Nordic,
You really don't need masking tape at all, strictly belt and suspenders. The ink you are practicing with will simulate the runny acrylic paints perfectly.
What you need to do is just lay down a few hundred miles of ever more controlled ink lines. Not by getting more and more controlled, but by calming down about performance issues, getting loose and just allowing the pen and hand to work as they will.
You acquire control by watching for those things that are not pen, paper and ink. How do you hold the pen? Does it allow your hand to be relaxed and comfortable? Where is your elbow? Are you resting your elbow on the table and forcing the use of your big back muscles to drag the whole weight along the pen stroke?
This is a Zen like activity. It needs a rhythm and you need to be familiar enough with how your pen and hand work that you are not thinking about them, but instead, looking at just where you need to touch the paper / cone surface next. Questions about applying enough material, or too fat a line, or too thin a line, where to start and stop, all need to already be solved, before you try your first cone.
This is not hard, just new. If you assume that you will get to where you need to get to, sooner or later, and just stop wanting to be done already, it will go much faster.
Bud
You really don't need masking tape at all, strictly belt and suspenders. The ink you are practicing with will simulate the runny acrylic paints perfectly.
What you need to do is just lay down a few hundred miles of ever more controlled ink lines. Not by getting more and more controlled, but by calming down about performance issues, getting loose and just allowing the pen and hand to work as they will.
You acquire control by watching for those things that are not pen, paper and ink. How do you hold the pen? Does it allow your hand to be relaxed and comfortable? Where is your elbow? Are you resting your elbow on the table and forcing the use of your big back muscles to drag the whole weight along the pen stroke?
This is a Zen like activity. It needs a rhythm and you need to be familiar enough with how your pen and hand work that you are not thinking about them, but instead, looking at just where you need to touch the paper / cone surface next. Questions about applying enough material, or too fat a line, or too thin a line, where to start and stop, all need to already be solved, before you try your first cone.
This is not hard, just new. If you assume that you will get to where you need to get to, sooner or later, and just stop wanting to be done already, it will go much faster.
Bud
Had some issues with drawing them first, was moveing the pen hand... and at the end of the stroke I would lift it and it would leave a little upward stroke like a check..
So, I started rotateing the paper... it will probably be harder to rotate the driver... unless I had some jig... heh turntable... with pivoting arm..?
It was resonable easy to mark of 5 degree marks on the driver, my wife has these metalicy gel pens, that are easy to clean away useing some spit and your finger after playing around to get an idea of scales.... fill 4 fifths, leave one, leave one fill four fifths, move to next ring and repeat...
So, I started rotateing the paper... it will probably be harder to rotate the driver... unless I had some jig... heh turntable... with pivoting arm..?
It was resonable easy to mark of 5 degree marks on the driver, my wife has these metalicy gel pens, that are easy to clean away useing some spit and your finger after playing around to get an idea of scales.... fill 4 fifths, leave one, leave one fill four fifths, move to next ring and repeat...
Nordic,
Ideally that triple set of rings does need to be placed where the voice coil is attached, but on the front side of course.
If the concave dust cap is actually attached farther out in diameter, on the main cone, rather than at the cone dust cap joint, and the dust cap does not actually touch the cone, at cone / voice coil joint, then the pattern needs to be at the joint of the dust cap and cone, rather than at the voice coil / cone joint, covered over by the dust cap.
That dust cap, regardless of where it is attached, needs to have its beginning edge controlled by the pattern. You can put two complete rings at this point, one set on cone and one on dust cap, but the triple ring, with the center ring right on the joint, is easier to do and actually more effective.
Now, if the concave dust cap is glued to the voice coil and the cone is glued to the outer edge of the dust cap you will need two rings, where I show three and the triple ring pattern on the dust cap, right above where it is glued to the voice coil.
If it is even crazier than this and the cone extends down to the voice coil and the voice coil extends up and also touches the concave dust cap, then triple ring sets at cone / dust cap and dust cap / voice coil will be needed.
Are you confused yet?
Bud
Ideally that triple set of rings does need to be placed where the voice coil is attached, but on the front side of course.
If the concave dust cap is actually attached farther out in diameter, on the main cone, rather than at the cone dust cap joint, and the dust cap does not actually touch the cone, at cone / voice coil joint, then the pattern needs to be at the joint of the dust cap and cone, rather than at the voice coil / cone joint, covered over by the dust cap.
