Focused (concave) vs. linear line array

[GuyPanico]

Well my line array consists of 16, 4" fullrange drivers and an short array of 9 tweeters. I crossed them over at ~6k. I have an U baffle with a 10" baffle and 4" sides. After moving, I become bored and thoroughly unimpressed by these speakers. I decided to unhook the tweeters and run the 4" drivers fullrange. After boosting the high end, I fell in love with the speakers again. The sound is so spacious and live. Now all that is missing is the high frequency twinkle. I've decided to add a single Selenium ST324 to the middle. With it's sensitivity and wide dispersion I think it will work well to reinforce the highs. I was also contemplating curving the baffle. I know this will create a sweet spot. But if I were to match the arc of the baffle, with the dispersion of the tweeter, wouldn't this give me a much larger sweet spot?

Are there any pro curved line array people? I only seem to hear negatives.

This was my setup before ditching the tweeters. Please tell me why what I'm trying to do is wrong or right. Knock some sense into me if necessary

[GuyPanico]

With the Selenium tweeter

[GuyPanico]

And the focused array with Selenium tweet.

[Jim Griffin]

For pro sound most line arrays are curved but in a convex (outward) matter. The arrays are curved to give better coverage for the lower level seats (mostly near field) while firing the far field over the top of those seats to the rear of the hall and the balcony. These arrays are segmented so that individual segments can be angled to achieve the desired position. Several pro sound arrays have DSP controllers that can help to optimize the angular positioning so that largest audience coverage can be attained.

None, that is zero of the pro sound applications use a concave curved or focused array. A concave curved array would limit the coverage to a specific set of rows in the hall so that is a plenty dumb thing to do for pro sound.

I have always preached the many benefits of using a straight near field array for home applications as you'll get much better in-room performance. You can play with focused arrays or concave curved arrays but they are a really, really dumb thing to do even for home applications.

Did I speak my mind?

Jim

[GuyPanico]

By pro I meant advocates for....not professional line arrays.

[GM]

Greets!

For 'fullrange' driver arrays you ideally want them to be convex with a radius = to the distance to the listening position, ergo the 'sweet spot' shrinks with increasing arc, so you need to sit fairly far away if you want it more than one or two persons wide.

WRT matching the arc to the tweeter's dispersion, this may cause severe comb filtering at some frequencies due to the arc being too much or too little for the listening distance, so a WG may be required.

GM

[nerd of nerds]

This seems like something that a lot of people will have opinions on but no actual measurements to back said opinions up

[sqlkev]

I actually built a pair of concaved array with 10 4"full-rangers + 1 ribbon for each cabinet. The speaker is also wired for power tapering.

From what I remember of the speaker (been listening to my dipoles and tmm more), the sound is definitely not array-like. It does have a wide soundstage but the sweet spot of the tweeter is vertically limited. It doesn't have the feel of the huge line array that I made with the same drivers before. I'll play around with it some more sometime this summer to see how it directly compares agaisnt my other speakers.

[ScottG]

Originally posted by GuyPanico
Please tell me why what I'm trying to do is wrong or right. Knock some sense into me if necessary

Forget about curving the array (or power tapering) unless you are specifically looking for more point-source like character.

Keep with the fullranges boosted and use the tweeter line to fill in at a higher freq. with a first-order electrical high-pass.

Comb-filtering will be bad, but it won't really effect the average response much until at least 10 kHz.. (..and besides you are not currently having a problem with the sound.)

With the tweeter-line blended in at higher freq.s this should make the average response a bit more linear at these higher freq.s AND provide that off-axis induced "air" you want - ALL without messing up what you like about the line without the tweeters.

[GM]

Originally posted by GM
For 'fullrange' driver arrays you ideally want them to be CONCAVE............

Greets!

Major typo!

GM