bliss53 Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 Has anyone played with any full range single driver speakers like Fostex or Audio Nirvana? How do ow do they sound compared to klipsch heritage? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ69 Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 I bought my dad a pair of Moth Audio with a single driver. Very nice for most of the bandwidth but they do have some short comings. The very top end is rolled off and bass is limited. I liked them but they sound best on simple music. I don't own any heritage but a horn tweeter and squawker have a different, more forward sound. The single drivers do what they do well but it's not the full band. Thanx, Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 Last year I got curious enough about full range drivers and got a pair of Tektons with Fostex drivers. I listen to them in my office and the sound is very good. Sort of hard to describe. I enjoy the sound, but if I had to choose between the Tektons and Heresy, it would be Heresy. I really enjoy the Heritage sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blvdre Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 Has anyone tried the larger, lower cost 604-like offerings, such as the 15" P Audio coax drivers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 I tried the Tecktons. Beautiful build quality. They had outstanding imaging and a really well integrated midrange. For the price if you like accoustics (not a lot of high end and low end) they probably cannot be beat. However, even though they excelled so much with an integrated midrange, I found the voicing to be a little off. My thought the entire time was that they image and hold together in the midrange like an 800 series B&W, but their tone was off and they lacked highs and lows. If you are looking for that audiophile quality, try a used high end bookshelf like a B&W 805 or the new Klipsch Palladuim bookshelf (never heard it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 Has anyone played with any full range single driver speakers like Fostex or Audio Nirvana? How do ow do they sound compared to klipsch heritage? Some might argue that full range is more cohesive, but I don't care for all the fuzzy distorted sound and lack of dynamics. Klipsch Heritage will sound very dynamic and clean...and then most of the cohesiveness can be retrieved by going active 3-way, but I find that the room can have an equally large impact on cohesiveness (just another thing to look into). All that to say, I don't think there is anything the single driver systems bring to the table that can't be achieved with Heritage properly implemented. Oh...the bass response is dramatically different too. Anyways, that's just one guy's opinion... The only coax systems I've enjoyed have been put out by Tannoy (probably my second choice after Klipsch). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joessportster Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 single driver speakers are like any other audio gear, "you get what you pay for" i have had several differant drivers in several systems and they can sound great but you will almost always need bass augmentation of some sort, my best set up included oris horn ultras that consisted of a 15 inch bass driver in a referance cabinet with the bd30 horn setup in front of the driver and on top was the oris 200 horn with the aer md3 driver absolutely awsome set-up if you want to invest that kinda money compared them side by side with 20,000.00 avantgarde duo and they held there oun easily a little nuance give and take between the 2 but they held there oun (so much so infact the ouner of the duo's wanted me to leave them with him) Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 single driver speakers are like any other audio gear, "you get what you pay for" i have had several differant drivers in several systems and they can sound great but you will almost always need bass augmentation of some sort, my best set up included oris horn ultras that consisted of a 15 inch bass driver in a referance cabinet with the bd30 horn setup in front of the driver and on top was the oris 200 horn with the aer md3 driver absolutely awsome set-up if you want to invest that kinda money compared them side by side with 20,000.00 avantgarde duo and they held there oun easily a little nuance give and take between the 2 but they held there oun (so much so infact the ouner of the duo's wanted me to leave them with him) Joe I'll qualify what I said by Joe's comments. The Tecktons use inexpensive Fostex drivers and were only $350. That beign said, upon hearing them, my immediate reaction was that they had a solid midrange and imaging that reminded me of my other speakers, but that the tone was off. That is very impressive for $350 speakers. Mark, I don't agree that a three way can never "approach" them, but I do agree that most will not appreciate them the same way that most will not appreciate audiophile speakers..."man you could have bought three pairs of [fill in the blank] for the same money..