kicking back listening to my 3-way ob, I had a funny thought re: FRs.... has anyone used 3 identical FRs in a 3-way?
i.e. 3 4"FRs or 3 8" FRs.
I started out thinking out of the box a little this way too. My thought process was how to improve on bass impact over a single 8 inch FR driver.
I looked first at coax drivers, thinking of using one FR, and others with the tweeter section defeated. Maybe a MTM kind of setup. Too expensive for goofin' was what I decided.
So then I got to looking at whizzered drivers and was thinking that I'd cut the whizzer off all but a center driver. OK...cheap enought to fool with and see what would happen!
Settled on the GRS 8" as affordable enough to cut up. Cut 3 circles in a 20" wide sheet of ply and wanted to listen before getting out the knife. Guess what...better than it had any right to be. Way better balanced than I'd have ever guessed. The overall character of not having any crossover and I started loosing any desire to remove the whizzers.
This makes you question why the automatic was having to use only one tweeter. Well, we all know you can't have more than one tweeter, right? But at normal listening distance, you just couldn't hear issues. You can raise up and down in your chair and not detect shifts in quality or response. Not what I expected! Now if you go up close, sure you start hearing different drivers. But I do with any multi-driver system too!
So I've listened to one driver (sounds like 1 cheap driver), two and three. Then I cut one more hole as I'd left room down low and added a fourth. Hmmm...a little better yet! So that made me wonder about more! Don't know when to quit...huh! So now I made a new baffle and have 6 vertical which makes about a 48" line. Not bad!! Actually shockingly good for econo drivers!
It measures to roll off early...around 14K...which sounds better than you'd think. But I've added in a rear firing little horn tweeter and guys visiting say it's not lacking at all for highs. Certainly not as smooth sounding as a good big ribbon or electrostat, but it's got a nice enough character to not pull you away from the mids and how natural they sound.
The thought from that linked thread that a line like this has bad imaging isn't my experience. I've had a little better. My long term reference, big ML stat's do a bit better. But I enjoy pretty good sound staging and hear depth well with this FR OB line. So I don't hear it as a big flaw.
So I'd suggest you try things! Sometimes it can be more and better than you expect and the learning for yourself can be real fun!!
EV3
