Anything wrong with Bass on top?

[johninCR]

I'm about to start a floor to ceiling array project. Typically bass drivers are on the bottom, I guess for cabinet stability. I'm thinking of putting the bass drivers on top, since stability won't be an issue. This will make for a much smaller footprint and save space, plus a tapered baffle with large dimension at the top would have an interesting and unique look. The super tweeter will still be in the middle, not down near the floor.

Is there anything wrong with this idea from a sound quality standpoint?

[wigginjs]

I think that you are right in assuming that the reason bass drivers are typically found near the floor is because the mid and high drivers need to be near ear level. If you want to place it higher then that should be fine. Another thing to concider is that the fact that the bass drivers are typically located near the floor may help with the frequencies they are able to extend to, but yours being near the ceiling should have the same effect.

[Bill Fitzpatrick]

The sound will be different. How different depends on the crossover frequency/slope and ceiling height. A ceiling located woofer will be further from the listener than a floor located woofer and this extra distance will affect the relative phase between the array and the woofer. This might cause a dip in response at the crossover freq.

[Jan Dupont]

The output level will be lower, when placing the bass speaker in top. When the bass is placed at the bottom of the cabinet (near the floor) you gain app. +3dB higher output. If the speaker then also is placed in a corner you gain add. +3dB and so on....
Good or bad... You decide
However I see no problems in placing the bass at the top of the cabinet........

[Bill Fitzpatrick]

Originally posted by ACD
The output level will be lower, when placing the bass speaker in top.

How do you come to that conclusion?

[RyanC]

The output will be lower because of the lack of a boundry like the floor wich will boost as much as 6dB down low <100hz- Unless the woofer was never going to be that close to the floor in the first place.

Also my undrsanting is that higher frequencies tend to not want to cross the path of lower frequencies, so you will be limiting the upward dispersion of the tweeter or upper midrange- so if you do do that make sure the tweeter is at ear level- otherwise it would be hard to get enough HF at the listening position. that is why MTM's should be setup with the tweeter at ear level- because the M's will limit the amount of tweeter dispersion higher up- Of course the tweeter should always be pretty much at ear level unless you are using it's off axis response on purpose.- Just some thoughts,

Ryan

[454Casull]

It's a bit unnerving to hear timpanis, string basses, pianos etc. above your head, but if you like that stuff, go for it.

[netgeek]

If you're talking about really low bass (i.e. < 150 Hz or so) - it shouldn't make any difference, right? But it might look pretty weird....

[Bill Fitzpatrick]

Originally posted by RyanC
The output will be lower because of the lack of a boundry like the floor wich will boost as much as 6dB down low <100hz- Unless the woofer was never going to be that close to the floor in the first place.

Also my undrsanting is that higher frequencies tend to not want to cross the path of lower frequencies

Ryan

JohninCR said that it will be a floor to ceiling array thereby implying that the woofer would be at the ceiling and thereby have use of the boundary.

Your understanding about high frequencies tending toward being unable to cross low frequencies is in error.

[markp]

Originally posted by RyanC
. Also my undrsanting is that higher frequencies tend to not want to cross the path of lower frequencies, so you will be limiting the upward dispersion of the tweeter or upper midrange- so if you do do that make sure the tweeter is at ear level- otherwise it would be hard to get enough HF at the listening position. that is why MTM's should be setup with the tweeter at ear level- because the M's will limit the amount of tweeter dispersion higher up- Of course the tweeter should always be pretty much at ear level unless you are using it's off axis response on purpose.- Just some thoughts,

Ryan

The reason is that higher frequencies are very easy to locate the source of and also tweeters are usually very directional. If they are low then it will appear that the sound is coming out of the floor! Unless they are angled properly upward. Low frequencies are less directional and the location of a sub is hard to point to while listening. High and low freqs can cross at will and do cross constantly, there is no truth to that idea in practice.