Component vs. Full-Range

Why are most higher end speaker component as compared to full-range speakers? Is there a benefit of having a separate midrange speaker and tweeter as compared to just a regular 2-way speaker?

well, yeah.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

haempyst, why don't you draw an illustration as to why. You seem to like the illustrations.

Is it just because you can choose where you want to put the different components, or is there more benefit than that?

LOL It has to do with physics. A smaller diaphragm, as in a separate tweeter, can move faster, thereby providing better high frequency response. Additionally, as the wavelength produced by a diaphragm goes up, as it gets closer to the wavelength that is equal to the diameter of the reproducing diaphragm, the more it will "beam", which is really just what it sounds like - a narrower dispersion of sound - the sound comes off the diaphragm, literally in a beam, instead of a hemisphere. And the higher the frequency, the tighter the beam. This is why there are two or sometimes more different sized speakers in a component set.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Is this the reason why component speakers usually aren't used in the package shelf? Since the "beam" would just point directly to the ceiling, but the "hemisphere" of a regular 6x9 will reach the driver's and front passenger's ears without obstruction?

Additional benefits also include bi-amping... There is a LOT of information in that link, but I tried to make it understandable.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

JoeMetal wrote: Is this the reason why component speakers usually aren't used in the package shelf? Since the "beam" would just point directly to the ceiling, but the "hemisphere" of a regular 6x9 will reach the driver's and front passenger's ears without obstruction?

Well, not really... a two way or three way 6X9 tries to emulate a point source, which is by most audiophile's reckonings, the IDEAL. All the frequencies coming from ONE POINT. As I said, one diaphragm CAN'T do it by itself - it's physically impossible. 6X9's are simply bad speakers... they are prone to high distortion, simply due to their shape. A traditional cone (circular) is much better. Components do allow placement options, but that can be worse than .... (Hey, was that a jab about the pictures I like to draw???) a single driver. A single drive, again tries to ACT like a point source, and it does a better job than two different diaphragms. If you are ON AXIS, a single diaphragm can sound absolutely WONDERFUL... I give you: Moondog Audio (see the third picture down) and Moondog Audio (see the fifth picture down)! I have never been a fan of horns, but when I heard these at CES2003, being driven by a three watt pure class-A tube amplifier, and SHAKING THE ROOM, I became a convert. $32,000 for amps and speakers, by the way... All I am really saying is there are pros and cons to both component and single source speaker systems. If properly implemented, they can both be very good sounding systems, but the phrase "proper implementation" is VERY important.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Well, I read a fair portion of that bi-amping thread. I'm a physics major, and I've done a fair amount of circuitry, not enough to get everything going on here but enough. From what I read though, I got that when component systems are done right, they are unbeatable and you can tune them to your own desires. I also got that doing it RIGHT can be expensive, time consuming, and just plain hard. So, from what I gather, with no work in the set up (this includes no crossovers or anything), components will not sound as good as, say, 3-way 6x9's, but if you do everything correctly, components will seem like gold while 6x9's will seem like coal.