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Is the ideal multi-way a 3-way with limited bass?

Hear me out here.

3 way speakers with the traditional large woofer benefit from high bass output, and improved midrange clarity due to the lack of Doppler distortion affecting the mids, but with a lot of modest listening areas the big woofer can also be detrimental.  They produce too much bass, which together with room gain and room modes causes flabby and exaggerated bass.
So, lacking ARC or EQ capabilities perhaps the best compromise for the purist is to have a big woofer 3-way but with a limited -3 dB point, say 45 Hz or so.


erik_squires

Showing 4 responses by audio2design

audio2design
1,351 posts
 
Perhaps, but it really comes down to acoustical design of the speaker and materials, and while I think 3 is somewhat ideal at this point, I would say for similar and different reasons.

I agree on the issue of doppler distortion, even though there are some good 2 ways with relative deep bass and high cutoff frequencies.

Smooth dispersion without resonances off-axis is critical in my mind, which also calls for limited bandwidth per speaker, though acoustical methods such as Paradigm uses for dispersion and materials like Magico uses allow good wider bandwidths per speaker than practical in the past.

And even if we talk about a woofer, should it be one big or two small? I lean towards multiple small as it keeps the dispersion closer at the crossover point.  I like to have that next crossover out of most of the vocal range if I can.
audio2design
1,351 posts
 
Like the looks of those gosta. When things are normal again, may have to go find those. I have been looking for a good high end home theater speaker.
audio2design
1,351 posts
 
oldhvymec,
Any speaker with a moving diaphragm will have doppler distortion. It is not transient, it is any time one driver is playing multiple frequencies. Reducing the travel of the travel for the same sound level will of course reduce the doppler distortion.  Reducing the frequency range of any given driver will reduce it.
audio2design
1,351 posts
 
What situation, other than aesthetics, will a huge floor stander be superior to relatively full range speaker as erik has described coupled with good subs?  The only case would be if the ideal place for the subs just happened to coincide with the location of the floor standers. That will rarely be the case.


kenjit1,170 posts11-13-2020 2:11pmPerfect sound reproduction requires flat response 20-20khz. Anything less is WRONG.

Perhaps you can explain to me kenjit, what, other than a digital audio chain and amplifiers have a flat 20-20KHz response in music recreation?  I can tell you that microphones don't. I can tell you that previously tape recorders did not.  I can tell you the recording and mastering engineer will rarely not play with frequency response. I can tell you that most recordings are done with a microphone close to the instrument or singer so the response is artificial already.

Now don't get me wrong, flat response in the right room sounds wrong, but perfect flat response isn't going to happen.

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