in my post and other replies have seen a microphone in its development by the manufacturer, Eminence, Beyma, Visaton. The basic idea is to avoid filtering and questionable integration.

You miss the point.

For manufacturers of full-rangers, the goal seems to be sell 'ethos' at high price points based on various ideas like filtering is bad, DSP is worse, driver integration is hard, on-axis performance is secondary to sound reproduction and off-axis just doesn't matter at all, measurements are frivolous, and engineering resources should not be spent on qualified engineers and speaker designers. One of the many reasons I rarely go to shows are the legions of commercial full-rangers which are expensive and horrible sounding abominations.

For many hobbyists, it's about actual simple approach that can get good results. A few people here have demonstrated very nice full-range speakers, with measurements to demonstrate the result and how they managed the tradeoffs.

 

[mhardy6647]

Ahh, whizzers. I have heard a few palatable drivers using whizzers, but even those tend to have a shrillness (I like to call it tizzy-ness - but that may be a little audiophile-esque) that is, at best, marginally acceptable.

There have been numerous interesting attempts over the years to have one's cake and eat it too; i.e., to cover three orders of magnitude of audio frequencies with "one" driver. I put one in quotation marks quite deliberately. The dual-compliance (Altec "Biflex" and the above-mentioned Pioneer "PIM" drivers) and those with whizzers are not "crossoverless" -- they substitute a mechanical crossover for an electrical one. They can be thought of as two drivers sharing a single voice coil.

So... I am finally getting to my point, kudos to anyone who's hung on this far! The most interesting (which is not to say best) attempt I've encountered in the (so to speak) flesh was Altec's... umm... laudable attempt in the late 1940s in a 15 inch driver known as the 603B. Altec wanted to offer a budget option to the then-new Duplex as a full range, concentric driver/loudspeaker, so they built a 15 inch driver with an aluminum dustcap with the front half of a Duplex quasi-multicell horn stuck in front of it! The dustcap is meant to add some treble extension, and the horn is meant to improve dispersion.
Does it work?
Not so much.

source: https://lansingheritage.org/html/altec/catalogs/1949.htm

 

[Selkirks]

Ahh, whizzers. I have heard a few palatable drivers using whizzers, but even those tend to have a shrillness (I like to call it tizzy-ness - but that may be a little audiophile-esque) that is, at best, marginally acceptable.

My experience with whizzer cones is limited to a few DIY drivers (Tang Band W8-2145, Tang Band W8-1808, SB Acoustics SB20FRPC30-8) and Zu Soul Superfly + Omen. They don't suit my tastes to this point but some enthusiasts like them. I'd like to try the Altec 603's you posted.

 

[mhardy6647]

My experience with whizzer cones is limited to a few DIY drivers (Tang Band W8-2145, Tang Band W8-1808, SB Acoustics SB20FRPC30-8) and Zu Soul Superfly + Omen. They don't suit my tastes to this point but some enthusiasts like them. I'd like to try the Altec 603's you posted.

The best thing I can say about it (I have but one, you see ) is that it does sound like an Altec driver.

 

[Mr. Widget]

“full range’ speakers with a whizzer cone are amongst the worst speakers I have ever heard.
Keith

I have to agree.

I have seen/heard a wide assortment of exotic cabinets with Lowther and Fostex dual cone speakers driven by SETs at audio shows and most of them sound shockingly horrible to me. As in, "this is what you came up with and you are really going to share it with the world?"

That said, occasionally there can be a very seductive midrange "purity" that comes from some of these and I guess that is what their proponents are drawn to.

 

[Theta]

I have to agree.

I have seen/heard a wide assortment of exotic cabinets with Lowther and Fostex dual cone speakers driven by SETs at audio shows and most of them sound shockingly horrible to me. As in, "this is what you came up with and you are really going to share it with the world?"

That said, occasionally there can be a very seductive midrange "purity" that comes from some of these and I guess that is what their proponents are drawn to.

I have tried a few of these single driver, and have come to similar conclusions. What you refer as midrange purity can be found in practically all light weigh paper cones, they sound clear dynamic, and amazing at certain group of frequencies, but on the whole they beam and break up. That is the reason most drivers in the better speakers are made of some sort of plastic or fabric when domes, so you loose all that immediate clarity and overtones. That is the inevitable the trade off.