Who makes the best drivers in the world?

[Pieter1267]

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

Relative new

Relative expensive

Similar but missing for other reasons: no kef, tannoy, atc. Dayton. And whatever you may think about their speakers, the drivers are all very good. Maybe a list of bad drivers would be shorter? A lot of companies make great products these days.

 

[ShadowFiend]

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

TAD is good example of high quality speaker driver manufacturer. But again, their compression driver is not a solution for every situation. For example their TAD 4001 and 4002 are both 2" compression driver, and while they sound great, the BW of 10kHz-20kHz on those compression driver is not as good as the much much cheaper 1" compression driver like B&C DE360. But DE360 can be used to down to 1200 Hz while the TAD can be used to 500 Hz.

 

[Lekha]

Sony.
Only they don't sell woofers, tweeters, or midrange units separately.

 

[Da cynics]

Discover _vKi | .Kartesian

www.kartesian-acoustic.com

 

[GroeneLeeuw]

Focal deserves a mention, no?

 

[Salt]

I think every company that is for more than a few years in the market offers one or more drivers that will fit into a system as intended, may it be for price/performance relation, optical merits or technical perfection (what does not exist).
Thus said I agree @Duke

(Visaton, Monacor, Eaton ... )

 

[EERecordist]

Agree with others, it's complicated and it depends.

The world driver market serves in-vehicle speakers, all the new portable Bluetooth speakers, home audio, recording, PA speakers - concert halls, bars, stadiums, architectural safety PA speakers, and specialty niches. The materials to make a speaker are not expensive. There is a lot of manual assembly in some segments. A big impact on price is volume, the channel, then the finished product channel costs.

I think the Present Day Productions people talked about their driver journey for their 3-way studio monitors. They had a specific direction inspired by ATC. ATC makes their mid-dome in house.

 

[Lekha]

Sony, Philips, LG, Bose, JBL, Klipsch, Sonos, Polk, Wilson Audio, Devore Fidelity, Bowers & Wilkins, PMC, Acoustic Energy, Spendor... I reckon they don’t sell drivers on their own, but they do make excellent, long-lasting drivers. Not much help for the lone DIYer or small companies, though. One pair of speakers I own was made by one of these companies back in 1997, and they’re still going strong. I can hear the brush on the drums and cymbals and all that so clearly, which shows they were making top-notch tweeters even back then. Interestingly, the dome tweeters are just placed on the baffle, without any tails or wave guides.

 

[kimmosto]

Which company makes the best drivers in the world?

Not a company. Manninen from Suomussalmi.

 

[Sjkrabbe]

Danish company Purify takes the cake - really edge of technology

 

[kemmler3D]

I was researching for a DIY build a while back and I would have easily said Purifi based on that, but SEAS and even CSS also made the list based on their sub drivers.

It really does depend on what you want to do with the drivers. Purifi is probably best if you want a moderately sized, spare-no-expense 2- or 3-way for home listening and minimal distortion is important to you. But a lot of systems don't fit in that box.

 

[Pearljam5000]

I was researching for a DIY build a while back and I would have easily said Purifi based on that, but SEAS and even CSS also made the list based on their sub drivers.

It really does depend on what you want to do with the drivers. Purifi is probably best if you want a moderately sized, spare-no-expense 2- or 3-way for home listening and minimal distortion is important to you. But a lot of systems don't fit in that box.

How do Genelec and Neumann drivers compare to Purify and Seas?
Focal also make great drivers

 

[olieb]

To me the best (dual) drivers are the Kef (and Genelec) coax'.

 

[watchnerd]

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?

I was just about to mention TAD.

 

[Devnull]

Surprised no one's mentioned FaitalPro. Got to love 95+dB a watt subwoofers that can handle a couple of kilowatts of power. 5fe100/5fe120 are nice affordable midranges that are easy to work with.

 

[dfuller]

I'm going to limit this to easily available to DIYers.

Woofers: Purifi, Scan Speak, SB all excellent. PHL and Volt worth a mention too.

Mids: Bliesma. Everybody else falls behind IMO. Stick a M74S in a waveguide, cross it appropriately, and you're in business.

Tweeters: Bliesma, Scan Speak, SB, Seas all make excellent tweeters.

I do want to make it clear that integration and cabinet design matter as much if not more than the drivers.

 

[Philbo King]

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

I was going to say Mumbai (bad ones die very soon), but I see now that's a different sort of driver.

 

[Short38]

Morel

 

[watchnerd]

Morel

Okay....why?

 

[Bruce Morgen]

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

Relatively new SOTA/high-end vendor, very limited product line.