Importance of baffle round over?

[mazeroth]

Just about every speaker I see has a roundover used on the front of the speaker baffle. As I'm sitting here designing my Orion clones I noticed the Orions don't have a roundover on the baffle, and even so there's a bit of a "protrusion" of the side wings that stick out past the baffle.

Does this cause some kind of sound degradation? It wouldn't be hard for me to flush the wings to the baffle, and do a 3/4" roundover.

Also, I'll be using birch ply for this project. What kind of clear finish can I use on birch to really make it look nice and provide good protection against scratches, since it's a soft wood?

Thanks!

[sqlkev]

mazeroth,
slightly off-topic, how will you mount the speakers to the baffle?

[DSP_Geek]

The search button is your friend, from

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showt...ht=#post525591

you can find:

http://murphyblaster.com/content.php?f=cabinets.html


Long story short, rounding over the edges is Good. I'd even advise to have the drivers offset by at least half the roundover radius, ie:

Cabinet 12" wide, 3/4" roundover, ergo the driver centerline is at 6 3/8 " from one edge, or 3/8" from the cabinet centerline. This will keep whatever reflected wave there is from adding up from the left and right cabinet edges.


Cheers and good luck,
Francois.

[454Casull]

I don't believe that dipole speakers require any sort of baffle modification (null at 90 degrees off-axis), but I could be wrong.

[sdclc126]

Hey Mazeroth,

Would you mind telling us what your Orion clone design consists of? Same drivers? Same cabinets? Anything substantially different from the original? What will you be doing for crossovers and amplification, etc?

[mazeroth]

I'll make this a quick reply as I have to get going...

Drivers are dual Dayton RS Hifi 12" subwoofers, dual Dayton RS180 mids, and a single Dayton RS28 tweeter. My signal path will be digital optical out from CD player > Behringer DEQ2496 > Behringer DCX2496 > Amplifiers. I may make two test baffles, one with the RS28 and one with a Fountek JP-2.0 and see which one I like better.

[sdclc126]

Originally posted by mazeroth
I'll make this a quick reply as I have to get going...

Drivers are dual Dayton RS Hifi 12" subwoofers, dual Dayton RS180 mids, and a single Dayton RS28 tweeter. My signal path will be digital optical out from CD player > Behringer DEQ2496 > Behringer DCX2496 > Amplifiers. I may make two test baffles, one with the RS28 and one with a Fountek JP-2.0 and see which one I like better.

That sounds like one sweet setup - I've thought of using those Dayton subs in an Orion clone myself, but maybe with SEAS aluminum mids & tweets.

Keep us posted.