Side firing sub project

[mclsound]

I was wondering if anyone has had good luck with this design.I was trying to keep the boxes down in my room and thought maybe some side fireing 15" subs(TC Sounds maybe) with a 3-way front may very well work.I would build it in 3 seperate boxes(one for all front drivers(MB,M,T,M,MB)and two stacking side fires as to keep a more narrow appearence....Subs to be active.
thanks

[Brett]

Infinity have (or maybe had) recently a design like that that came to my attention because Sean Olive mentioned it, but plenty of other people have done it too. Keep the LF xover as low as you can.

[AMX_Pete]

Sub wavelengths are much longer than the dimensions of the cab, so mounting on the sides makes no difference whatsoever compared to frontmounting. Both speakers will work omnidirectional and together without destructive interference.

[domtweaker]

below 200 -250 hz should be okay

Some say that room position is tricky though

Look at Rockport Tech . they do it with AT 15 " drivers

best of luck

[trondareo]

Anthony Gallo Refernce 3 seems to have success withthis solution
All About Anthony Gallo Acoustics

Its the worst "all about" Ive read but they have the picture we need

[AMX_Pete]

Wether it works good or not, has nothing to do with brands or speaker format, just physics.
At what frequency the directional behaviour sets in, has everything to do with cabinet dimensions compared to wavelength. If the speakers are physically seperated more than 1/4 wavelength (this is only for speakers mounted on the side, other placements yield other behaviour), destructive interference sets in and dispersion gets to an '8' shape form instead of omnidirectional. Left and right of the cabinet in front of the speakers themselves, the SPL drops off, due to becoming out of phase. So the higher in frequency, more energy is thrown to the front and the back of the cabinet. Not a bad thing as that means less low frequency reflections in the room and therefor a more accurate low end sound. The energy thrown to the back can also be used to benefit, especially the lowest frequencies, when the cabinet is placed against a wall and that works for every kind of cabinet or speaker placement in the cabinet.
There is no disadvantage in mounting (sub)low speakers on the side. There's no difference for the lowest frequencies and higher up in frequency, things get slightly directional, sort of free noise where you can use it and less "muddy" in the low-lowmid region. Nothing wrong with that.

[DrDyna]

Originally Posted by trondareo

Anthony Gallo Refernce 3 seems to have success withthis solution
All About Anthony Gallo Acoustics

Its the worst "all about" Ive read but they have the picture we need

That's a pretty speaker, but I think most people design the side firing woofers like this for aesthetic reasons (it's thin and uniform), mostly, unless there is a design bonus from this arrangement that I'm not aware of.

Of course, this is a compromise, imo. That speaker system could probably sound a lot better if the subwoofer section could be scooted around the room to get the best response out of the sub.

In my personal endeavors, I've always found that subs rarely sound good right next to the main speaker, and main speakers rarely sound good right next to the best place for a subwoofer.