What's the best mid-range driver available?

ATC makes the finest midrange driver in the world, as Soix said. i know there is as least one site that sells them to the public, through ATC.

yes you *can* buy it seperatley. and you can buy the speakers as a kit. they aren't as good, but they're still good.

and they're not too expensive, especially when you consider that they come with multiple top-notch amps as well. if you work it all out, they are really quite a bargain.

15k for a three-way speaker, with the best mid-range in the world, a 50 liter enclosure, one of the best crossover networks available, and *six* seperate power amplifiers driving each driver individually. not cheap, but very reasonable.

you can get fantastic stuff for that amount, true. but not superior to the atc. it's expensive, but still a good value. the speakers ar very heavy because the amps are affixed to the back of the speaker. there are six power amps, but it isn't at all complex because they're all built into the speaker. you only ever see them as a small protrusion from the back of the speaker. just hook up your preamp using balanced interconnects to them and that's it. saves space on your rack, too.

i think you mmight be misunderstanding the path. you don't need to invest in ANY amp. it's part of the speaker. source --> preamp --> speaker.

you don't need an external amp. period. active speakers can't use external amplification.

15 being way more than is necessary is strictly a matter of opinion. you won't change my mind, i won't change yours.

in absolute terms, if something sounds just a little bit better than another product, but costs 100,000 dollars more, the fact remains that it sounds better.

i always like hearing different set-ups. i don't care about big sound, either. i care about accuracy above all else. part of the reason i love music is because i have a fascination with the human voice, so i'm picky about midrange.

but, please; if you're ever in san antonio, you're more than welcome to come by and have a listen.

and if you prefer tubes, the speakers are available (considerably cheaper, i might add) in passive versions to be driven by whatever amp you'd like.

the best way to describe them is 'accurate.' i don't know what you mean by sounding 'british.' i've heard lots of english speakers and i don't really think they sound very similar. (linn, rega, naim, tannoy, atc)

i'm not sure what kinda info you want, but here's a list of plaves that *only* use atc equiment. just to skim over (taken from their website)

"Sony Music Studios, New York; Kate Bush; Warner Bros, Burbank, CA; Dairy Studios; Polygram Wiseloord Studios, Holland; Sain Records; Lenny Kravitz; Whitfield Street Studios Skin; (Skunk Anansie)Mute Records (Depeche Mode, Erasure); K & A Productions (Naxos); Todd AO, USA; Pioneer Optical Disc (Barcelona); Nick Whitaker (Internationally Renowned Acoustician); Telarc; VTR TV Production Company;
Ground Control, LA; Paramount Pictures, Hollywood; Angell Sound, London (5 Studios); BBC - UK; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Lightning Seeds (Ian Broudie); Sydney Opera House; Pink Floyd's Studio & Dave Gilmour's Home; Royal College of Music; Jarvis Recording Studios, NY; Birmingham University; Dep International; Essex University; Nimbus Records; Bristol University; John Kurlander; University of Surrey (Francis Rumsey);Ian Anderson; Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club; Manor Mobiles; Lou Reed; Beacon Studio (Dublin); SBS Television, Australia; Hans Zimmer; Lansdowne Recording Studio; Karl Wallinger World Party; Greg Walsh (Producer Paul McCartney, Tina Turner, Elkie Brookes); Albert's Music; Angel Studio, Islington; Peter Walsh (Producer Stevie Wonder, Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds, Pulp); Oorong Studio, N.Y.; London Post; James Guthrie (Pink Floyd, Toto, Chicago); Enya; The Tate Gallery; Thierry Allard, Bruxelles; Bob Ludwig Masterdisk; Boogie Park Hamburg; Bruce Leek; Bruce Dunlop Assoc., London; Vogler Audio Media; Prince Sufri, Brunei; Tony Wass; Monster Music, Madrid; John Richards; Crazy Sound, Guadeloupe; Beethoven Street; Fluke, London; Moles Studio; Spectral Harmony, Bombay; ARC Studio; Haman Studio, Tel Aviv; Kash Productions, Madrid; Zaza Studio, Tel Aviv; Polygram, Hong Kong (Mastering & Studio 1); Loco Studio, Wales; Matrix; London College of Music; Swedish Radio; Polish Broadcast;
Carlton Television (Nottingham & London); Lakeside, Switzerland; York Street Studios; Tape to Tape, London (Heathman's Mastering); Albert's Studio; Telegael, Eire (6 Studios); John G Deacon Founder Conifer Records; Allaire Studios, New York"

also check out:

http://www.audiomusings.com/atc.htm

three reviews of the speakers, just fyi. i tend to agree most with the last reviewer.

and as for pricing, the passive 50's run about 10k, the passive 20's about 5k.

the bad thing about passively amplifying them is that they're no longer active, so you don't have an amp per every driver, which is part of what makes them so dynamic. the good thing is that you are able to choose which amp you would like to use.

i use the 50's. i know of one distributer that sells the midrange driver without the magnet, but i'm not sure about the 3 inch. let me do some research, and i'll post again shortly.

yes, there is a place to get just the driver (sans magnet) it's based out of england.