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RE: Implementing Full Range drivers

Posted by seancuster71@gmail.com (P) on December 2, 2024 at 18:57:38

In Reply to: RE: Implementing Full Range drivers posted by Inmate51 on November 29, 2024 at 06:53:05:

The term full range driver is not a misunderstanding and is not incorrect terminology. In 1934 when the first full range driver was available for sale it was the world's first full range driver, and it was housed in the world's first corner horn encloser. And was rightfully named a full range driver for good reason. In 1934 the best speaker systems of the day was Western electric consisting of 15" or 18" paper cone woofers and large format compression drivers with 4" diaphragms mounted to huge wooden horns. These systems had a frequency range of 60 HZ to 12000 KHZ this was full range for the world's best speaker system in 1934. The frequency range of the first full range driver was 60 HZ to 12000 KHZ so it was rightfully named a full range driver.

This was not marketing, and it was certainly not due to the consumer audiophile industry and the term full range driver predates the audiophile industry by decades. Paul Voigt is the man with the patent on the whizzer cone/full range driver he also holds patents for the first tractrix horn contour and the world's first corner horn and his work on quarter wavelength led to the Voigt pipe aka transmission speaker. The man had 19 patents in the audio industry and is one of the most important figures in the history of the loudspeaker.

As far as full range driver performance the Lowther Hegman reproducer made 1950 to 1951 is one of the most important speakers in history. It was a front & rear loaded horn using one 8" Lowther PM4A 8 driver this driver had 24000 gauss in the voice coil gap !!! in 1934 !!!! this amazing speaker had a frequency range from 30 HZ to 20000 KHZ. Lowther is reproducing them today still with a single 8" full range driver that plays from 35 HZ to 20000 KHZ. I have worked with every driver on earth and the only drivers that have that type of magnet strength are large format compression drivers that were 22000 gauss. Find another paper cone driver with 24000 gauss strength in the voice coil gap it can't be done!

Saying you have never seen in person or on paper a full range that can play from 30 HZ to 18000 KHZ is misleading. When talking about full range drivers you're mainly talking about drivers from 3" to 8" diameter show me any dedicated woofer from 3" to 8" that will play down to 30 HZ. Speakers using 5" 6" or 8" non full range drivers will not play down to 30 HZ so how could a full range of equal size play to 30 HZ?

What is a speakers F3? it simply means the speaker is down 3db from average so most speakers with 6" or 8" woofer will have a F3 from 50 HZ down to 40 HZ so by the time the get to 30 HZ they are 6db or more down in volume. So when you say flat down to 30 HZ for full range drivers that makes no sense unless you just have dislike for full range drivers and you're hugely exaggerating. There are not many speakers that will play flat down to 30 HZ and the ones that do have 12" & 15" woofers, or they are a subwoofer.

There are full range speakers on the market that will play flat from 45 HZ to 20000 KHZ these full range drivers will need no notch filter or eq They have been measured independently and the information is all over the web

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