full range single speaker

A good full-range driver in a proper enclosure can certainly do much better than 80 db, and can sound very alive, fast and dynamic. But, as with everything in audio, there are tradeoffs, particularly in the way of a lack of bass extension and a somewhat prominent midrange that colors the sound. However, the downside can be surprisingly mitigated in really good designs. I have heard Feastrix full range drivers that sounded quite good in properly designed enclosures--check out Volti Audio's Feastrix driver speaker, as an example of a well implemented single driver system.

There are some nice speakers that are much cheaper that use the Taiwanese Tangband full range drivers. These are worth looking into as well.

Also, some systems use full range drivers to only cover part of the frequency spectrum. There is a fantastic system made by Surreal Sound that uses a Tangband driver for the midrange and high frequencies and multiple bass drivers for the low end. The Horning company uses a modified Lowther full range driver as a midrange in a three way system and this, too, is a great sounding system.

I heard the top of the line model(sorry, I don't know the name) driven by a Thoress amp one time and by a Tron amp another time. I like the very lively sound that these speakers deliver. The Surreal Sound speaker, which is similarly priced, is also very dynamic and lively sounding.

I hope this is a developing trend because I find most modern speakers to be dead sounding unless driven to higher volume levels than I prefer. Poor microdynamics, and lack of harmonic structure (thin, bloodless sound) is the way most speakers sound these days. I bet a lot of listeners would be shocked at how much "progress" has taken speakers in the wrong direction if they heard such great oldies like the full range Jensen field coil speakers (I heard a 13" model augmented with a super tweeter) or the Western Electric 713b midrange driver (the midrange I use in my system).