That dust cap, regardless of where it is attached, needs to have its beginning edge controlled by the pattern. You can put two complete rings at this point, one set on cone and one on dust cap, but the triple ring, with the center ring right on the joint, is easier to do and actually more effective.
Now, if the concave dust cap is glued to the voice coil and the cone is glued to the outer edge of the dust cap you will need two rings, where I show three and the triple ring pattern on the dust cap, right above where it is glued to the voice coil.
If it is even crazier than this and the cone extends down to the voice coil and the voice coil extends up and also touches the concave dust cap, then triple ring sets at cone / dust cap and dust cap / voice coil will be needed.
Are you confused yet?
Bud
Nordic,
The pattern of hand and pen activity I use is this.
Rotate the cone, so that your fingers have to extend a bit to reach the correct start point. With my little finger actually touching the surface of the cone or the basket ledge, as a pivot point. I touch pen tip to paper and then I pull my fingers in toward the stroke direction and roll my wrist a few degrees, using the little finger as a pivot point and allowing the pen tip to stay on the paper by moving my fingers slightly side ways. By the end of the stroke this wrist roll is what picks the pen point up.
I do not rotate the driver to control the stroke length as this is not precise enough. Your fingers and wrist should be all that you use for a stroke as they are designed for finely scaled movements. You just may not be used to this sort of movement with them, and just need to practice straight lines first.
Bud
The pattern of hand and pen activity I use is this.
Rotate the cone, so that your fingers have to extend a bit to reach the correct start point. With my little finger actually touching the surface of the cone or the basket ledge, as a pivot point. I touch pen tip to paper and then I pull my fingers in toward the stroke direction and roll my wrist a few degrees, using the little finger as a pivot point and allowing the pen tip to stay on the paper by moving my fingers slightly side ways. By the end of the stroke this wrist roll is what picks the pen point up.
I do not rotate the driver to control the stroke length as this is not precise enough. Your fingers and wrist should be all that you use for a stroke as they are designed for finely scaled movements. You just may not be used to this sort of movement with them, and just need to practice straight lines first.
Bud
Nordic said:
I am working on a driver that seems might end up making an excellent tweeter... and usable almost as low as you can imagine, 1st order if needed. It should open up a wide range of new application. Its only downside is that it is not all that efficient... ~88 dB. On the other hand it can likely reach down to baffle step area and cross to more efficient woofer(s) that allow you to eaily deal with BS by careful XO/box width consideration.
dave
SamL said:
I tried that on some thrift store drivers and found that the very runny acrylic would bleed under the pattern. When I do my good drivers, I'll just go off a printed pattern a little smaller in diameter than the ring set.
maxro said:
I have a template like that for the trifoil pattern (made from the cone of an FE127 that suffered voice coil evaporation), and it is purposely cut to be used as a guide with a known distance from the guide to the line.
When i am laying down a line i always just do one ring, and then use that as the guide for the complementary ring set.
dave
Hi All,
Now that I have your attention.
Merry Christmas and many thanks to all of you, for participating in this foolishness. You have all brought joy to my heart, I hope I can return this favor.
Bud
Now that I have your attention.
Merry Christmas and many thanks to all of you, for participating in this foolishness. You have all brought joy to my heart, I hope I can return this favor.
Bud
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Santa's speakers
Reportedly, each 154-pound, 5.58-foot tower can handle frequencies from 23Hz to 44kHz and a staggering 800-watts of power, but alas, it'll remain a pipe dream unless you've got $54,000 to lay down
http://www.sonicflare.com/archives/vivid-audio-g1-giya-super-speaker.php
Merry merry everyone, and thanks for shareing so much info.
P10 I might contact you next year for a set of drivers and maybe some box plans, scratch your head so long, as I want only the best... Oh and I'm much cheaper than santa
Bud,
Speaking for myself only, you have brought much joy this way. May you and yours have a wonderful holiday and a prosperous New Year.
Richard
Speaking for myself only, you have brought much joy this way. May you and yours have a wonderful holiday and a prosperous New Year.
Richard
I've seen some White-Out in a paint pen.