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twenty Watt Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 I bought a pair of P-Audio 15" full range drivers for a cool old pair of vintage mahagony cabinets. The P-Audio's are magnificent. I run them with an old Dynaco SCA-35 and a cd player and they are really amazing. I'm a musician who has been on countless stages and the accuracy of these speakers to reproduce real instruments is fabulous. The seperation of instruments is great and the resultant sound stage is glorious. It's easy to identify where the instruments / vocalists are placed. I know I'm gushing but I've had them for about 8 months now and they are the best audio purchase I've made and I've made many. I still enjoy my Heresy's but they are not my first choice for critical listening. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blvdre Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 Thanks for the reply, Twenty Watt - they sound promising. I just may have to see (hear) for myself... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klipschguy Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 Yeah, I've messed around with Fostex drivers and the like. Even built a pair of rear loaded "horns." Um...they are not without their charm, especially with simple jazz, but in the end I have to side with TBrennan and admit they sound like TV speakers. The main thing I don't like is the beamy highs that are being squeezed from a midrange size cone or even a whizzer. At first you try to convince yourself the highs are natural, but... Balanced tonal response is problematic also. A good two way is fundamentally a better design IMHO. It is annoying to own a pair of speakers that does not sound good with a wide range of music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kudret Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 I had a pair of Lamhorns with AER-mkI drivers that I sold about six months ago. Once you get used to the sound of heritage line the sigle driver speakers will sound very dull. Single driver speakers have their limitations and I am not sure if you'll ever get what you pay for. Kudret Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesboy Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 I built a pair of these for a friend of mine. He loves them. I had them hooked up at my house for a while and was amazed at the quality sound you can get out of these little 6'' Fostex drivers. I'm used to listening to my hybrid khorns with Altec horns and drivers. Can the single drivers compete with the big horns? No, but in a small room on a limited budget the single drivers might be an option especially if you like jazz and acoustic music. Depending on the recording, the imaging can be great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 I had a pair of Loth-X Audio "Amaze" transmission-line, slot loaded bookshelf monitors with cabinets made from solid cherry, each fitted with a Stefan Stamm-custom designed, Fostex-built 6" single unit tri-coned full-range paper driver with cloth surround, impregnated with a special proprietary polymeric resin for lightness/stiffness, with an alloy phase plug, and a 23,000 gauss Alnico magnet: *Frequency range: 55Hz - 20kHz +/-3dB. *Sensitivity: 96dB/2.83 V/m. *Impedance: 8 ohms. *Weight: 6 kg (13.22 lbs). They obviously lacked the deepest bass, but what bookshelf speaker doesn't! A pair of Dayton Audio powered subwoofers (down to 25Hz each) took care of that, and blended quite nicely with the Amaze. IMHO they really were horn-like in their interpretation of live music, and they weren't underachievers in the highs at all. They were well balanced and full in the mids...you'd think you were listening to seperate drivers. At 96dB, they were super efficient and an easy load for my 8Wpc 300B SET amp. Vocals were life-like and floated in air, and on excellent recordings sounded very live and dynamic! My only complaint was they did tend to become somewhat shrilly and beam at higher volumes, but that could've also been due to my 8 watt amp nearing its clipping point! I wish I had kept them since I now own a more powerful 6L6 PP tube amp...maybe that alone would've solved the beaming at louder levels, I dunno. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshnich Posted September 30, 2008 Share Posted September 30, 2008 Two things can be equally true. I love my three way Belles. and I was mesmerized by my single driver tecktons. I have to say that for some music and at certain volumes the tecktons were truly remarkable. But for dynamics and the illusion of live music the Belles cannot be beat. No the cohesion that Mark speaks of is not there but for me that is outweighed by the dynamics of real live music. I do not listen at an ear splitting volume but I do have a large room and I like to fill it with live sound. The tecktons could not do that. The Belles do it in spades. JMHO Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Richard Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 Modulation distortion with these single driver types of speakers is horrendous, which is why modern speakers are overwhelmingly 2, 3, or 4 way designs. Well designed multi-driver speakers will sum coherently if one listens at an appropriate distance,but then you can have problems with room reflections. Sound reproduction is all about compromises, choose the ones that bother you the least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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