The designer did not make a red cent, he took a flyer on future sales. If nothing was ever sold it is not commercial, advertised or not. It is vaporware.
dave
If you are commercial it is very important to be able to save a file, having to reenter dat ais not a feasible option. The biggest cost of MJK is not the sheets but the copy of MathCAD to run it.
dave
I had no wish to enter this thread, so this will be my sole post here.
-What has come to be known as a BIB is an upward firing, conical corner pipe horn, tuned to 1/2 wavelength of a desired frequency (usually Fs, but doesn't have to be), and with a driver tap location ~1/5 pathlength measured from St. Note that there may be some departure from the conical profle if either the width or depth dimension is stretched sufficiently relative to the other. It is quite close to the cabinets described in Voigt's patent, so 'Voigt Pipe / Voigt Horn' is in its case quite an accurate descriptor.
-Terry Cain, with tongue more or less in cheek, coined the term 'Bigger is Better' in his write up describing such a cabinet for the old single driver site. It was in reference to his view that 'bigger is better when it comes to horns and their variations.' Depends what you call 'better' of course, but at a basic level, he was correct. As far as horns are concerned, less is less and more is more.
-The box in Terry's writeup was lifted directly from the old Fostex Craft Handbooks, converted to Imperial, and used with the RS 40-1354 in place of the FF125K called for in the Fostex text.
-Terry never offered a cabinet of this type for sale commerically. He made a number of pre-production prototypes with the old FE168Sigma, one of which was even shown at VASC 2001. It was simply described as a TQWT (in the modern parlance -historically, TQWT was often used to describe a reverse-taper pipe). There is no official line on why it never made it to production status, but piecing things together, there were probably two primary reasons. Firstly, what you see is what you get, which isn't ideal for commercial cabinets; anyone could copy it. Secondly, Fostex chose that moment to replace the FE168Sigma with the still-current FE168ESigma, meaning a redesign. I think Terry decided to let it go, and simplify logistics by introducing the Super Abby instead to cover this box's projected price bracket. As a footnote, when Clark Blumenstein, who had been one of Terry's apprentices, first started his own small company (Blumenstein ultra-fi), he offered, for a few months, a cabinet of this type with the FE103E called, IIRC, 'The Cult Following'; a reference to the fact that the Foster / Fostex 103 in its various forms is something of a cult driver, particularly in Japan.
-GM and I modelled a number of these pipe-horns in Martin's MathCAD worksheets for various drive units, and offered some dimensions, many of which were posted on the defunct 'Zilla BIB pages. GM then derived a T/S based volume equation, which will allow anyone to hit a given LF alignment for any drive unit, providing Qt and Vas are known. This is entirely his work, and what is used in all the spreadsheets etc., although I suspect most builders are unaware of that fact. I can only echo the earlier sentiment: if you've built some of these boxes & like them, think about showing some small appreciaton to GM. He doesn't ask for, or expect it, I know. But he's also been a huge a help to the audio community over the years, of which this is just one example.
-Re the Quali-fi box that started all this off, they are not my design. I don't know the precise reason for my being cited in the text; it could be for something like a damping suggestion or similar. That's the extent of my knowledge on said box. Personally, I don't think a commercial cabinet of this type is all that ideal for the reasons mentioned above in re. Terry Cain. They're too easy to copy, and if not attain an exact replica, then get very close to. That's a matter of opinion though I suppose.
-The boxes I had some input in or designed were all done well over a year ago, before I stopped doing any commercial design work. Again AFAIK, only a single prototype pair of the double-horns is in existence. Don't know about the other cabinet, but as Bob points out, we're not talking big sales figures here by any means. I was under the impression that the required license for Martin's sheets had been obtained, as was Dave. As we have recently discovered, we were mistaken. That is being rectified at the moment though. Dave has covered the other matters, and if anybody thinks we're raking in the money, you are sadly mistaken.
On the subject of IP rights, as far as I'm concerned, it's a minefield. On the one hand there is the legal standing, and on the other the moral. They should be the same, sadly, they are not. Most people know my views on that one. For the first, unfortunately, I don't think GM is in a strong position regarding his Vb alignment & other general guidance for these pipe horns. We'd need a legal-eagle to confirm, but I suspect that once something is posted on a forum etc. by the party in question, unless strong caveats are added, it essentially becomes open-source. That doesn't mean I agree with it; morally is another matter entirely, and I can only repeat my view that if his Vb alignment or other guidance are used, then I believe he should receive something in return for his efforts.