Would that be suitable?
Its very easy to control, dries flat, and has enough body to it that it won't run.
John C.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Would that be suitable?
Its very easy to control, dries flat, and has enough body to it that it won't run.
John C.
John C,
Considering how many other materials have been found to work, including white out, I see no reason why it would not. You may have to make a double and triple width mark for the outer pattern rings, but the tiny inner dots look to be a breeze.
Try it out on some inexpensive speakers and report back please. If you get really brave, apply it to a nude speaker, sitting on it's magnet, on the table in front of you, connected to an amp and signal source. Listen while you apply the pattern. The sound will become disturbingly holographic and if Christmas carols are playing, who knows whom might be attracted.....
Bud
Considering how many other materials have been found to work, including white out, I see no reason why it would not. You may have to make a double and triple width mark for the outer pattern rings, but the tiny inner dots look to be a breeze.
Try it out on some inexpensive speakers and report back please. If you get really brave, apply it to a nude speaker, sitting on it's magnet, on the table in front of you, connected to an amp and signal source. Listen while you apply the pattern. The sound will become disturbingly holographic and if Christmas carols are playing, who knows whom might be attracted.....
Bud
Merry Christmas Everyone! 
Santa's speakers need to be EnABLed!!
Bud - Thanks for sharing all of your knowledge, advice, and patterns! There have been so many other contributors that it's hard to remember everyone - Mongo (in the back row with his hand up) Soongsc and his research and response graphs - Planet10 - now in danger of seeing EnABL patterns where ever he looks - Nordic and his group buy for Carlos "the Destroyer" HDII amps - ZenMod - crazy guy with denky gear!
Chrisb playing around with little loops of wire that go nowhere - rcavictim getting his car plugged in somewhere - johninCR - Bas in the Netherlands - pdan applying her art to logic - and Lynn O. with all of his knowledge and advice. Many - MANY - others - this list is long.
Pretty good year for EnABL and BudP.
Thanks Everyone - and my best wishes for a Happy New Year!
Santa's speakers need to be EnABLed!!
Bud - Thanks for sharing all of your knowledge, advice, and patterns! There have been so many other contributors that it's hard to remember everyone - Mongo (in the back row with his hand up) Soongsc and his research and response graphs - Planet10 - now in danger of seeing EnABL patterns where ever he looks - Nordic and his group buy for Carlos "the Destroyer" HDII amps - ZenMod - crazy guy with denky gear!
Chrisb playing around with little loops of wire that go nowhere - rcavictim getting his car plugged in somewhere - johninCR - Bas in the Netherlands - pdan applying her art to logic - and Lynn O. with all of his knowledge and advice. Many - MANY - others - this list is long.Pretty good year for EnABL and BudP.
Thanks Everyone - and my best wishes for a Happy New Year!
Tang Band W3-871S ?
Has anyone tried this on the TB W3-871S ?
Also, I would like to see if it would help out the mids for a pair of D3's with the Dayton Dayton DC160-8 6-1/2" Classic Woofer.
Thanks,
Cj
Has anyone tried this on the TB W3-871S ?
Also, I would like to see if it would help out the mids for a pair of D3's with the Dayton Dayton DC160-8 6-1/2" Classic Woofer.
Thanks,
Cj
Hi CJ,
I have not tried either, though I have worked with earlier Dayton woofers. Looks like a superb match though. EnABL will work very well on both drivers. I can help you determine proper placement for the pattern rings. Best way is to get the drivers and photo them at an off angle from straight on. See here for ideal angle.
http://picasaweb.google.com/hpurvine/Fostex206ERev
A simple two ring set at both cone edges, for the Tang Band cones, and another two ring set for the phase plug. The Dayton will need a two ring set, out at the surround, and a three ring set at cone/ dome joint, with a center dome beaming suppression pattern. All of this to kill the basic resonances.
Then a systematic application of the Gloss conformal coating, after the drivers, with patterns applied, have been mounted in their enclosure. It would also be wise to EnABL at least the front baffle surface and include it in the Gloss coating procedures.
This conformal Gloss coating can be thought of as an impedance matching device. The impedances being matched are the various cone edges and the TB cone to phase plug.
