Corner Speaker Questions

[JRKO]

I’ve seen many classic corner speakers, often horn based, but some including JBL/Altec are just standard vented enclosures. I quite like the idea.

But when reading up on the subject there seems to be a split on whether the bass frequencies are usefully boosted or the room is over excited and the bass suffers.

Is there a definitive answer as the shape holds a fair amount of WAF points for dealing with large speakers?!

 

[compaddict]

Thinking about Pi 7 kit..

 

[Galu]

I'll offer some information adapted from 'Loudspeakers - The Why And How Of Good Reproduction' by Gilbert Briggs of Wharfedale fame, originally published in 1948. The info' was presented under the chapter heading 'Room Acoustics'.

Placing a loudspeaker in the corner of the room improves the radiation impedance seen by the cone. The loudspeaker supplies maximum energy to the room when the room impedance is high. The fundamental speaker resonance is highly damped by looking into a high acoustical impedance. Corner positions also permit improved high frequency note response because of the smaller solid angle the radiation has to cover, say 90 degrees instead of 180 degrees.

Remember this is from 72 years ago when a combination of 15" bass and 8" treble units was deemed satisfactory!

 

[AllenB]

or the room is over excited and the bass suffers.

Is there a definitive answer as the shape holds a fair amount of WAF points for dealing with large speakers?!

Over? Corner launching offers less room power needed for a given pressure at the listening position, especially when considered at and before it gets too involved with the other walls. It does a good job of filling the room with little power thrown away on early reflections.

 

[Soldermizer]

It's dangerous to corner a speaker. You should always leave it a way of escape

 

[homebuilder]

cornered speakers

It's dangerous to corner a speaker. You should always leave it a way of escape

Well, at least 2 of us think Soldermizer is witty and funny!

 

[JRKO]

Apologies for the brief hiatus

So as long as crossover and amp take into consideration the corner placement there are gains (in dB) to be had!

What about In the SQ stakes? Are there benefits?

One quick thought is that if there is aN extra boost to bass because of the corner the driver has to move less to provide levels similar to normal room placement. Less moving of the voicecoil means less distortion......maybe?

 

[JRKO]

I found this little snippet attributed to Peter Lyngdorf:

If you have the chance to separate your low-frequency devices from your mid/high-frequency devices [i.e., a subwoofer with small loudspeakers], you should place your mid/high frequency devices where they give you the best possible imaging and the bass units all the way into the corner of the room. If the bass units are in the corner of the room the whole initial sound from the woofer is minimum phase. It is all going in the right direction at once. Whereas if you try to reproduce the low frequencies from your main speaker standing freely in the room, then much of the bass will go back into the corner of the room, reverse, and then come dripping back to you in the next 4, 5, 6, 10 milliseconds.

Corner placement is actually nice for speakers because it insures maximum coupling to the room and minimum power input required to generate the bass you want. But, of course, you have to add some time delay if you’re going to put the woofers in the corners.

 

[boswald]

Look at the Allison Three for a classic, easy to emulate corner speaker.


With perfect Domestic Harmony Factor, if there's furniture on the floor you can hang them with the woofer up at the ceiling.


MTM or a small line work very well in this concept.

 

[AllenB]

The term coupling is used in an ambiguous way. More is happening than this. The claimed result will not be unless the speaker is designed to work with the room.

 

[cph2000]

Boundary woofers | Steinway Lyngdorf | The world's finest audio systems

Much inspiration to be had from lyngdorf 2+2 system. I have a boundary woofer system myself using a lyngdorf room perfect amp and a power amp for the woofers. I use the room perfect amp internal dsp based xover for crossing between corner woofers and the main speakers at 200Hz. A digital delay in the dsp allows me to time align main speakers (situated in a more optimal position away from corners) to corner woofers.
In this way the woofers placed in the corners have the boundary reflected sound coincide with the direct radiated bass. The room perfect measurement system equalizes the overall response.