Baffle-less Dipole Array

[CLS]

I'm almost too embarraced to post the sketch, but I can't help thinking of it.

NO, IT'S NOT penis envy. No matter how it looks.



Basically it's a 3-way baffle-less dipole (or in some forms of minimal baffles). It can also be configured into 2.5 ~ 3.5 way. Hanging all the drivers in a swing would be a great idea. (not shown in the sketch)

The mid-high section uses 3 fullrangers (maybe 6~8in) in a vertical array. I'm thinking split-load xover -- the one at the center works from 160 (or 200) Hz and all the way up to the top. The other 2 work under 500Hz or so. Or this part can be a 'clean' 2way as long as the xover point is low enough.

The major goal here is simplicity, point source, and better mid-bass headroom than a single driver.

The woofers can be 2 x 15~18" in a horizontal array to utilise the floor loading, work under 160 (or 200) Hz. They can work in parallel, or 1.5way here -- one of them only work in the bottom octave, or the likes.

What do you think?

[StigErik]

There's a certain erotic element here...

Its going to be very wide... why not place the two 15" on top of each other? You wont loose much floor loading at very low frequencies anyway.

[jerome69]

You want to put this in your living room Very artistic

I will use a MTM arrangement with a real dome tweeter to make more realistic treble instead 3 fullrange.

[Rudolf]

Originally Posted by jerome69

I will use a MTM arrangement with a real dome tweeter to make more realistic treble instead 3 fullrange.

That's exactly what I would recommend too. Whether dome or planar tweeter would depend on your taste, resources etc.
Or how about this one:

[StigErik]

How about this?
Planar tweeter above the woofers.

[CLS]

Thanks guys, all looking good

Actually I'm struggling to keep things simple (as possible) here.

Some background:

Besides my main system (horns + OB bass), I also use small speakers, and actually use them more often. I have a pair of Jordan fullragers in the bed room served as "wake-up call", their crisp and smooth sound give me a good mood every morning. I have another pair of small monitors used with TV and web radio which are active 2way Fostex (PM0.4). I feed them with line level shelving filters to suppress the overly bright HF to fit the space and my taste. Except for the sometimes annoying vented box sound around midbass, it's quite enjoyable - very wide dispersion, smooth and very detailed. They play the web radio almost all the time whenever I'm at home. These little toys fit in the low SPL casual listening perfectly.

The other day, I watched a concert by TV broadcast (with the little Fostex) and I turned them up quite a lot. Compared with their usual operations, they played very loud and more than enough to fill the room. The piano sounds played through these little boxes were very good indeed. The correctness and balance of tones, details in the strokes and pedal works... etc. were all very good. I was very impressed. (BTW, my mother is a piano teacher, so it's my most familiar musical instrument. )

Oh well, maybe the performance of the musician played a key role here...

Anyway, I'm thinking, why not 'simplify' my main system - make it smaller, let go of the insistence on ultra-high sensitivity, gain some excellent characters of the fullrangers...

Of course my main system now delivers a bigger picture, fuller and richer sound, goes much deeper and play cleaner in bass. I like my Oris horns in many ways, too. However the large c-c distance between midrange and tweeter is always a sore spot.

So I think of 3 fullrangers in an array and configure them as such that it maintain point source above 500Hz or so, and the other 2 helpers for both (vertical) dispersion control and dipole loss compensation.

This would be a "flat and dipole" Synergy horn! How about that?

[CLS]

Hi StigErik,

I'll have some trouble in vertically stacking woofers, since I'd probably keep my 18"ers. 2 of them in vertical array is almost 1m high already, the whole speaker would be too high.

I'm not saying that's a bad design. I just have to consider other factors like visual impact in the low-ceiling room, and the earthquakes are quite frequent here. Besides, I live in an apartment at 13th floor. Last time, my suspended horns were swinging like two swings swung by 2 naughty boys. Quite scary.

If I make them all vertical, then it'll look very much like this:
'T'-bass drive for OB LF drivers.