There are some tried and true steps to take, the real question is just how many, for each driver. My initial response would be three 50% cut coatings per cone and one full strength coating over the phase plug. From that point just detail changes should be needed. However, half the fun is applying the conformal coat one step at a time, allowing the material to dry for 24 hours and listening to the changes.
I think you will get stunning music from a system like this, but your spl will be limited to about 100 db RMS. The speakers will easily exceed this spl on transient notes and will be exceptionally clear out to about 107 dB peaks.
For moderate sized rooms, you will have extremely broad dispersion, without hot spots and no need to have a head vice for the "perfect sound", your room will be filled with that.
Due to the EnABL process not allowing drivers to excite typical room node resonances, you will also have very clear and extremely well textured bass from the Dayton driver.
Please look through the rest of the pictures for EnABL treated drivers, just to get a general feel for what is done and where.
http://picasaweb.google.com/home?tab=mq
Bud
I have not tried either, though I have worked with earlier Dayton woofers. Looks like a superb match though. EnABL will work very well on both drivers. I can help you determine proper placement for the pattern rings. Best way is to get the drivers and photo them at an off angle from straight on. See here for ideal angle.
http://picasaweb.google.com/hpurvine/Fostex206ERev
A simple two ring set at both cone edges, for the Tang Band cones, and another two ring set for the phase plug. The Dayton will need a two ring set, out at the surround, and a three ring set at cone/ dome joint, with a center dome beaming suppression pattern. All of this to kill the basic resonances.
Then a systematic application of the Gloss conformal coating, after the drivers, with patterns applied, have been mounted in their enclosure. It would also be wise to EnABL at least the front baffle surface and include it in the Gloss coating procedures.
This conformal Gloss coating can be thought of as an impedance matching device. The impedances being matched are the various cone edges and the TB cone to phase plug.
There are some tried and true steps to take, the real question is just how many, for each driver. My initial response would be three 50% cut coatings per cone and one full strength coating over the phase plug. From that point just detail changes should be needed. However, half the fun is applying the conformal coat one step at a time, allowing the material to dry for 24 hours and listening to the changes.
I think you will get stunning music from a system like this, but your spl will be limited to about 100 db RMS. The speakers will easily exceed this spl on transient notes and will be exceptionally clear out to about 107 dB peaks.
For moderate sized rooms, you will have extremely broad dispersion, without hot spots and no need to have a head vice for the "perfect sound", your room will be filled with that.
Due to the EnABL process not allowing drivers to excite typical room node resonances, you will also have very clear and extremely well textured bass from the Dayton driver.
Please look through the rest of the pictures for EnABL treated drivers, just to get a general feel for what is done and where.
http://picasaweb.google.com/home?tab=mq
Bud
Bud,
I read about 8 pages of your thread. Then I skipped about 40 to the end. WOW
I really appreciate that there are people in the world as bright as you are. 😀
That being said.....OMG my head is going to explode!
I was recovering from a migraine at 4:00 this morning when I read your post. Could you please speak english to the dumb guy named 14G-Dutch^
?
Maybe it was my state of dementia while recovering, but I had one heck of a time understanding what the heck you were getting at.
It seems to me that the gist of what EnAble is about is.....wait, I couldn't be sure of what the gist was. I know the end result is making a driver sound better.
Some questions:
Will this make just about any driver sound better?
What type of drivers will it work on? Just woofers, or midranges and tweeters also. What about Subs?
What general improvements can one expect?
I was referred here by you in another thread: Best "Off the Shelf" speakers for DIY mods.
On there I referred to some cheap radioshack speakers here:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2879619
Could even these be made to sound good? What if they were poorly designed in ways such as box volume and damping, or crossover? These speakers had practically nil output in the bass department. Would this EnAble process help?
Again, you are obviously well ahead of me in intellect, could you please take it easy on the cranially challenged 🙂 Thanks for any replies. I am sorry if these basic questions have been covered, but I have 2 kids and 1200 posts are hard to read in one sitting.
Jon
I read about 8 pages of your thread.
Then I skipped about 40 to the end. WOWI really appreciate that there are people in the world as bright as you are. 😀
That being said.....OMG my head is going to explode!
I was recovering from a migraine at 4:00 this morning when I read your post. Could you please speak english to the dumb guy named 14G-Dutch^
?Maybe it was my state of dementia while recovering, but I had one heck of a time understanding what the heck you were getting at.
