After a good night's sleep and a delicious Macchiato this morning, I found myself wondering if I ought to be looking for a single driver speaker instead. Unless I'm mistaken, SEAS makes two Exotic full range drivers. Hmm. Worth looking into IMHO.
In the ideal world, the best speaker possible would be a single driver speaker. It is totally phase-coherent. Unfortunately, there are no single drivers I am aware of that handle upper treble well and have good bass extension at the same time. If you don't care about bass and can handle a top end that is perhaps a little rolled off, you might find a single driver you can fall in love with. I never have.
The other issue is that the off-axis response on the top end isn't normally all that good. Coherence in the midrange, however, can be excellent.
While there is much to be said for a good single driver design, I have yet to find one that works for me personally (and I have built quite a few for customers who wanted them). While I have never tried one, I would suspect the same feelings about the Exotic single drivers. And, of course, it is highly unlikely that Seas would have developed the T35 tweeter if they didn't also have the same reservations.
The Exotic woofer and tweeter combination does a marvelous job with the right crossover and a well-designed cabinet. If 50 Hz is all you need for bass extension, this is a hard combination to beat. But I personally want deeper bass response. The Exotica 3-way was designed to maintain all that was good in the 2-way combination and add excellent, extended bass to the mix.
The bottom line is that you may find an Exotic single driver that will meet your needs. But, personally, I'll pass on that one (of course we'd be happy to build it for anyone who wants a pair).
- Jim
