Any experience with "full range" single drivers?

[combwork]

Hmm, we all hear differently, but I would not have described Lowthers as having a smooth sound, the upper mid rising response always gets my ears.

Possibly, I guess it depends to some extent on the amp or the 'sound' of the cabinet. The original poster mentioned the possibility of a valve amp; in my experience, valves and Lowthers go together beautifully

[lurcher]

Possibly, I guess it depends to some extent on the amp or the 'sound' of the cabinet. The original poster mentioned the possibility of a valve amp; in my experience, valves and Lowthers go together beautifully

Yes, agreed, but I would still not describe the sound as smooth, that is unless the amp has a very curtailed and falling response above 8kHz

[Marco]

Agreed. I like Lowthers, but the last thing I'd call them is "smooth"! And I certainly wouldn't be using them with anything other than a valve amp (and an S.E.T one at that).

Marco.

[tfarney]

Agreed. I like Lowthers, but the last thing I'd call them is "smooth"! And I certainly wouldn't be using them with anything other than a valve amp (and an S.E.T one at that).

Marco.

Evidently the Fostex have an upper-mid peak as well. Most designers use a filter to flatten it out. I probably won't be using the Lowthers unless I run across a builder somewhere building a large desktop-size speaker utilizing them. The Tektons, which use various Fostex drivers, get great reports, and he builds a couple of them good nearfield sizes. The ones I'm most interested in use a 4.5 inch driver in a deep, narrow front-ported cab about 17" high. Perfect for my purposes.

Tim

[lurcher]

The upper mid peak is hard to avoid with any high efficiency driver.

[tfarney]

The upper mid peak is hard to avoid with any high efficiency driver.

Evidently. It seems that it is pretty easy to cure with a bit of passive filtering, though.

Tim

[Mike]

Does that not, at least to some extent, negate the point of using a full range driver?

[Marco]

Not really, Mike. If you like what they do well (and it is substantial) then the small downside is well worth it. It also depends what music you mostly listen to. Furthermore, not all high efficiency drivers exhibit the sonic characteristics of Lowthers, as I'm sure Nick will tell you.

I guess like anything else in hi-fi it's a compromise. Once you hear well-implemented examples of high efficiency full-range loudspeakers and become attuned to the way they present music (with a good SET amp) you can hear all too easily the colorations present in multi-driver box speakers - particularly the effect of the crossovers.

I'm not saying though it's necessarily what I would use in my own system. We all have different priorities

Tim - keep up the good work. I must say you've become an excellent contributor since you've joined! So have Baja and the others guys, too, from the AK and SH forums

Marco.

[aquapiranha]

Does that not, at least to some extent, negate the point of using a full range driver?

I would agree with that statement to a degree, though i really would not know if a filter would introduce the same phase issues normally found with conventional crossovers. FWIW I find after using the fostex's that I do not bother listening for anomalies and instead I just enjoy the music.

[alb]

Correction filters do work to some extent, but some of us prefer the sound without filtering. There is an arguement, for and against.
I suppose if i hadn't heard the drivers before correction then i would have been happy enough.
Its difficult to describe the effect they have but its clearly audible.