Combing effects: How real in "real" rooms?

[smeade1079]

A common complaint about the W3-871S is that it seems to "run out of gas" at pretty low volumes trying to reach 100Hz...even with a second BSC driver. Of course, the first thought anyone thinks of is simply adding more drivers.

Using the JBL line array white paper as a starting point, comb lines begin at 4520Hz and become severe at 9040Hz. With room reflections, how noticeable is this?

Furthermore, supposing it is very noticeable, what about introduction rear-firing "ambience" tweeter similar to Von Schweikert designs? With proper dispersion this could go a long way to minimize the in-room audibility of combing.

Thoughts? (Think of how dynamic and loud 4 TBs would be instead of 1)

Stephen

[jmiyake]

I have listed to several 3" fullrange line arrays. The combing is pretty noticeble even all the way across the room. You get vertical zones of cancellation and peaking, making the sound very uneven.

Personally I would avoid it.

James

[Brett]

It's very audible IME. I had a large open panel array with (at different times) 9 and 16 4" Fostex drivers per channel. It was audible everywhere, no sweetspot, and just sounded muddled.

[smeade1079]

I forget the name of that German company that makes those omnidirectional speakers with the inverse-cone diffusers but you could put a driver on top and a driver on the bottom.

Stephen