Hello everyone. I have been looking to build a pair of 3 way speakers for a while. I have been reading and figuring out the math required for the cabinets. It turns out the the woofer i chose is better suited for a sealed cabinet while the mid-range is best suited for a ported cabinet. Is it a common or acceptable practice to mix the 2 design types? Or should I stick to one or the other?
Thanks,
Thanks,
Saying a mid-woofer is better suited for ported - automatically implies a 2-way.
If you are crossing over at 500-Hz to a woofer, there is no need to port the mid, as a port would only be needed to get low frequencies (bass <120Hz).
I would say most 3-way (properly designed) have the mid sealed, regardless of sealed or ported alignment for the woofer.
If you are crossing over at 500-Hz to a woofer, there is no need to port the mid, as a port would only be needed to get low frequencies (bass <120Hz).
I would say most 3-way (properly designed) have the mid sealed, regardless of sealed or ported alignment for the woofer.
Gurkha,
There is no reason you have to pick one or the other for the mid based on the woofer. However, porting the mid means you'll need more volume than sealed for an ideally damped design. Next, a ported mid means 4th order roll off acoustically. Integrating that with your woofer might be tricky. Also, the group delay is much higher and the actual phase matching is a lot harder to get accurate with the woofer because of the port.
So, for me at least, all these complications mean I would not do it unless I absolutely needed the extra 10-20Hz of bass extension of the midrange.
So, possible, but very uncommon, and tricky to design with a woofer.
Best,
E
There is no reason you have to pick one or the other for the mid based on the woofer. However, porting the mid means you'll need more volume than sealed for an ideally damped design. Next, a ported mid means 4th order roll off acoustically. Integrating that with your woofer might be tricky. Also, the group delay is much higher and the actual phase matching is a lot harder to get accurate with the woofer because of the port.
So, for me at least, all these complications mean I would not do it unless I absolutely needed the extra 10-20Hz of bass extension of the midrange.
So, possible, but very uncommon, and tricky to design with a woofer.
Best,
E
This lets you use a physically smaller cabinet. 
A ported midrange is not a good idea since it will tend to see frequencies well below cutoff where the system has no excursion control. This is equally true of bass, except that very low freqs are not so common. This lack of excursion control below cutoff is why I don't use ported at all - for anything.
This is really great information!!! It has really narrowed down the path to take.
Is there a standard range that speakers are usually kept in in terms of frequency range? The best example i can give is an engine. It gives the best performance in a certain rpm band. Rev too high or too low and you lose efficiency. If this is the case, how do you know what that optimal range would be?
Is there a standard range that speakers are usually kept in in terms of frequency range? The best example i can give is an engine. It gives the best performance in a certain rpm band. Rev too high or too low and you lose efficiency. If this is the case, how do you know what that optimal range would be?
I guess there is always an exception to the rule. Been looking at the Holtz Statement monitors (and Statesman speaker) which are a 3 way design. Bass ported is a 24l box, mid is an open back (heavily ported?) cavity, tweeter as normal in the bass box. Iirc crossover with the mid was at 400 or possibly 500hz.
There is a nice variation here with a sloping rear face, slot potprt and open back mid, based on the statement monitor.
MONITOR STATEMENTS... "PORTED'' build thread - Techtalk Speaker Building, Audio, Video Discussion Forum
There is a nice variation here with a sloping rear face, slot potprt and open back mid, based on the statement monitor.
MONITOR STATEMENTS... "PORTED'' build thread - Techtalk Speaker Building, Audio, Video Discussion Forum
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