Fullrange Single Driver (Foxtex 16x for eg) vs Electrostatic speakers (Magnepan eg.)

corElement

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So I've been doing some research and am listing down what I've understood. Looking for some insight from people who know about full range cone and electrostatic drivers to help me learn.

1. Both are without crossover (Some electrostatics have hybrid design with subs, do the subs determine the crossover? Wont the crossover on the sub defeat the purpose of having crossoverless design?

2. 1 body of sound but is the sound weaker at the edges of electrostatic designs? Or does the ENTIRE surface of an electrostatic speaker emit sound. (does it really that different from a multirange or 6" single driver based speaker?)

3. Does the tweeter/surface ever blow/get damaged on both cone and electro like multiranged boxed speakers?

4. Single cone drivers are high efficiency and risk damage from high wattage outputs?

5. SET Tube amps like lyrita say around 15w (not sure of the impedance), since they are closer to 1 pure watt and since electrostatic speakers have a steadynull speakers which if said to be 4ohms, never (supposedly never?) deviate from that wouldnt a low watt tube amp drive an electrostatic speaker like say the Magnepan MMG fairly well since getting the +3b at 15watts seems like a resonable amount or will the sensitivity of 86 and 4 ohms power bog down a 15w set amp? (My information here is sketchy but just take it as a hypothetical situation since I'm trying to understand)

More questions soon!
 
Re: Fullrange Single Driver (Foxtex 16x for eg) vs Electrostatic speakers (Magnepan e

What type of music are you addicted to? ..... classical (Western/Hindustani), Instruments, vocals, jazz, pop ....? Then without a doubt, it is full range speakers .... WITH low power amps, such as tubes or T amps. You got to hear it first before drawing any conclusions. Why not visit Lyrita to find out for yourself? Carry your music too ...........
 
Re: Fullrange Single Driver (Foxtex 16x for eg) vs Electrostatic speakers (Magnepan e

Well.. to be honest I'm just trying to understand the technical workings of it using lyrita's and magnepan's as hypothetical contenders based on their technicals on paper to open a door to further learning for long term.

Planning on dropping by lyrita soon as my job workload has decreased as of this week (Does one just drop in or call ahead?). Also planning on going around to audition at some stores to understand what kind of an evolution my preferences have gone through the last 2 years.
 
Re: Fullrange Single Driver (Foxtex 16x for eg) vs Electrostatic speakers (Magnepan e

I guess the usual caveat to listen to either type for yourself applies strongly here. Typical dynamic full rangers don't have much coverage at the frequency extremes, unless reinforced by some form of horn loaded cabinet to strengthen the bass, and may be a tweeter/supertweeter for the highs. IMHO, the highs are less critical but the bass can do with some help from clever cabinet design.

Another option is to have a subwoofer reinforcing a full ranger.

On a single-driver full ranger, the sound emanates from a point source so there is very good coherence and this can be quite addictive. I think this makes the music palpable and has a good presence.

I have never heard a pure electrostat but my guess is they will not scrape to the bottom of the freq range, may be do 35-40 Hz. I think hybrid designs give you the best of both worlds.
 
Re: Fullrange Single Driver (Foxtex 16x for eg) vs Electrostatic speakers (Magnepan e

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For affordable single driver, cross over less, you may like to check the Omega Alnico range of speakers. These are supposed to mate very well with an all valve, pure Class A, SET set up for your phono-line preamp-power amp-SUT set up.

Regards
 
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