I have been trying to gain some understanding into 2 Way vs. 3 Way Speakers. I have read lots of information that talk about the technical difference, and that makes sense. What is hard to find is insight into the differences/advantages in the actual sound.
For those of you that have experience with both, are there notable distinctions in the sound performance between two way and three way speakers?
Two-ways are easier to do right because the crossovers are far simpler. However, tweeter selection is more critical.
Three way crossover designs are more complex and more difficult to get right.
I won’t even tackle driver waterfall response plots, driver position on the baffle and polar response to prevent frying most everyone’s brains.
Just as a contrast, in traditional reggae sound systems people often run 5-way. 18" scoops for 35-90hz, 15" kick horns 90-150, horn loaded 12s like the mt121 from 150-800, compression drivers on big horns from 800 up to a few khz and then bullet tweeters like the beyma cp22 on top. All actively crossed in custom preamps, some with dsp for super accurate crossovers, others completely analog.
Horn loading trades more sensitivity for reduced bandwidth, meaning you need more ways to cover the full range.
They can sound anywhere between absolutely mind blowingly amazing and utter dogshit. They work really well for certain genres, reggae being the obvious choice.
What if a speaker has multiple tweeters and woofers does it become 4-5-6-7 way?
Usually it is a function of how many crossover stages, not the number of transducers. A three-way speaker should have two crossover networks which in a passive speaker splits the signal between bass and mid frequencies and between mid and high frequencies.
These days many speakers in the professional world are active, in that they have built-in amplifiers that incorporate electronic crossovers and (eg) two or three amplifier stages to match the three frequency bands. This enables the designers to match the amplifier stages and crossover characteristics to the transducers employed for optimum performance across the entire frequency spectrum. Check out ADAM Audio speakers as used by professional recording engineers and musicians in their personal studios.
To fully answer your question the number of transducers does not define whether a speaker is two way or three way (four way is unusual unless a separate sub-woofer is added to a three way system).
Thank you!
Dali, Focal, KEF, and I’m sure plenty other brands make 4-way speakers. They’re typically made by taking a 3-way speaker and adding a subwoofer (like Focal does in Grande Utopia which has 6½ inch midrange, 11 inch midwoofer and a stonking big 16 inch sub), or an ultrasonic tweeter (like Dali does, but they call them 3½-way, also Sony and KEF).
I guess you can make a 5-way by adding both.
Thank you!
Wait until you find out there is a 2.5-way. Oh and what about Line Source Array!
Alright. Now I need to figure out what a line source array is. I have some thoughts but that’s definitely in the Today I learned category.
I’ve heard few 2.5 way speakers that sound good. A Sonus Faber and a Dynaudio, that’s it.
Arendal 1723
Have a read of this too my friend
https://www.avforums.com/reviews/eclipse-td-m1-airplay-speaker-review.10537/
I took a cursory glance at this, and it looks interesting. I will give it a read thank you. I had not come across that one. Thank you!
The number of drivers used in a loudspeaker is a function of its design, just like the size, shape & material of the enclosure, the individual parameters of the transducers used, elements of the crossover network, and the foundational design - ported, acoustic-suspension, infinite baffle, open baffle, transmission line, planar, dipole, etc.
Simply knowing if a system is a 2-way or 3-way design tells you bupkiss.
2-way vs. 3-way is not about the number of divers. There are 2-way speakers with 3 driver.
Agree that 2-way vs. 3 way tells you nothing. There are great and terrible 2-way and 3-way speakers. Generally, it’s hard to get full range from a 2-way. All things being equal, I will take a 2-way speaker. But there are so many other factors it doesn’t really matter.
2-way is often simpler to make work well. One crossover point, smaller cabinet, etc… typically the first question is the room size and needs of the amplification. If you’re in a medium to small space then almost always a 2-way of equivalent price with be superior. I think this remains true up into a few thousand dollars a pair if your room size is smaller. Typically higher priced two ways also have better mid-bass drivers that can play lower as well. My personal opinion is that your room needs to be quite large as does your budget for a 3-way system to serve a better outcome. Some will disagree though. I still rock high end two ways. Dynaudio Special 40s and I feel there’s few compromises.
The best 3-way speaker is better than the best 2-way speaker.
