Who makes the best drivers in the world?

[Pearljam5000]

In your opinion
Which company makes the best drivers in the world? (woofers, tweeters etc)

 

[ZolaIII]

I always have a fetish for Foster. It really depends on the job, availability and price.

 

[007Shorty]

In my opinion:
- Woofers = Wavecor
- Tweeters = SB Acoustics

 

[ryanosaur]

Hard to leave out the likes of Seas and ScanSpeak.

 

[darakon]

Maybe not the absolut best high-end , but the best regarding their price:
Tweeter => Seas
Widerange => TangBand
Woofer = SBAcoustic

 

[DVDdoug]

I don't know but that question implies you are building your own speaker...

There's probably no answer without defining "best"? Smooth frequency response? Dispersion? Low distortion? High sensitivity-efficiency? High output and/or high power handling? Best bass in a small box? Best performance in a sealed box? Deep bass and/or strong bass? Etc.?

If you want the "best" without regard to price it's probably better to buy a complete speaker that's been fully-tested and tweaked for the best performance, without concerning yourself with what components were used.

There are usually LOTs of trade-offs, including cost. (Manufacturer's usually tout their material decisions and design choices as advantages, but there are always trade-offs and it's usually just marketing.)

 

[Pearljam5000]

I'm not building anything
It's a general discussion

 

[JustJones]

Eminence are at the top.

 

[jeffaegrim]

Several replies later and TAD hasn’t even been mentioned yet!

JBL has also made some premium, SOTA drivers over the years. JBL 1500al, anyone?

 

[ShadowFiend]

Another meaningless thread. Speaker driver is one component in a real speaker. There are no best drivers or best manufacturer of drivers. Only the best driver for certain design requirements exists.

And the more irony thing is that the person who opens this thread doesn't gain anything meaningful from this thread.

 

[Sokel]

Eminence are at the top.

Judging from their electric bass application stuff, yep, they do it just fine.
And with some serious real estate voice coils.

And talking about voice coils, Audio Technology makes some serious stuff too with their flex units., at the Hi-Fi side of things.

 

[Audionaut]

BMS
18sound
Scan Speak
RCF
TAD
PHL
JBL
Accuton
Beyma
SB Acoustics
Eton
Mundorf

 

[Blumlein 88]

I would think Accuton and Dynaudio would be in the running as well.

 

[jeffaegrim]

Another meaningless thread. Speaker driver is one component in a real speaker. There are no best drivers or best manufacturer of drivers. Only the best driver for certain design requirements exists.

And the more irony thing is that the person who opens this thread doesn't gain anything meaningful from this thread.

Is the bolded part correct, though? I am pretty sure that - e.g. - TAD compression drivers can be considered among „the best“ in the world. They have been in continuous production for over 40 years, play very flat and don’t suffer from diaphragm breakup due to their beryllium dias. This is a measurable property of the driver. The usage of beryllium makes the driver very expensive in turn. It’s clear in which respect the driver is one of „the best“, though. I don’t think that the existence of cheaper drivers that accomplish similar feats or the necessity of proper implementation negates that

 

[voodooless]

Find out yourself:

Items about: Voice Coil Test Bench

audioxpress.com

 

[Duke]

Imo drivers are sufficiently use-specific that "the best" depends on the particular use case, which imo includes how well the driver blends with others through the crossover region(s).

I count something like nineteen brands mentioned thus far, and have worked with thirteen of them, as well as a few others. TAD was mentioned a couple of times (and is among those I have worked with). @jeffaegrim I agree that TAD compression drivers are superb when considered in isolation, but their internal geometry is incompatible with (what I believe to be) the best modern thinking in horn design. So imo this would be an example of the specific use case coming into play.

 

[Pearljam5000]

Another meaningless thread. Speaker driver is one component in a real speaker. There are no best drivers or best manufacturer of drivers. Only the best driver for certain design requirements exists.

And the more irony thing is that the person who opens this thread doesn't gain anything meaningful from this thread.

The real irony is that I'm being criticized for discussing a topic on a forum

 

[GXAlan]

1) JBL Professional
Differential drive, low TCR wire woofers

2) Earthquake Sound

3) Magnepan
60” ribbon tweeter. Invented decades ago and still competitive.

 

[boxerfan88]

The real irony is that I'm being criticized for discussing a topic on a forum

Don’t worry. There’s a button called “Ignore”

 

[boxerfan88]

Interesting to see that “Purifi” has not been mentioned yet. Any idea why?