Yes, it can be. Measure this. One way to measure is to use the different amplifiers you have chosen for each driver. Then your measurement includes all things - the driver, the amp phase, the amp response, the amp gain etc.
Some thoughts to your TAD woofers...
They are designed to work in vented enclosures, why do you want to use closed boxes?
You mentioned you have a very controlled listening room with fast decay and god room acoustics. In my opinion you don´t have to pad down the low bass artificially...
The TAD´s sound very precise in vented enclosures!
If you want to use 1 or 2 woofers per side is a question of your soundpressure requirements.
With the ATC mid you will probably crossover around 400hz, so dual woofers wouldn´t have a negative impact on soundquality.
When running the woofers up to 800-900hz a single woofer would sound better because of loobing issues...
They are designed to work in vented enclosures, why do you want to use closed boxes?
You mentioned you have a very controlled listening room with fast decay and god room acoustics. In my opinion you don´t have to pad down the low bass artificially...
The TAD´s sound very precise in vented enclosures!
If you want to use 1 or 2 woofers per side is a question of your soundpressure requirements.
With the ATC mid you will probably crossover around 400hz, so dual woofers wouldn´t have a negative impact on soundquality.
When running the woofers up to 800-900hz a single woofer would sound better because of loobing issues...
Thanks a million for your input. I am not attached to any particular design and am open to suggestions seeing as I've never built a pair of speakers before. The reason I wanted to use closed box design is that they have faster decay times at low frequencies, or so the story goes. For monitoring a fast even decay time across the spectrum is almost more important than the frequency response and is believed to be whay the yamaha ns10 was so popular, what bass there was was very tight. Now maybe this design philosophy doesn't apply to the TADs in which case I'm all ears (Boom! Boom!).
Don´t be afraid of well designed vented boxes 😉
There seems to be the narrative that vented boxes sound more precise in general. In theory the bassreflex-ports do represent a time decay. BUT the amount depends a lot on the used woofers. The TAD´s are designed for vented enclosures and they don´t exhibit a lot of that. Of course the ports will still produce a little decay and in theory its more than in a closed box.
But it is so little that it doesn´t affect the sound in reality.
Have a look at the speaker-models your TAD woofers have been used in. They are all studio-monitors and all use vented enclosures.
Have a look at well respected studio-monitors such as TAD, ATC, Westlake-Audio, Genelec, Adam Audio, JBL, etc... Nearly all of their big models use vented boxes and are known to be very precise.
There seems to be the narrative that vented boxes sound more precise in general. In theory the bassreflex-ports do represent a time decay. BUT the amount depends a lot on the used woofers. The TAD´s are designed for vented enclosures and they don´t exhibit a lot of that. Of course the ports will still produce a little decay and in theory its more than in a closed box.
But it is so little that it doesn´t affect the sound in reality.
Have a look at the speaker-models your TAD woofers have been used in. They are all studio-monitors and all use vented enclosures.
Have a look at well respected studio-monitors such as TAD, ATC, Westlake-Audio, Genelec, Adam Audio, JBL, etc... Nearly all of their big models use vented boxes and are known to be very precise.
Thanks. However I would like to see actual measurements to ascertain this.
some larger Genelec etc actually have poor decay times at lower frequencies. I have some genes incide tly and love them but I digress. Here you can see measurements sm25 (poor step response) and genelec 8650 and pmc all of which are reputed to be very good and all of which have poor time based response. As can also be seen far cheaper but closed box designs such as the acoustic energy aes22 have much better time responses. These are audible differences and important for mixing and mastering
Monitoring | Resolution Magazine
some larger Genelec etc actually have poor decay times at lower frequencies. I have some genes incide tly and love them but I digress. Here you can see measurements sm25 (poor step response) and genelec 8650 and pmc all of which are reputed to be very good and all of which have poor time based response. As can also be seen far cheaper but closed box designs such as the acoustic energy aes22 have much better time responses. These are audible differences and important for mixing and mastering
Monitoring | Resolution Magazine
Last edited:
Ps your point tbat yhe tadd are deigned for ports is still a fair one I'd like to look into. Just showing you the siurces informing my thinking.
You can always go sealed and use a Linkwitz transform or EQ (via DSP) to "regain" the lost bass response from going sealed versus vented. If you will be using active XO I see no reason at all to use vented cabinets any more. Just my opinion...
Applying EQ will add delay too, so no benefit. The TAD´s will loose a lot of bass-efficiency in a sealed enclosure.
If you want to use a sealed enclosure you´d be best adviced to use a woofer that was initially designed for sealed enclosures.
I´m sorry I cannot offer any of your desired measurements.
But I own some TAD 15´s myself and run them ported and these are amongst the finest woofers I have owned.
I have the big genelec woofers (PHL) too, they are very good as well. But much lower efficiency...
If you want to use a sealed enclosure you´d be best adviced to use a woofer that was initially designed for sealed enclosures.
I´m sorry I cannot offer any of your desired measurements.
But I own some TAD 15´s myself and run them ported and these are amongst the finest woofers I have owned.
I have the big genelec woofers (PHL) too, they are very good as well. But much lower efficiency...
Im selling these if anyones interested :
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/ven...m75-150s-4-tad-tl-1601a-sale.html#post6588013
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/ven...m75-150s-4-tad-tl-1601a-sale.html#post6588013