Horizontal woofers

[steve_mak]

Hi all,

I've searched for this info beforehand and I apologise if there is an answer in there !!

OK. Suppose there were no limits on box dimensions and one were free to build to any size ... In a 3 way design with two woofers, one mid and one tweeter ... would it be beneficial at all to mount the woofers side by side rather than in a vertial line ??

What I'm thinking of is reducing baffle step by building a wide box. I'm also concerned about 2 sources of the same sound being vertically dislocated as opposed to horizontally dislocated. I think horizontal might be better !

All drivers are to be in their own sealed boxes and the front baffle is a one piece tilted backwards.

TIA and have a great day !

[pinkmouse]

Welcome to the forums Steve!

As long as your drivers are spaced so as not to be a significant fraction of the wavelength apart so the frequencies they produce do not cause lobing, you can put them wherever you want. Just get the acoustic centre of the two drivers in line with the mid and tweeter.

[Bill F.]

Hi Steve,

A wide box won't eliminated the baffle step, but it will lower the transition frequencies. It can be a good idea to have the baffle step coincide with the woofer lowpass so the filter can compensate for it--two birds, 1 stone.

I like the concept of wide baffles and side-by-side woofers for their increased directivity, the other side of the baffle-step coin. The lower the frequency you begin controlling directivity, the better, IMO. Mid and treble directivity must be planned similarly, of course.

[steve_mak]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the replies. I'm new to the game and am studying it a great deal and I do wonder why with a baffle step issue there are so many skinny tall designs !

Perhaps its just a compromise thing... wide speakers are very visually striking and probably quite dominant - even if they might be a better sound (I'm not saying they would..).

Having not mentioned it to the 'other half' I suspect I might run out of credits at some point !!

Thanks again.

[HiFiNutNut]

"It can be a good idea to have the baffle step coincide with the woofer lowpass so the filter can compensate for it--two birds, 1 stone."

Would it apply to using first order network only?

Regards,
Bill

[Bill F.]

The only case I'm aware of where the baffle step has a smooth 6dB/oct rise is when the enclosure is a sphere. Any other baffle shape would likely have a much lumpier and steeper transition, probably with some ringing. So, unless your enclosure is spherical, a 1st-order lowpass may leave some roughness.