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Speaker of the Century Award Goes To ....

The 2.5 way speaker.


You guys probably thought I was going to fanboy over a brand, and I'm not. I'm going to fanboy over a speaker design. IMHO the 2.5 way speaker is THE ideal high end speaker for the majority of enthusiasts.


First, what is a 2.5 way? It is a speaker with 3 drivers, but the mid range lacks a high pass filter, so  it shares output with the woofer.  It has a number of advantages over smaller and larger speakers:
  • Similar footprint to stand mounted 2-way speakers
  • Ideal bass output for apartments and modest homes
  • Easier to integrate than big speakers
  • No subwoofer
  • High sensitivity compared to a 2-way using similar drivers
  • Reasonably priced


A number of brands have taken this approach including:
  • Focal
  • Joseph
  • Monitor Audio
  • DIY kits like the Klang Ton Ophelia, and Zaph Audio

So for the average enthusiast who is not a San Francisco billionaire I argue here (for the sake of an argument) that the 2.5 way speaker should be considered one of the great technical innovations in terms of users and results.
erik_squires

Showing 2 responses by teo_audio

teo_audio
2,197 posts
 
electrostatics, magnetic planar speakers suck. Couldn’t swing a dynamic range signal to save their lives.

All they’ve got is a few db of leading edge to fawn over... and after that... it’s all distorted crap. This is true, to a perfect T, as it's right there in every FFT analysis graph ever printed and looked at... for any panel speaker. All of them. 100% of them.

Right back at ’cha.....

Now I could harp on dynamic driver systems and kick them to the curb too, but that’s already been done..so..I’ll just say I’ve owned and liked all types of speakers over the years.
teo_audio
2,197 posts
 
Many three driver speakers these days, with a tweeter on top with two woofers below... can be looked at as likely being 2.5 way-ish.

A large number of the paradigms that have been built in this fashion are 2.5 way speakers.

Again about the planars folks, don’t get me wrong, I like them all too. Dr West makes some fabulous ones...and if you want to talk about complex designs, there’s a good place to start...
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