Single Driver Horn vs Multi driver efficient spker

Kloss I have followed your threads for sometime now.
You have to be one of the for most experts in this type of speaker.Especially the F200A driver. Thanks for helping to keep them around! I took a close look at this driver out side of the cabinet. I haven't seen a better built driver personally. Man these drivers are MONSTERS!From all the fullrange or almost fullrange drivers I researched. The F200a seems to be the best bargain in high end, when it comes to a true fullrange single driver.

You mention the Raven r1 ribbon tweeter. What value capacitor would I use as a filter if I decide to try them? To bad I'm not closer, I would love too hear those monster horns!

It's a shame more haven't discovered these drivers and how good they really are.
Some get caught up in the glam and glitz ..That seems to be the only thing about this hobby I don't care for.Most spend too much time looking for a particular name than just listening to different products..whether well known or not. Many miss the boat looking for the big name in lights.

Hi Gmood,

Are you using Martin King's Brines Acoustics FTA-2000 speakers or your own design? I've heard really great things about them.

When it comes to single-drivers, there is always a tradeoff - highs & lows for great mids, highs & mids for great lows, lows for great highs & mids. No driver does it all.

I suspect that Fostex offers a driver for each possible emphasis (and even more I haven't thought of). The 6.5" FE 168 Sigmas used in my Bens definetly trade bass punch for great mids/highs. They do 40Hz, but without punch, no matter how large the cabinet gets. Of course, I wouldn't expect a six incher to thump my chest.

The Hammer Dynamics Super-12 twelve inch driver trades high frequencies and absolute fine detail for great mids and lows. It has 40Hz punch when combined with it's 70 litre cabinet. The supertweeter is crossed in at 10kHz.

The Hammers have nowhere near the fine detail, articulation, or imaging of the C&C's, but do have terrific tonality. Far beyond their cost. Dynamics are a tough comparison. Once again, Fostex wins, but the Hamms are no slouch.

I just need to dial in some punch and I'm set for life.

hey Brm1/Mike!

What's your sytems made up of - speakers, amp, preamp, sources?

Darkmoebius
you are correct, I use the FTA 2000s. I agree no single driver is perfect.For that matter neither is any other speaker type out there. There will always be a trade off some where. When I think of the sound of the Sigma and F-Series as flavors. The Sigma is like vanilla and the F-Series alnico is like chocolate. The Sigma is more highlighted in the midrange while the F-series a little darker and organic.

I like how the Sigma layers the music also.You have the advantage of using very low wattage amplifiers. I do not to a certain degree. If you look at the frequency response and impedance chart of Sigma 168. You'll notice the driver starts to roll off sharply just above 100 hz without a cabinet.With the help of your BLH cabinets the bass rolls off around 60hz in your room ..I'm guessing.There's probably not much useable bass below this point.This is where your subs kick in and take over down to 40/45 Hz. Now if you wanted to add more weight to the music. The simplest solution would be to go with sealed powered subs that can do the duty from 60 hz down to the 20 hz range.

The real weight of music doesn't kick in till your at 40 Hz or below IMHO. This is when you start to feel the music and not just hear it. I'm pretty sure you'll be set for a long time once you get those subs dialed in properly.

I have heard a number of single driver speakers that I have found enchanting (but not really exciting). These included several variants of the Lamhorns, Loth-X and the Ocellia. Of these, the Ocellia, which is based on a PHY driver, was by far the best. When you move up into the muti-driver speakers, and if you still want to stay SET efficient, the pickings become very slim indeed. Among these I consider the Fab Model 1 to be excellent if set up properly, used in a not-to-big room and driven with first class electronics (just like in Gliderguiders system). Even my Reference 3A Decapos are quite satisfactory with my 18 wpc KR SET amp, although I have mated them with subwoofers to cover the bottom octave or two. However, given a large enough room and sufficient power, none of these speakers comes even close to matching the dynamics, frequency extension (top and bottom) and imaging capability of the Total Victories. The TVs are simply stunning and certainly amoung the best speakers I have heard. Yes, you can use them with fairly low powered SETs (my KR will drive them quite adequately for lower volume listening) but they really need consideraly more power and control. A friend of mine is now using a pair of TVs with a Classe 2200 amp which, I think, puts out about 200 wpc. I did not believe that this combination would work but it is sublime. Sweet when required but incredibly forceful when needed (ie. large orchestra). His room is also quite large which definitely helps.
In other words, if your room is big enough to handle a large speaker and you have a good 50 watts or more, the TVs will out perform every single driver speaker and almost all multi driver speakers that I have heard in the past 35 yrs.