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Re: Full-range driver systems

Posted by Duke (D) on December 15, 2006 at 16:28:03

In Reply to: Full-range driver systems posted by Inmate51 on December 15, 2006 at 14:55:40:

In my opinion, it's all about tradeoffs.

First of all, most of them are really "widerange" rather than truly "fullrange" drivers, so there's a bandwidth tradeoff.

High quality fullrange drivers do some things exremely well, but have their limitations. Most of these limitations are related to excursion.

I presume there are excursion thresholds below which doppler and intermodulation distortion are inaudible, though I don't know what they are. Most fullrange drivers have very small linear xmax (Supravox and the custom driver used by Zu are exceptions), and loud bass-heavy passages that drive the voice coil outside its linear limits will degrade midrange clarity and articulation.

One factor that I don't recall seeing discussed in this context but which I've learned to pay attention to is modulation of the magnetic flux. The permanent magnet field's strength is modulated by the voice coil's induced field, and theoretically a fullrange driver would be the application where flux modulation is most likely to be audible. The best-sounding fullrange drivers I've heard used very expensive magnet assemblies that minimized flux modulation (either alnico or field coil magnets).

Fullrange drivers usually have much more uniform radiation patterns especially through the midrange and lower treble than do typical cone-and-dome speakers. The sweet spot may be smaller, but the timbre is usually more natural.

One hidden advantage of fullrange drivers is that you can use them with some very nice-sounding low powered tube amps. They usually sound their best with low damping factor amplifiers, as this helps warm up the bass a bit.

My first commercial speaker (of my own design) was a fullrange driver augmented by a built-in powered sub (an obvious concession that "widerange" would have been a more accurate description). And I may revisit that format one day - like I said, within their limitations they do some things very well.

Duke

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