Speakers radiate sound all over, but when the frequency is high relative to the speaker’s diameter, the sound starts to narrow. When an 8” woofer without any waveguide crossover over to 1” tweeter at 2kHz, the sound will be narrow around 1kHz but widen back up when the tweeter kicks in.
So a 3-way allows for more consistent/linear performance of radiation, it also should lower distortion.
But if you are talking a $600 3-way, that’s more drivers and more crossover parts to fit into that budget, and some enclosure size restrictions as well, so no guarantee it’ll be better than a $600 2-way.
This is where measurements come in handy.
The more complex the crossover, the harder it is to get right. I prefer 2-way speakers.
In general, you need to listen a bit further away for the sound from the multiple drivers to cohere. Landscape orientation is better for nearfield. I work mostly with studio monitors though. Dynaudio LYD 48 < Neumann KH310 < ATC SCM25A
A conventional driver has a linear frequency passband of about a decade limited by being small enough for resonances at the high frequency not to intrude and large enough for the low frequency end to be loud and clean. This leads to a 3 way and, indeed, pretty much all professional midfield monitors are 3 ways.
A 2 way requires too wide a passband from a conventional driver with the result the low frequency end tends to be limited both in extension and clean SPL plus audible midrange deficiencies due to midwoofer resonances, tweeter distortion at high SPL and often directivity issues. Nonetheless a 2 way is normally significantly smaller and cheaper and can be made to work reasonably well just not clean at sufficiently loud levels over the full frequency range. They tend to be the better choice for budget speakers but once the price level is above about £1k (perhaps a bit more these days) a well designed 3 way is going to provide noticeably better performance than a well designed 2 way with a bit more expensive components.
Personally, after too many years of 2-way listening, I could not go back after spending time with 3-ways. Having a dedicated midrange for 400hz-4khz is a major improvement. Especially if you have any ambition of having a large enough system for full-range without a subwoofer. I would love an ATC or PMC active system, but vintage ADS is a great value in 3-way speakers.
Or Genelec 8350B
This is great info. Thank you!
I’ve found I prefer less going on with drivers and crossovers. 2 way speakers tend to be easier for me to relax and just experience where a 3 way may make me work a touch harder to make sense of what’s going on.
Oh, and 6.5" is my max midrange/woofer size. 8" mids are asking too much of the driver to cover the mids, much like 5.5" mid/woofers ask too much of them to cover the upper bass.
Yes, these are very much generalizations and many designers have done great work mitigating these issues. That is why the adage to ‘get out and listen to the speakers you are interested in’ is so apt.
I do reserve the right to change my mind at a later date, and to bounce back and forth on this issue as well. ;)
I have a history in killing 2 way bookshelf speakers even with a highpass set at 80 Hz and additional subwoofers. Now I’m using a 3 way setup (2x 10" + coaxial Horn) + 2 dual 18" Subwoofers.
What SPLs are you hitting?
The tinnitus in my ears right now tell me to give the standard PSA, mind your exuberance with the volume knob or pay the price. Can you tell I did not in my youth? ;)
It’s difficult to make a single driver cover a wide range of frequencies without having issues at the extremes of its range (spurious resonances and distortion or falloff in amplitude.) In a multi-way speaker, each type of driver is optimized to reproduce a specific frequency range. A two-way speaker (woofer plus tweeter) can be designed to adequately cover the full range of frequencies from the lowest to the highest.
So why would anyone need a three-way speaker? An interesting thing happens at the crossover frequency (where both woofer and tweeter emit sound.). Being physically spaced apart and constructed of different materials, they may not blend perfectly. And this crossover is often right around where the vocal range is, so it can affect how voices sound. So having a dedicated midrange driver to handle this critical range where most of the melody occurs (leaving the woofer to handle the boom, and the tweeter to handle the sizzle) is a popular solution.
That being said, there are both good and bad examples of each type of speaker. So trust your ears
Don’t forget us 1-way Fostex owners :)
Something else to consider is an excellent monitor (2 way design) and a well implemented subwoofer. Keep in mind room size and treatments are extremely important when deciding on speaker purchases. I highly recommend calling and talking with Frtiz Speakers. Start by reading information on his website and then call and ask questions. He is very helpful.
All things being equal 3 drivers will play lower, louder and with less distortion than a 2 way. You just need a bigger amp to get the same loudness or more. It will have a more spread out sound since its coming from 3 different things than like a point-source, but all that stuff is super dependent on design so its really hard to say.