Full range drivers - speakers: it's much simpler than you think (keyword: Sonido!!)

[@hugobloemers4425]

Hi Janos, we have been all noticing your absence from YT, and I am sorry to hear you have had an injury as result of an accident. I wish you total recovery. Back to the video, this is the missing part that puts last one in a proper context. So thanks for that. The second part of my comment is regarding the Sonido Bass / Mid drivers. I like full range drivers but the opponents will tell you that a full range driver can not serve well the entire sound spectrum. That is indeed a tall order, so you will end up with a cube audio driver that costs thousands. Not for everybody. That is why I am also interested in two way systems that use principals of full range drivers. That brings us to super tweeters. (In my opinion those are tweeters designed to augment full range drivers) But super tweeters can cause comb filtering with a real full range driver. So we look at Mid Base drivers. But those have resonances at high frequencies and need fancy cross over networks that either cost more than the driver, or, kill the magic. So just out of interest, even without further intentions, I am always interested and on the look out of Bass Mid drivers that fall off by them self (Seas has also one, used in the Dynaco A25, now Seas A26). The Sonido SCW200 is exactly such driver, it does not need a cross over, so it may preserve the magic. (The SCW145 and 175 are rougher and the SCW250 and 300 sadly do not show a frequency curve on the website, so in my book the SCW200 is the only one known to be suitable to a musical two way speaker). I think such a two way speaker could be the cross over point between the so called "high end speakers" and the so called "esoteric speakers" (which I think full range drivers are). They are the most likely to get audiophiles off the spending carousel, I think. And that is a good thing.

[@JohnCarroll-e6n]

Hi Janos!!! I have been out of touch with your podcast for a few months because I moved from where my workshop was in south -eastern Michigan to southwestern Michigan in the United States. I also had to abandon most of my power tools and speaker components. I now live in a small one bedroom apartment In public senior housing. I'll be sixty-five February second, 2025. As usual, your presentation is very professional and informative!

[@giovannimariafadda5474]

I wish you all the best and a fast recovery Janos

[@realworldaudio]

Thank you Giovanni! ; Cheers, Janos

[@CC-bg8gf]

Also wishing you complete recovery János. Thanks for your SCW200 wideband/midrange driver suggestion Hugo, I am also looking for such a naturally well behaved driver. A concern with this Sonido unit is the possible beaming at the limit of its usable range (5-10 kHz), resulting in a small sweet spot (some drivers like the ones from Cube Audio are less beamy because of the whizzer cones). I prefer a very large sweet spot, so I was looking at smaller midrange drivers. A more general question from an inexperienced subscriber: are 8-inch or bigger full range drivers without whizzer cone always beaming at high frequencies?

[@realworldaudio]

I do not have extensive experience with FR driver without whizzer cones. Generally, FR drivers sound totally transform by changes in the room and changes in the system, and issues with beaming are more than likely created by room / system / placement problems, or in other words, come up in certain rooms / systems but not with others. While speakers in general respond to systems / room changes, FR drivers already react to minute changes, and as such, can be tuned / optimized to a far greater degree than a multi-way system. Conversely, a bad room affects them a lot more than a multi-way speaker, that's why multi way speakers are so popular, because most rooms are well... neglected. Very few rooms are bad, just most of them receive no attention at all, or the bad attention or not well-informed decisions are made.

[@electricbeachaudio]

I have found La Grande to be a very revealing tool to understand the room interaction and priorities for treatment.

[@Jo_S_999]

Thanks Janos. I have been starting diy using dead soft fine silver on my internal component and interconnect cables. It has made a huge change to the whole system. I have been collecting materials to build a darling amp. It may take some years to save up for the transformers though. On the darling amp you recommended using phiten tape insulation for the signal cables. They have a polyester variation, and a cotton variation. Which one do you recommend?

[@realworldaudio]

Go for the cotton version! ; ) About the tonal balance of silver you mentioned in your email: silver is bright only during the break-in period, and then it settles down. The more transparent the system is, the more extreme the temporary brightness becomes. After a few weeks it settles down completely. If imbalance / extra brightness rmeains, it is not the silver, but dues to connectors, power supplies, noise etc.

[@Jo_S_999]

​@@realworldaudioThanks! I am slowly improving the system bit by bit. The silver wiring is essential in letting the music through. It really is quite incredible.

[@gerihifi]

Yes, yes great to hear you build something next year 😊 was also silenced on your channel, because I also started my german-only hifi journey vlog @gerihifi/hificouch 😊 BECAUSE YOU INSOIRED ME, THANKS SO MUCH! stay safe and Coffee is on the way for your cats!