It seems to me that the gist of what EnAble is about is.....wait, I couldn't be sure of what the gist was. I know the end result is making a driver sound better.
Some questions:
Will this make just about any driver sound better?
What type of drivers will it work on? Just woofers, or midranges and tweeters also. What about Subs?
What general improvements can one expect?
I was referred here by you in another thread: Best "Off the Shelf" speakers for DIY mods.
On there I referred to some cheap radioshack speakers here:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2879619
Could even these be made to sound good? What if they were poorly designed in ways such as box volume and damping, or crossover? These speakers had practically nil output in the bass department. Would this EnAble process help?
Again, you are obviously well ahead of me in intellect, could you please take it easy on the cranially challenged 🙂 Thanks for any replies. I am sorry if these basic questions have been covered, but I have 2 kids and 1200 posts are hard to read in one sitting.
Jon
Hi Jon,
First things first. Go to a hardware store and find a set of nylon tie down straps, the kind that have a little plastic ratchet buckle for tensioning the load being restrained, by the strap. Usually black in color and two to four in a package. Next, take one strap and place it around your skull, about mid forehead in location. Feed the loose end through the buckle and snick it down to snug. You will of course have a lot of left over strap end sticking out, beyond the ratchet buckle. Leaving about 4 inches of material sticking past the buckle, cut off the unneeded portion of the strap and fuse the fibers together with a cigarette lighter flame.
Now, the next time you feel the onset of a migraine, put this absurd device on your skull and tighten it just slightly. If that helps, keep it there for an hour or two. If it does not help, even after one more notch on the ratchet, I apologize for spending some of your money uselessly, you are one of the unfortunate migraine folks. If it works, you are slightly more fortunate and it is some sort of miracle. Many of us keep these things in drawers and glove boxes scattered throughout our lives.
Now for EnABL. The first point to understand is that all "speakers" have a time expansion component. This is the cone, dome, horn, panel, the part that you can see. The reason for needing this "expansion" of time is that the radiating area of the motor, voice coil, plated circuit lines or whatever, has an energy density per cm sq'd that is vastly greater than what free air can accept, within that sq'd cm of air, immediately adjacent to the voice coil, etc.
The model for speakers is a piston. It has infinite mass and size, both large and small. It produces a compression wave in the air. The piston is excited by an electrical signal applied to the voice coil, etc. The measured difference between the electrical signal and the compression wave is how we decide, in a quantitative fashion, how good a piston the speaker is.
If the voice coil could apply it's energy in a direct conversion to a compression wave, in the air, by being infinitely variable in size and mass, all at once, then multiple frequencies and phase relationship compression wave structures, could be created in free air, with little or no alteration in quantitative character, between electrical and measured compression wave results.
Unfortunately, this is not yet physically possible. So, we have a time expander, to allow the free air next to the expander surface, more time to accept the energy. This expander surface has boundaries, edges, a place where it ends.
In addition, this expander does not act as a piston. Instead, it acts as a transverse wave carrier. This transverse wave is the intermediate step between the electrical signal to the voice coil and the compression wave in the air, adjacent to the time expander. The transverse wave is the embodiment of the "time" factor that allows the very high cm sq'd energy level of the voice coil to be expressed into free air as a compression wave, one that you can hear and measure. As this transverse wave moves across the expander it allows the energy, originally supplied by the voice coil, more time to become a compression wave, matching the cm sq'd energy uptake of the adjacent free air, over a period of time.
In the energy transformation from transverse wave across the expander surface, to compression wave in the immediately adjacent free air, there is a "transformation zone" called a "boundary layer". This, in conjunction with the lateral "edges" of the expander surface, describes the "boundary" of that expander. All energy that is going to be expressed, over time, into a compression wave, must exit all of these boundaries, without ever creating a portion of the compression wave that deviates from the electrical signal.
When you have a finite expander surface, with transverse waves crossing it, there will be reflections of the energy that is not completely expressed, into the compression wave. This energy will "ring" in the boundary layer, until friction dissipates it. Or, you have to either dampen it with a perfectly accepting mass that does not also provide another reflecting surface. Or, you have to terminate the boundaries, all of them, with a device that disallows reflection, in the boundary layer of the time expander.
