Zero Baffle Width, Zero Edges...Sort of..

[forr]

I find Pluto visually a marvel. Auditively maybe. At one condition : just like same author's Orions, far away from any wall. And I think it is exactly the same for any speaker with small front baffle.
Such positioning is not possible for many people who have space constraints with their room. For this case, I have been investigating the radically opposite way, the two pi emission, just like the Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage
http://www.sonusfaber.com/eng/home.html
My current speakers are 2 ft wide with 1/2 ft rounded corners, slightly angled and about 2 1/2 away from the rear wall.
I think I won't soon come back to smaller baffles in my current room.

[sreten]

Originally posted by BlueWizard

a) Essentially, the baffle width and the woofer width are one and the same.


b) ...... or infinitely small ........



Steve/bluewizard

Hi,

a) Is true but it is the worst shape for baffle step ripple and has an abrupt edge.

b) Is not possible, the smallest baffle size is the size of the driver.

The design has excellent inherent rigidity but not the smoothest
diffraction response, that is a truncated ovoid or sphere.

sreten.

[dlr]

Originally posted by sreten


Hi,

a) Is true but it is the worst shape for baffle step ripple and has an abrupt edge.

b) Is not possible, the smallest baffle size is the size of the driver.

The design has excellent inherent rigidity but not the smoothest
diffraction response, that is a truncated ovoid or sphere.

sreten.

The shape and size alone aren't the sole determinants of diffraction artifacts. The B&W driver midwoofer unit shown is fairly large and will become more directional at lower frequencies due to both depth and diameter. It's a waveguide of sorts designed to have an increasingly narrow radiating area as frequency rises.

Measurements of lesser quality drivers of this size that I've made show diffraction even on modest boxes to be minimal for drivers that size other than baffle step. I would expect no diffraction artifacts other than step for that B&W unit mounted as it is.

The tweeter will also show little impact. It's 4-pi very early due to the configuration. The diffracted signal that is quickly in the 4-pi range will be very highly dispersed, so the impact on any single specific axis will be minimal as well.

B&W takes just about everything into consideration in their designs. Significant diffraction would be dealt with in their better systems. I'd say that they've handled diffraction quite well in this case, aesthetics notwithstanding.

Dave