The problem with dipole bass is that it doesn't have technical appeal. (It doesn't matter if you're selling a car with a huge V8 engine and fastastic handling, people won't be interested if it's outrun by the average V6 for lack of torque and power.)
1) There's the inefficiency associated with a lot of the sound getting cancelled out.
2) All of the problems associated with fixing problem 1. Eg: substantially more amplifier power needed at low frequencies, larger and louder speakers are required, bass delay due to EQ.
3)Variable subjective appeal. I for one don't like the idea of the sound disappearing at 90 degrees. At other angles (other than 0 degrees) there seem to be unnatural phase differences between the ears, unlike room modes from monopoles which would at least sound sound similar if real instruments were playing. Obviously, you can't hide a dipole sub somewhere in the room expecting sound that's at least set at around the right volume.
If listening inside a solid room is unavoidable then I think a better approach would be to add "electronic bass traps" in the guise of compact sealed subwoofers. Noise cancelling microphones and (tunable) associated hardware would cancel out low frequencies in problematic places such as room corners.
CM
1) There's the inefficiency associated with a lot of the sound getting cancelled out.
2) All of the problems associated with fixing problem 1. Eg: substantially more amplifier power needed at low frequencies, larger and louder speakers are required, bass delay due to EQ.
3)Variable subjective appeal. I for one don't like the idea of the sound disappearing at 90 degrees. At other angles (other than 0 degrees) there seem to be unnatural phase differences between the ears, unlike room modes from monopoles which would at least sound sound similar if real instruments were playing. Obviously, you can't hide a dipole sub somewhere in the room expecting sound that's at least set at around the right volume.
If listening inside a solid room is unavoidable then I think a better approach would be to add "electronic bass traps" in the guise of compact sealed subwoofers. Noise cancelling microphones and (tunable) associated hardware would cancel out low frequencies in problematic places such as room corners.
CM
To return to the rhetorical thread title...
Were I to propose that, rather than overkill, 15" is a good minimum for low frequency applications, I would be adding nothing to Thorsten's original texts: much of the stuff I am now applying in my own system has been inspired by him & S Linkwitz anyway.
*Thank you, Thorsten-San for contributing here and for the info contained at yr site.
*Thank you, S Linkwitz for sharing (also at your own cost, BTW) all the information contained at your site.
Like many others posting above, I too am NOT amongst the few who have anything important to add or note... the points Thorsten makes are comprehensive enough guidelines. After all, I am a novice diy builder, hardly a speaker designer.
OTOH, it is refreshing to read a response from someone -- Steve Margolis -- who is a spkr designer.
It's unfortunate there hasn't been much response from other professionals...
Were I to propose that, rather than overkill, 15" is a good minimum for low frequency applications, I would be adding nothing to Thorsten's original texts: much of the stuff I am now applying in my own system has been inspired by him & S Linkwitz anyway.
*Thank you, Thorsten-San for contributing here and for the info contained at yr site.
*Thank you, S Linkwitz for sharing (also at your own cost, BTW) all the information contained at your site.
Like many others posting above, I too am NOT amongst the few who have anything important to add or note... the points Thorsten makes are comprehensive enough guidelines. After all, I am a novice diy builder, hardly a speaker designer.
OTOH, it is refreshing to read a response from someone -- Steve Margolis -- who is a spkr designer.
It's unfortunate there hasn't been much response from other professionals...
If we are all honest, there is often a lot to do with our interest in, and subsequent purchase of an item than has little to do with speicification or even logic.
So, we don't buy a car based on its reliability, abilty to carry everything that we want to transport, its comfort, its economic performance, etc. Instead we consider it's looks, it's speed, its written specifcation (200 mph even if we can't drive it that quickly) and it's appeal to others. How illogical is that but that's the way the human mind works.
Likewise, if part of us knows that a very large speaker system is what we really need to achieve what most of us here are pursuing, we conveniently pursuade ourselves that it is better to have a smaller speaker for various reasons.
Of course, in the second case, if you live with somebody else, taking up one third of your lounge with a loudspeaker system is probably not an option anyway!
So, we don't buy a car based on its reliability, abilty to carry everything that we want to transport, its comfort, its economic performance, etc. Instead we consider it's looks, it's speed, its written specifcation (200 mph even if we can't drive it that quickly) and it's appeal to others. How illogical is that but that's the way the human mind works.
Likewise, if part of us knows that a very large speaker system is what we really need to achieve what most of us here are pursuing, we conveniently pursuade ourselves that it is better to have a smaller speaker for various reasons.
Of course, in the second case, if you live with somebody else, taking up one third of your lounge with a loudspeaker system is probably not an option anyway!
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