How to calculate baffle step?

[henriksommer]

Hi all,

What is the best method to calculate baffle step, and to design baffle step compensation? I'm working on 2 designs: One with 2 Peerless HDS 6,5" in a MTM configuration, and one with HDS 5" in a MTM configuration. The tweeter in both designs are SS 9500.

Thanks!

All the best,
Henrik

 

[paulspencer]

ESP has an article that describes it well

It includes a formula.

True Audio also has a helpful article with formulas

You may also find Baffle diffraction simulator or crossover simulator (which includes bafflestep) at the FRD consortium to be very helpful.

 

[henriksommer]

Thanks for the info, now its time to dig in and start reading!

Regards Henrik

 

[Svante]

You could try my little baffle step response calulator "The Edge".

 

[henriksommer]

Great application!!!

I'm a rookie speaker-designer, and applications like that are perfect, i.e. not complicated , for my level of understanding. How do I make a calculation for designs with 2 woofers?

Regards,
Henrik

 

[Svante]

Great application!!!

I'm a rookie speaker-designer, and applications like that are perfect, i.e. not complicated , for my level of understanding. How do I make a calculation for designs with 2 woofers?

Regards,
Henrik

Increase the "# of speakers" to 2

 

[henriksommer]

Hi Svante,

I can see that you can do that, but the application places the second driver in the corner of the baffle, and I have no way of specifying the exact location. To my understanding, because of that, the calculations are not correct. Is there any trick I'm unaware of?

Regards,
Henrik

 

[Charles Hansen]

I think you can drag the drivers around with a mouse, using "click-and-drag".

 

[Svante]

Well, Charles said it before I got to it. BTW, you can drag the corners too if you want a strange shape for your baffle.

 

[Ron E]

If you have Excel 2000 and you want sonmething a little more feature rich, try:

http://www.pvconsultants.com/audio/diffraction/downloadbds.htm
from:
http://www.pvconsultants.com/audio/frdgroup.htm

Paul V's GUI's take some getting used to....

 

[henriksommer]

Well, now it is official: The Edge rocks! Thanks for the tips, that did the trick. I did take a look at Paul V's application, and it looks good, but the learning curve is too steep for me.

Regards,
Henrik

 

[paulspencer]

Another way to get baffle step compensation is to use a 2.5 way design. This is basically a tweeter and a midbass with a woofer added which rolls off the midrange with, say a first order filter at 200 Hz. Some prefer this to an MTM with BSC. This has often been discussed on this forum.