How about a new/another "extended range driver" thread?

mhardy6647

Señor Member
Site Supporter
There have been a couple here (I did look), but recent chatter in some other threads leads me to thinking about (electrical) "crossoverless" drivers -- extended range drivers, if you will.

"Fullrange drivers" -- well, that may be going a bit too far ;)

Back when I first discovered SET amplifiers, I stumbled into Jamie Melhuish's fullrange driver site and forum. It was one of the first hifi fora I frequented, and it was a fun and informative one.

In those days (the end of the 20th Century!) there was a pocket of interest around some of the inexpenive extended range drivers (mostly twincones, mostly intended for car audio) sold at low prices by good old Radio Shack. Said drivers would periodically be available on sale for ca. half-price -- and, as they were ultimately closed out, one by one, the could be acquired very cheaply. To this day, I have a box containing an assortment of the fad R/S drivers of that era: 40-1197 (a Fostex FE-103 OEM variant), 40-1297, 40-1354 (still a personal fave), 40-1271, 40-1272, etc.)

Of course, there are also serious extended range drives, old (Lowther) and new (Lowther, Tang Band, Parts Express/Dayton, Mark Audio, etc.)

Then again, there were the Biflex drivers -- real Altec Biflexes, and the redoubtable Pioneer "biflexes" like th ePIM-6 and PIM-8.

And oddities like the Altec 603B Diacone, which aspired to full range reproduction by enhancing HF output with an aluminum dustcap with a 604-like horn in front of it. :)

DSC_9915 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

What are your experiences with interesing/good (or bad) drivers and enclosures (old or current)?
Anyone sill rockin' extended range drivers with serious intent?
Pictures would be great!

Hopin' to get even token appearances from @je2a3 and maybe even @J-ROB, too! :)
 
Last edited:
Once had Audio Nirvana 12” ferrites then 15” ferrites. This was when my obsession with no-nothing between the amp and drivers began...

The 15”s were pretty cool. The cabs were Shindo style with added internal bracing. Now I think about it they didn’t really need no bracing.

A169C2A2-4E76-4F3A-B31D-E2D22F9E0F22.jpeg A73B629B-F33A-41EA-ABDF-A0A766629F4F.jpeg
 
Had some fun with a slew of extended-range 8" in the recent past in 1 cu. ft. cabinets and half-assed cardboard OBs. Stephens Trusonic 80FR captured my heart, with the Pioneer PIM-8 and University Diffusicone Eight both making me smile a lot, too. Still haven't refoamed the JBL LE8T...

My pending build will incorporate one of my 80FR pairs as wideband mids. I know this approach sort of spoils the philosophical purity of a point-source driver, but I don't want to make do on beautiful midrange alone in my main system. :)
 
Last edited:
Hey, I'll be draggin' you into this thread myself... just gimme a bit to take some new pitchers. ;)
 
I know you guys weren’t thinking of something so new and commercial but I got yet another pair of this genre - KEF LS50 lol
 
There have been a couple here (I did look), but recent chatter in some other threads leads me to thinking about (electrical) "crossoverless" drivers -- extended range drivers, if you will.

"Fullrange drivers" -- well, that may be going a bit too far ;)

Back when I first discovered SET amplifiers, I stumbled into Jamie Melhuish's fullrange driver site and forum. It was one of the first hifi fora I frequented, and it was a fun and informative one.

In those days (the end of the 20th Century!) there was a pocket of interest around some of the inexpenive extended range drivers (mostly twincones, mostly intended for car audio) sold at low prices by good old Radio Shack. Said drivers would periodically be available on sale for ca. half-price -- and, as they were ultimately closed out, one by one, the could be acquired very cheaply. To this day, I have a box containing an assortment of the fad R/S drivers of that era: 40-1197 (a Fostex FE-103 OEM variant), 40-1297, 40-1354 (still a personal fave), 40-1271, 40-1272, etc.)

Of course, there are also serious extended range drives, old (Lowther) and new (Lowther, Tang Band, Parts Express/Dayton, Mark Audio, etc.)

Then again, there were the Biflex drivers -- real Altec Biflexes, and the redoubtable Pioneer "biflexes" like th ePIM-6 and PIM-8.

And oddities like the Altec 603B Diacone, which aspired to full range reproduction by enhancing HF output with an aluminum dustcap with a 604-like horn in front of it. :)

DSC_9915 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

What are your experiences with interesing/good (or bad) drivers and enclosures (old or current)?
Anyone sill rockin' extended range drivers with serious intent?
Pictures would be great!

Hopin' to get even token appearances from @je2a3 and maybe even @J-ROB, too! :)

Do coaxials count? ;)
 
I've built quite a few 'full range', no crossover speakers. In no particular order:

Kongo double blh's with Fostex FE126 - These sound fantastic with the right types of music.
BK12's with Fostex FE126
Desktop MLTL with Vifa TC9FD - design from DIYAudio forum
Woden Falcon TLs w/ Fostex FF105WK - These are impressive, especially for their size.
The newest is a pair of Coral 'Holey' baskets that I pulled from a Sony TC-500a r2r. I also pulled the mint transformers and a few tubes for another project. The corals are in a pair of reflex boxes, the specs are based on the Fostex provided FE103 enclosure plans.

In one of the pics there are some inductors and resistors, that's a BSC experiment. The BSC is ~2.2mH in series with the + with ~8ohms across the inductor. The BSC helps the bass a good bit, and in near field I find them very, very enjoyable to listen to. I intend to put some proper binding posts on them, possibly in a terminal cup. The terminal cup would allow me to mount BSC components to on the interior. For now they will sit on the second lab desk in my office, with wires coming out the ports.

Cheers,
Gable


IMG_4203.JPG IMG_1693.jpg IMG_4225 (2).JPG IMG_0511.jpg
 
Back
Top