-What has come to be known as a BIB is an upward firing, conical corner pipe horn, tuned to 1/2 wavelength of a desired frequency (usually Fs, but doesn't have to be), and with a driver tap location ~1/5 pathlength measured from St. Note that there may be some departure from the conical profle if either the width or depth dimension is stretched sufficiently relative to the other. It is quite close to the cabinets described in Voigt's patent, so 'Voigt Pipe / Voigt Horn' is in its case quite an accurate descriptor.
-Terry Cain, with tongue more or less in cheek, coined the term 'Bigger is Better' in his write up describing such a cabinet for the old single driver site. It was in reference to his view that 'bigger is better when it comes to horns and their variations.' Depends what you call 'better' of course, but at a basic level, he was correct. As far as horns are concerned, less is less and more is more.
-The box in Terry's writeup was lifted directly from the old Fostex Craft Handbooks, converted to Imperial, and used with the RS 40-1354 in place of the FF125K called for in the Fostex text.
-Terry never offered a cabinet of this type for sale commerically. He made a number of pre-production prototypes with the old FE168Sigma, one of which was even shown at VASC 2001. It was simply described as a TQWT (in the modern parlance -historically, TQWT was often used to describe a reverse-taper pipe). There is no official line on why it never made it to production status, but piecing things together, there were probably two primary reasons. Firstly, what you see is what you get, which isn't ideal for commercial cabinets; anyone could copy it. Secondly, Fostex chose that moment to replace the FE168Sigma with the still-current FE168ESigma, meaning a redesign. I think Terry decided to let it go, and simplify logistics by introducing the Super Abby instead to cover this box's projected price bracket. As a footnote, when Clark Blumenstein, who had been one of Terry's apprentices, first started his own small company (Blumenstein ultra-fi), he offered, for a few months, a cabinet of this type with the FE103E called, IIRC, 'The Cult Following'; a reference to the fact that the Foster / Fostex 103 in its various forms is something of a cult driver, particularly in Japan.
-GM and I modelled a number of these pipe-horns in Martin's MathCAD worksheets for various drive units, and offered some dimensions, many of which were posted on the defunct 'Zilla BIB pages. GM then derived a T/S based volume equation, which will allow anyone to hit a given LF alignment for any drive unit, providing Qt and Vas are known. This is entirely his work, and what is used in all the spreadsheets etc., although I suspect most builders are unaware of that fact. I can only echo the earlier sentiment: if you've built some of these boxes & like them, think about showing some small appreciaton to GM. He doesn't ask for, or expect it, I know. But he's also been a huge a help to the audio community over the years, of which this is just one example.
-Re the Quali-fi box that started all this off, they are not my design. I don't know the precise reason for my being cited in the text; it could be for something like a damping suggestion or similar. That's the extent of my knowledge on said box. Personally, I don't think a commercial cabinet of this type is all that ideal for the reasons mentioned above in re. Terry Cain. They're too easy to copy, and if not attain an exact replica, then get very close to. That's a matter of opinion though I suppose.
-The boxes I had some input in or designed were all done well over a year ago, before I stopped doing any commercial design work. Again AFAIK, only a single prototype pair of the double-horns is in existence. Don't know about the other cabinet, but as Bob points out, we're not talking big sales figures here by any means. I was under the impression that the required license for Martin's sheets had been obtained, as was Dave. As we have recently discovered, we were mistaken. That is being rectified at the moment though. Dave has covered the other matters, and if anybody thinks we're raking in the money, you are sadly mistaken.
On the subject of IP rights, as far as I'm concerned, it's a minefield. On the one hand there is the legal standing, and on the other the moral. They should be the same, sadly, they are not. Most people know my views on that one. For the first, unfortunately, I don't think GM is in a strong position regarding his Vb alignment & other general guidance for these pipe horns. We'd need a legal-eagle to confirm, but I suspect that once something is posted on a forum etc. by the party in question, unless strong caveats are added, it essentially becomes open-source. That doesn't mean I agree with it; morally is another matter entirely, and I can only repeat my view that if his Vb alignment or other guidance are used, then I believe he should receive something in return for his efforts.
Last edited:
- Status
- Not open for further replies.