Who makes the best drivers in the world?

[Lekha]

This is the best dome mid range driver ever, high dynamics, low distortion, high SPL and because i listen 40+ years with pleasure to it. It's the center piece of my DIY speaker and hold up with all new stuff. It's the Dynaudio D54. p.s. it's all very subjective! Even doesn't need much EQ.


View attachment 447851

It is actually a driver with a casing, and some additional damping, in a way, a speaker by itself.

 

[Arindal]

This is the best dome mid range driver ever, high dynamics, low distortion, high SPL

My first questions when it comes to a midrange dome would actually be how it behaves below 500Hz regarding distortion and above 3K when it comes to directivity. In between I believe they are excellent.

 

[Pearljam5000]

This is the best dome mid range driver ever, high dynamics, low distortion, high SPL and because i listen 40+ years with pleasure to it. It's the center piece of my DIY speaker and hold up with all new stuff. It's the Dynaudio D54. p.s. it's all very subjective! Even doesn't need much EQ.


View attachment 447851

I always thought ATC's dome mid was considered the best

 

[Lekha]

My first questions when it comes to a midrange dome would actually be how it behaves below 500Hz regarding distortion and above 3K when it comes to directivity. In between I believe they are excellent.

The sound-emitting component of the Dynaudio D54 is simply a 54mm diameter dome, which can produce quite a good mid-range, estimated at 800 to 7000Hz. It requires its own enclosure to function effectively. It seems that a tweeter does not need an enclosure at all. Only the mid/bass driver must be placed in a box, regardless of its size.

 

[JPA]

This is the best dome mid range driver ever, high dynamics, low distortion, high SPL and because i listen 40+ years with pleasure to it. It's the center piece of my DIY speaker and hold up with all new stuff. It's the Dynaudio D54. p.s. it's all very subjective! Even doesn't need much EQ.


View attachment 447851

So the obvious question is: If it's so good why doesn't Dynaudio make it any more?

 

[Audionaut]

Wavecor stellt den besten Subwoofer der Welt her. Der 8,75- und 10,25-Zoll-Subwoofer weist im Voicecoil-Test eine der geringsten Verzerrungen auf.

Ich bin generell sehr skeptisch, was Superlative angeht und würde den „besten Subwoofer“ eher über ein Chassis wie das hier gezeigte definieren, obwohl es natürlich noch größere und leistungsstärkere gibt.
Bei den 18-Zoll-Lautsprechern sind diese beiden meine persönlichen Favoriten, wobei ich bisher nur den Faital Pro verbaut habe.

18XL1800 (8Ω) by FaitalPRO

FaitalPRO combined the latest R&D methods and technologies with the most advanced industrial automation techniques and all FaitalPRO drivers are made in Italy with the highest level of quality, consistency and durability.

faitalpro.com

New 18” FaitalPro 18XL1800 Neodymium Super Woofer

Milan-based FaitalPro continued to expand its catalog of high performance ferrite and neodymium drivers during the 2015 Prolight+Sound show. In Frankfurt, FaitalPro introduced its new 18” Neodymium Super Woofer, 18XL1800, leveraging the most advanced modern technologies in response to client...

audioxpress.com

Oder
BMS 18N862

Overview

bmsspeakers.com

 

[Frank Dernie]

The sound-emitting component of the Dynaudio D54 is simply a 54mm diameter dome, which can produce quite a good mid-range, estimated at 800 to 7000Hz. It requires its own enclosure to function effectively. It seems that a tweeter does not need an enclosure at all. Only the mid/bass driver must be placed in a box, regardless of its size.

View attachment 447863

The volume of the enclosure required behind a driver depends on the lowest frequency range it radiates.
In the case of a tweeter it is so tiny most people don't even know it is there. In the case of mid only drivers some, like this Dynaudio, include an enclosure of suitable size fixed to the back, some require that a sub-enclosure to be part of the main speaker box if the mid driver goes down to a low enough frequency.
Bass speakers require a bigger box and how big depends on the driver design and the lowest frequency it will radiate.
Hence a cabinet

 

[Pearljam5000]

Marten uses a berillyum dome mid
I wonder how it sounds

 

[YSDR]

So the obvious question is: If it's so good why doesn't Dynaudio make it any more?

Because if you have the best loudspeaker, you don't want more/different loudspeakers? (Just asking.)

