hey there, im new here and thinking of trying theese things. but im not your typical audiophool... im more of a metalhead then anything actually, it isnt all i listn to but it is the majority... ive heard that fullrange speakers like the hdt are more suited to acoustic reccordings, (wich would make my classical reccords sound spectacular) but with alot of insturments playing across a wide range they can get mushy. maybe im just paranoid about this whole one speaker for everything idea but can never seem to find anyone with my musical tastes raving about fullrange speakers. if i get theese or build them it will be a bit of a leap of faith because ive never heard or seen in person any fullrange speaker, i just want to make it easy on the nerves.

thank you guys for any info or suggestions you can give me

Well, I haven't heard the HDT's either, but I have been to Zygi's and played some pretty strenous tunes through the RL3's, RL 1.5s, and the MG944s (along with a couple others) The full rangers did a better job than I ever expected of the heavier tunes. They won't make your hair stand up with the earth shaking drumlines and the low bass guitar notes, but they will play them with real deliberacy.

Ed's little horns did a terrific job with this type of music actually. Same story with the very lowest bass notes, but all in all they really got loud with Metallica and a few others. I listen to a lot of metal sometimes (product of the late 80s what can I do). I have tastes that run pretty much all over. I like a speaker that can be simply adjusted to listen to different music, but after a couple trips to Zygi's and Ed's I am convinced that a good speaker with a good set up can be used to play more music with less adjustment. I am betting from the design that the HDT's will be great. The only thing I can say is that if you want the accompanying rock and roll bass to blow you away add a sub to what will likely be the best sounding speaker you ever heard.

Take care,
Robert

AFuryDevine wrote on 03/28/07 at 06:12:43:


AFD,

Product of the 80's? Well I can definately relate. I am assuming you woodshed Friedman with your Jackson Kelley?  :)

Anyways, there was a thread on this forum a few years back about the perfect speaker etc.  Steve Deckert posted to that thread about the HDT loudspeaker and its excellent dynamics and SPL capabilities. He made the comment about the HDT's shear efficiency contributed to the speakers ability to resolve dynamic drum kicks with realistic presentation. He said that when it came to listening to live recordings of their band he prefered the HDT's because of this ability.

He also made comments on the SPL capability of the speaker. Unlike a conventional bass reflex box, the HDT cabinet design provides such uniform damping across such a large bandwidth that the speaker's driver requires very little excursion, therefore allowing large SPL capability. This post was made before Steve introduced the DFR-8 driver which further damped low octave unloading the driver did which was basically inaudible and wasted movement.

I used to play various types of metal on the speaker and there were no draw backs whatsoever provided you have bass treatments in your room. In fact, using your sub. will probably result in disappointment. You will lose the clean, almost clinical tone that Max Norman puts into his albums. Anything from "Countdown to Extinction" and later from Megadeth will portray what I speak of here. The tone is very crisp, the kick drum is very fast and your sub. will probably ruin it all. "Youthanasia" really hit hard on these speakers, really hard.

The coherency and speed of the HDT also has no problem resolving speed metal like Death etc. Chuck Schuldiner's riffs are no problem with this speaker.  

I don't understand where people got the idea that full range driver's can't play rock/metal. Logically one would assume that one driver would be limited to producing the extreme tones and having seperate drivers will relieve this stress but, IMO the opposite is true. The coherency afforded by a full range driver allows the music to seperate and become much more audible. The added phase coherency of the HDT cabinet allows much less room interaction and a very "open" sound. These are the factors that really matter when wanting to listen to paint peeler music and hear seperation in the aggressive presentation.

Let me just comment quickly on bass. I was listening yesterday and was thinking a bit on the subject. Soaking in the tub across the house I could really only hear the low bass. I was just really amazed how 2.5 watts can produce such sheer weight. That is the key term in bass, weight.

Lots of speakers and even high power solid state gear can produce large SPL and hit low in frequency response but the weight is different. It is more hollow. My SET amp and my HDT's produce what I can best describe as a wall of weight. It is really authoritive sounding. It is an interesting phenomenon:

"A good SET amp combined with a single full range driver with no crossover or a simple 2-way using minimal crossover parts on the tweeter only, has a purity and depth that you simply don’t find in more conventional systems.  It is a benchmark for coherency, and noted for its ability to create hauntingly real holographic sound stage.  Bass and dynamics with this combination sound more realistic in part from the tremendous speed and in part from the coherency.

The biggest conformation of this is reports from audiophiles who used to have several hundred watts and many thousands of dollars invested in show winning audio gear, but now report that even a good 2 watt SET on efficient speakers has better dynamics and weight which they find simply amazing."

- Steve Deckert

https://www.decware.com/paper43.htm