advantages of karlsonator

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after going thro some posts and pics(thanks google!)this is what i plan to do.
karlson box using 10" woofer + horn compression driver.
i dont know if this is a good idea. but have seen few designs and the combo looks good (aka large WAF!) and sounds interesting. with a proper xover point between 800hz-1200hz i should expect good constant directivity characters also. i have started another thread where i enquired about possibility of using econowave design in small space
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/281855-econowave-small-room.html

i also see that K10 are not as common as much as K8,K12 or K15. is there any reason behind this?

i have selected 10" woofer for two reasons. one to have the box width smaller to go with room placement and aesthetics. second to have good extension upto 1200hz.

the room requirements are that the boxes have to be placed along a 10ft wall, L and R separated by around 6ft. listening distance can be from 6-8ft. with this arrangement i hope it will be more advantageous to use karlson boxes rather than simple sealed econowave.
 
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I thought we were talking about Karlsonator. You are referring to K15 proper and its variants of various sizes. The K15 from 1955 is a 6th or 8th order band pass speaker that scales poorly below K12 if you want decent bass extension. It will provide excellent coupling efficiency and cone loading - but for example a K15 scaled to a K8 (about 0.43x scale) barely reaches 100Hz. However it had very small cone movement. If you want bass extension to circa 60Hz in a 10in, use the Karlsonator appropriately scaled. Alternatively, the XKi scaled to an 8in pro audio coax like Beta 8cx reaches 60Hz.
 
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sorry xrk, i got confused with K12/15 with karlsonator designs. i thought both are same! i am still going thro the threads you mentioned and getting idea.
btw i forgot to mention i have an option to use subwoofer to cover below 100-120hz. so with this design i am looking more towards achieving wider sweetspot/polar dispersion and dynamics characteristics. let me dig up more about karlsonators. thanks
 
the original Karlson 15 inch cabinet, according to the late Wayne Green (partner and vice president of Karlson Research in the early years) was designed and prototyped in the summer of 1951 and made its debut in 1952. The first K12 appeared in the fall of 1954 and I think the K8 came sometime in 1955. Adapters were sold to mount 10" in K12 and even K15.

K15 scaled to 2/3 size for a 10" will have about one cubic foot back chamber. A K12 may work better for some 10" speakers.

If you're using a woofer with good mids and treble, then a K-tube tweeter may be more fitting than a horn - might be case dependent.

The Karlsonator has the driver down the path a bit and a damped stub and when scaled from GregB's Karlsonator 12, is tuned somewhat lower than a traditional Karlson cabinet. I'd like to see a few sims of 10" drivers in a cabinet smaller than the Karlsonator 12 to observe tradeoff vs scaling a regular K.
 
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Thanks for clarifying the dates for K's Freddi. I picked '55 for some reason - probably the date of the famous Popular Science article with the plans drawn out.

Coherence,
The Karlsonator is a totally different animal. It is a mass loaded tapered quarter wave tube (ML-TQWT) with an aperiodic Karlson band pass coupler.

With proper simulation, the K'nator scales very well for a wide variety of drivers. Pick one one I will see what I can do. Just look for moderate Qts.
 
Funny thing, the problem with audio would be that apparently ugly looking sounds better. In other words, the less WAF, the better it sounds. hehe. if I put a kalsonator in my living room I'd have to divorce.
On the other hand as a professional in the field of audio mixing for image, at work I use different monitor speakers and I do not care about sizes or aspect. But home audio is a different animal. I have to compromise, so the best speaker at home would be the "Invisible speaker" or something like "the flattest wall mounted speaker painted the colour of the wall" so they do not scream "big speaker here".
I'm finishing a set of Cornu spirals for the bedroom. let's see what happens...
 
imo, the original Karlson cabinet is beautiful and elegant - you could use some sort of grill cloth to hide a Karlsonator's driver - it would have some effect on behavior and outcome

1952 K15 look
Karlson.jpg
 
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with respect to a k tube on a karlson most i've seen are poking out or just behind the wings is that position proper with respect to time alignment?
and what's the skinny on length of the tube as in is there a min/max length?

Usually having a coaxial mounted CD where the CD voice coil is behind the woofer voice coil gets the time alignment close. If using a K tube with CD, place CD behind woofer voice coil. I think having k tube flush with front may be too close to front given typical dimensions. But if using minidsp for XO like I do it. Doesn't matter anyway as delay is adjustable.

Freddi can confirm but I think ideal length is circa 5.75in long. Probably not that critical.
 
with respect to a k tube on a karlson most i've seen are poking out or just behind the wings is that position proper with respect to time alignment?
and what's the skinny on length of the tube as in is there a min/max length?

Time alignment is going to depend on crossover type. I liked my K-tube simply sitting on top of a K15 cabinet pointed down about 30º, with the slot facing up.

Length apparently can vary quite a bit and still be successful. OTOH, 1" or smaller diameter tends to measure much better than larger ones, from what I have seen. Maybe they sound good; I don't know.

My K tube was 6.5" total: slotted 5.5" + unslotted 1". 1" ID. Worked very well with a pedestrian Eminence PSD2002 and 3rd order highpass at 1200hz.
 
Funny thing, the problem with audio would be that apparently ugly looking sounds better. In other words, the less WAF, the better it sounds. hehe. if I put a kalsonator in my living room I'd have to divorce.
On the other hand as a professional in the field of audio mixing for image, at work I use different monitor speakers and I do not care about sizes or aspect. But home audio is a different animal. I have to compromise, so the best speaker at home would be the "Invisible speaker" or something like "the flattest wall mounted speaker painted the colour of the wall" so they do not scream "big speaker here".
I'm finishing a set of Cornu spirals for the bedroom. let's see what happens...

FYI, Karlsonators work perfectly well with full width grill cloth, which makes them look like very ordinary speakers.

Anyhow, beauty is in the eye of the beholder... :D
 
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