Best Speaker for classical music

antigrunge2551 posts06-30-2021 2:55pmRalph,

while your argument is fundamentally sound, only Jazz and Classical are typically performed without electronic support. Rock, Pop, Reggae, and even ELP always went through large speaker arrays with multiple crossovers and other electronic aids in the transmission chain. For acoustical music, any break in the frequency responce or -horrible thought- phase shifts in the audible spectrum severely interfere with one‘s enjoyment. So: ideally horn or other single driver systems, if need be two-ways, anything more complex usually doesn‘t get there.

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OK now we are getting somewhere. 
One  of the things that perked my attention to these single wide band, was the higher senstivity.
Which factor may help allow some of the hidden subtle passges spread throughout Schnittke, Pettersson, Henze.
There is ~~alot~~~ more things going on in the redcording, which at times are getting crushed by blaring brass, massive cresendos, Like in Ravel Daphne and Chloe. 
Fora  year+ I racked my brains, as to how is it possible to give  more voice to these jems covered over in some, if m=not most, of my cd collection.

Stay on Seas web site daily, looking and looking. 
Then I recall seeing these odd things on Ebay called **Full range/wide band drivers***, maybe I should take  a  closer look,.
After choosing several,  witha  next day sale, 1/2 price on ebay,,I decided to go one step price wise up, $200 pair. 4 inch. 
Here is what I was looking for. Sure its not going to cut it, its onlya  temp til i get cash for a  real deal wide band. 
The ebay seller gave me a tip as to what his drivers are **clones* of.
That was the very 1st time I heard the name of the wide band which is on my wish list, september.

*Be all/end all* = represents all 100% fq's?? Not looking for this feat.
Classical music, full open orchestra is hardly below 60hz, not much above say, 10khz. 
Looking for something that can compete with Seas's very best 4 inch *Dedicated*  midranges. 
It was a  very long search, and had to think through this sort of *puzzle*, after I heard the word of the  lab, very next second research began. 
Here is something I  found, just now.
I've heard many YT uploads of wide bands, and each one has impressed me. But  this one goes further. 
I was convinced there isa  sub attached somehow to this speaker, and so looked into the specs 
Come to find out, no sub.
Looks like my plans to hold on to the dual Seas W19E001's as glorious bass, will not be needed. To my chargin, as i put alottt of cash intom the new Mundorf xovers and the bass is exceptional. 
Yet  if the bass is even close to what i think I'm hearing in this vid, the Excel mids will ,,sadly, have to go.
Another issue  here is **power source**, 
I got a  note from a  USA dealer, PP amps would work just fine with this driver. 
But a  100 watter??
Could be trouble ahead. 
I have no plans whatsoever to sell the Defy7. 
These mismatched components,will just have to learn to get along. 

They have been around alottt longer than I imagined

https://www.stereophile.com/content/voxativ-ampeggio-loudspeaker


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCwyMZ_bKRo

My tech geek advised, cabinet construction might present some work/budget.
I'll get them up N running 1st, temp cabinet,  then he and I will figure out  a  design that I can follow. I am no cabinet maker, thats for sure. 

antigrunge2552 posts06-30-2021 5:28pm@atmasphere,

 My point is actually about frequency band overlaps and phase shifts as a result of crossovers

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Yes this is important/critical in a   a  plethora of mid fq;s comming out ofa  full symphony orchestra. 
Seas *dedicated midrange* althougha   great driver for all jazz, a  blast of a  orchestra will be a  symphonic overload. 

I'me guessing Vox has made extenive testing on how they want mids to come across.
My tech geek mention this same **over load** might be (= will be) heard in this wide band as well. *crack up/distortion*
He has been around countless FR/wide band speakers, horns primarily.
But has not heard these newer designs, 
This will be the ultimate test, full *grunge* symphonic orchestra passages. 

Note  upon closer look at the YT upload, do you  guys see a  speaker behind the front Arpeggio, and hasa  huge sub woofer,,and seems  the speaker cable is going to the rear set of speaker with the sub.
hummm, actually I hope that is the case. 
The bass in this demo is way more that I want/need. 

Looking at when you first started this thread, what if anything have you tried since?

I love my ~ 97dB Emerald Physics 3.4s which is a 12" concentric driver with 1" polyester tweeter, but (small but) the OEM jumpers are pure CRAP, and the XOs need to be taken off the speaker bases. 

I saw several pair yesterday emerald physics speakers for sale - Bing

fair enough, they did though use elctric guitars and keyboards in the studio as far as I can tell. My point is actually about frequency band overlaps and phase shifts as a result of crossovers and electronic enhancements in the transmission chain,, both on recordings and playback. Most studios don’t even care about absolute polarity much, a significant number of recordings are out of polarity and you hear it on a good system.

Guitar amps don't have crossovers. Guitarists are incredibly picky about their 'sound' and go to great lengths to get exactly what they want- which is a combination of effect pedals, the amplifier and its volume and tone settings (and tubes), and finally a speaker deemed appropriate, not to mention the actual guitar and whatever pickup and other mods it might have.


Being a keyboard player, I know how important it is to have clean sound so my keys go directly into the mixer without any speakers involved- that's how most of them do it. The exception is something like a piano or Fender Rhodes that is either directly miked or has to be played through an amp to get the 'sound' at which point the mic is in front of the speaker.


You are correct about polarity, this is true of all recordings which is why a switch to invert polarity can be nice on the playback preamp, since 50% of recordings are inverted polarity. That's hard to hear if the recording is multi-miked though, which includes a fair amount of classical recordings (most of which I don't regard as 'reference'). 


@mozartfan I've been playing around a lot with 'full range' drivers over the last 20 years. If they do alright with classical they do alright with rock and anything else too. FWIW there's plenty of information coming from an orchestra below 60Hz!! I played string bass in orchestras for decades- low E is 41 Hz. Bass drums can be in the low 20s, organ pedal tones can go to 16 Hz (32 foot pipes). When I recorded Canto General I insisted to the producer that she arrange for the largest bass drum in the state, which was a good 5' in diameter. Its simply not something you can experience on a 'full range' driver :)  When played back properly on a good system, that drum shakes the walls, which is what its supposed to do.