 

[Frank Dernie]

I always thought ATC's dome mid was considered the bestView attachment 447857

Not by everybody, it seems, but I am a fan.
It goes lower in the bass than other domes - 300Hz making it fully usable in a 3-way and whilst it does break up above 3.5kHz it does not need an exotic tweeter and crossover to avoid the breakup range.
The other dome "mid-range" speakers give up at least an octave higher than the ATC so are probably more suited to a 4-way.
I have some ancient (40+ years old) ProAc EBS speakers with ATC dome mid, ATC 9" bass driver and a modest tweeter that sound more accurate than most speakers their age I have heard.

 

[Frank Dernie]

So the obvious question is: If it's so good why doesn't Dynaudio make it any more?

Probably because most designers expect a mid range driver to cover a wider frequency range than most mid domes can at the low end.

 

[Slave IV]

Anyone know who makes drivers for Swan/HiVi or if they make for others?

Also curious who supplies drivers for CDT Audio (car audio brand).

 

[Frank Dernie]

Anyone know who makes drivers for Swan/HiVi or if they make for others?

Also curious who supplies drivers for CDT Audio (car audio brand).

Car audio brings a whole new level of "rubbish room" and "bad listening position"

 

[Slave IV]

Car audio brings a whole new level of "rubbish room" and "bad listening position"

Haha, ironically some of the best systems I've ever heard were in cars. It's all in the installation and tuning and while the environment isn't the best, it also limits the exact locations for listener and speaker position. You also have a lot less to deal with and usually more options in terms of treatments. Car audio was also way ahead in terms of having fully active systems and user accessible crossover, eq and dsp settings long before they became a thing in home audio, which I think helped a lot of people dial in their car systems back in the day.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Haha, ironically some of the best systems I've ever heard were in cars. It's all in the installation and tuning and while the environment isn't the best, it also limits the exact locations for listener and speaker position. You also have a lot less to deal with and usually more options in terms of treatments. Car audio was also way ahead in terms of having fully active systems and user accessible crossover, eq and dsp settings long before they became a thing in home audio, which I think helped a lot of people dial in their car systems back in the day.

Yes DSP is essential to get an even remotely good sound in a car, but if you think the best systems you have heard have been in cars you and I have a very different idea of what a good system is I'm afraid!

I have never heard realistic sound in a car. Yes DSP makes it less crap but the distance between the tweeter and mid drive units and the position of the listeners relative to the drivers mean it is making the best of a bad job. Then there is the variable (very) road noise profile which masks the sound in weirdly different ways depending on the surface you drive on.

I gave up ever hearing good sound in the car in the end and don't often switch it on at all.

 

[montyliam]

All Genelec main monitors depend on DSP to operate correctly. ATC can function with passive crossover. So they are more like comparing apples to oranges.

Not really. Both are loudspeakers, just with different types of crossover typologies. Genelec don't 'depend' on DSP the same way ATC don't 'depend' on a passive XO, they are different means to an end. There are plently of loudspeakers that use passive XO's which outperform active XO speakers and vice versa. Again, implementation is key, not necessarily individual parts but rather the sum.

 

[Slave IV]

Yes DSP is essential to get an even remotely good sound in a car, but if you think the best systems you have heard have been in cars you and I have a very different idea of what a good system is I'm afraid!

I have never heard realistic sound in a car. Yes DSP makes it less crap but the distance between the tweeter and mid drive units and the position of the listeners relative to the drivers mean it is making the best of a bad job. Then there is the variable (very) road noise profile which masks the sound in weirdly different ways depending on the surface you drive on.

I gave up ever hearing good sound in the car in the end and don't often switch it on at all.

Couple things:

• I said "some of" the best, not "the" best system I've heard was in car audio.
• I wonder if you ever heard a SQ based car audio custom build or are you just talking about stock systems? If just stock, I would agree with you although some of them are getting much better than what we were getting about a decade ago and before.
• Fwiw, I’ve heard systems with no DSP, just quality install and tuning with a few speakers that were so realistic, you could imagine you were in the recording studio if you closed your eyes and just lay back to enjoy. You could again say our ideas of “good” and “realistic” are different but can say I’ve been an audiophile as long as I can remember and spent much of my life in professional recording studios, theaters and high end audio environments.

 

[Robbo99999]

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

Have you got your Genelecs yet though, you were always going on about Genelecs!?

 

[Pearljam5000]

Have you got your Genelecs yet though, you were always going on about Genelecs!?

Still working on it

 

[Robbo99999]

Still working on it

You could have built your own by now!