Loudspeakers: Why don't they......?
I have been quietly coveting a pair of Zu Druid speakers that are for sale at the moment, and their unusual design has prompted a rare thought: Brace yourself...
Only in our loudspeakers does 'signal' finally become sound, which interacts with the room and then with us. We buy a): the very best speakers we can integrate into our room, and b): afford. This is after we take such care of our precious 'signal', amplifying it and attenuating it in turn with the finest quality HiFi known to man, or at last our wallets, and providing it with absurdly expensive -for what they are- cables to be relayed upon. We like to hope we get results because we take care over the whole chain.
But when it all finally becomes sound to taste and experience, our speakers have to square the circle of electrical signal into mechanical movement. A different set of challenges are now being overcome in the quest to bring music to our ears, which while not instruments of measurement, are immensely sensitive to a variety of triggers of 'rightness' that either make or ruin the musical experience for us. Our ears are most sensitive - in ideal circumstances - between 1kHz and 5kHz.
So why are we still stuck with speakers with crossovers smack bang in the middle of that range where our ears are so sensitive? This question mostly applies to 2-way speakers of course, my own speakers crossover at 4kHz.
I am inexperienced in the broader world of HiFi, but what I have experienced and learned is that simple is almost always best. Therefore, I imagine the world of full-range speakers would be very fulfilling - except that upon reading the forums it becomes apparent they struggle with the laws of physics the same as any other drivers do. They can't get high enough for some tastes, nor can they completely satisfy in the bass region. I generalise massively of course, but these same mechanical limitations are why in conventional speakers we split the signal so each driver can operate in it's own comfort zone. So one problem is successfully overcome - but now we have this issue of crossovers sitting on the music. Good speaker designers and quality parts help mitigate the issue, but does the issue need to be there?
Why is it not usual to utilize a real full range driver at the heart of most loudspeakers? A nice tweeter could take care of things up high, stepping in somewhere above that 5kHz threshold leaving us to revel in an uninterrupted frequency range. Also, a more conventional bass driver - say 8" or more - with whatever implementation is appropriate (part transmission line, bass reflex, compound loaded, acoustic suspension, whatever) in a sealed part part of the cabinet could come in really low. Wouldn't this result in a real full-range loudspeaker with minimal crossover sitting on our music?
Just a thought...I am really quite curious about this. If this type of speaker does exist, lets see some pictures please. It must be harder to make than I imagine, or more manufacturers would do it.
Only in our loudspeakers does 'signal' finally become sound, which interacts with the room and then with us. We buy a): the very best speakers we can integrate into our room, and b): afford. This is after we take such care of our precious 'signal', amplifying it and attenuating it in turn with the finest quality HiFi known to man, or at last our wallets, and providing it with absurdly expensive -for what they are- cables to be relayed upon. We like to hope we get results because we take care over the whole chain.
But when it all finally becomes sound to taste and experience, our speakers have to square the circle of electrical signal into mechanical movement. A different set of challenges are now being overcome in the quest to bring music to our ears, which while not instruments of measurement, are immensely sensitive to a variety of triggers of 'rightness' that either make or ruin the musical experience for us. Our ears are most sensitive - in ideal circumstances - between 1kHz and 5kHz.
So why are we still stuck with speakers with crossovers smack bang in the middle of that range where our ears are so sensitive? This question mostly applies to 2-way speakers of course, my own speakers crossover at 4kHz.
I am inexperienced in the broader world of HiFi, but what I have experienced and learned is that simple is almost always best. Therefore, I imagine the world of full-range speakers would be very fulfilling - except that upon reading the forums it becomes apparent they struggle with the laws of physics the same as any other drivers do. They can't get high enough for some tastes, nor can they completely satisfy in the bass region. I generalise massively of course, but these same mechanical limitations are why in conventional speakers we split the signal so each driver can operate in it's own comfort zone. So one problem is successfully overcome - but now we have this issue of crossovers sitting on the music. Good speaker designers and quality parts help mitigate the issue, but does the issue need to be there?
Why is it not usual to utilize a real full range driver at the heart of most loudspeakers? A nice tweeter could take care of things up high, stepping in somewhere above that 5kHz threshold leaving us to revel in an uninterrupted frequency range. Also, a more conventional bass driver - say 8" or more - with whatever implementation is appropriate (part transmission line, bass reflex, compound loaded, acoustic suspension, whatever) in a sealed part part of the cabinet could come in really low. Wouldn't this result in a real full-range loudspeaker with minimal crossover sitting on our music?
Just a thought...I am really quite curious about this. If this type of speaker does exist, lets see some pictures please. It must be harder to make than I imagine, or more manufacturers would do it.
Comments
I like the sub/electrostatic/supertweeter idea. :-)
Is it Martin Logan that have some sort of electrostatic with a sub, or something like that...? If so, I've never heard them myself.
Actually thinking about it, didn't they have a pair in the Friends apartment...?
Mervyn - '57s with QED cable? I would love to hear the '57s for sure. Still, the proposition was for conventional box speakers rather than musical electric fences!
The woofer comes in low (and I agree with the need for well specced minimalist crossovers - my current speaks have modified 1st order), and the tweeter just where the full-ranger starts to roll off. Why would the crossover need to be more complicated than the 1st order crossovers my current speakers use? I do see there would be in effect two crossovers, one high & one low, but being both simple the advantages they and the additional drivers would bring must be a good thing. We are in effect discussing a full-range driver speaker, augmented with a woofer and a (super?)tweeter.
I suppose the crossover frequencies needed for such an application would be unusually low/high, so the possibility of finding or modifying drivers to mechanically roll-off successfully is slight.
Was Martin Colloms the chap who was associated with Musical Fidelity some time ago and had a hand in some speaker design for them?
i read this the other day, pre production samples but utterly intriguing all the same , http://www.hi-fiworld.co.uk/index.php/loudspeakers/65-reviews/267-eminent-lft-16.html ,
it would seem that some folks out there are trying to get the x-over point outside that critical point and still keep things affordable, worth a quick read at least.
all the best,
matt
matt
best regs , matt
;;)