This second Or, is what EnABL is all about.
Now, for your questions.
All drivers and all adjacent surfaces will benefit from this single pass of the transverse wave across the time expander surface, producing a fully phase and time coherent compression wave, just as if it had been produced by the impossible infinite piston. In addition, all adjacent surfaces will exhibit no transient blurring, due to standing waves, as a compression wave encounters that surface and then moves past it.
All drivers. Full range, tweeters, subs, mids, planar ribbons, bare ribbons (though Alex of RAAL will claim it is unneeded for his bare ribbons), horns, compression drivers, electrostatic panels, expanded foam panels, you name it, EnABL will properly terminate the transverse wave that is creating the compression wave in the adjacent free air.
Quantitatively, almost none. The typical test suites are comparing the finished compression wave, in the air, to the original electrical signal. The transient blurring that same frequency standing waves create is not available to these test procedures, because it has already finished it's destructive work, before the compression wave has fully exited into free air.
Qualitatively, an absurd amount of low level, wide bandwidth information becomes available. In addition, an unreasonable amount of uncompressed headroom becomes available, to support transient peak signal levels.
What does this mean? Take a single piano key stroke. The entry of the hammer plinks the chord wires, as it begins to stretch them, there is a characteristic initiation of emission from those chord wires, when the hammer releases them. Then there is a decay within the chord wires and a long series of resonances in the sounding board and piano support frame. All of these "sounds" have a specific relationship to one another, in time train, phase and amplitude. Our "hearing", which is actually a portion of a tool set used by a semi autonomous correlator, that is actually a threat assessment system correlator, utilizing all of our sense systems to ***** threat levels, on a continuous basis, knows exactly what this piano note should "sound" like. If it doesn't meet criteria, you will be notified by this semi autonomous system. If you consciously decide that the "odd" sounding piano note is not threatening often enough, your correlator will cease to "hear" it, so that it can listen deeper into the sound field for other threats. This is an irritating event, it uses brain juice up and causes "listener fatigue".
When a fully EnABL'd driver/system is playing, these threat announcements cease. If the rest of your listening environment is "safe" this threat assessment correlator will actually go off line and a feeling of peace will unfold. You may even fall asleep! When you awake, it will be to a feeling of refreshment and peace, rivaled and occasionally surpassed only by live music, played in an equally safe environment.
In terms more usually used, with reference to piston models of speakers, an EnABL'd driver is a more perfect piston. Even though it is not perfecting any sort of piston behavior. An expectation of piston behavior, that is incorrectly applied to the time expander surface of a voice coil, etc. But, correctly applied to the compression wave created by the time expander and transverse waves that created it.
Yes, they will sound much less confused, without altering frequency response. However, the phase angle of the high frequencies, with respect to the mids, will be altered, so it will "sound like" you have more highs. The apparent bass amount will also alter, but again this will be with respect to phase angle. The big difference here will be in the amount of textural information available.
I sincerely hope you have a strap handy right about now and that it does it's intended job.
Ask more questions when you can.
Bud
First things first. Go to a hardware store and find a set of nylon tie down straps, the kind that have a little plastic ratchet buckle for tensioning the load being restrained, by the strap. Usually black in color and two to four in a package. Next, take one strap and place it around your skull, about mid forehead in location. Feed the loose end through the buckle and snick it down to snug. You will of course have a lot of left over strap end sticking out, beyond the ratchet buckle. Leaving about 4 inches of material sticking past the buckle, cut off the unneeded portion of the strap and fuse the fibers together with a cigarette lighter flame.
Now, the next time you feel the onset of a migraine, put this absurd device on your skull and tighten it just slightly. If that helps, keep it there for an hour or two. If it does not help, even after one more notch on the ratchet, I apologize for spending some of your money uselessly, you are one of the unfortunate migraine folks. If it works, you are slightly more fortunate and it is some sort of miracle. Many of us keep these things in drawers and glove boxes scattered throughout our lives.
Now for EnABL. The first point to understand is that all "speakers" have a time expansion component. This is the cone, dome, horn, panel, the part that you can see. The reason for needing this "expansion" of time is that the radiating area of the motor, voice coil, plated circuit lines or whatever, has an energy density per cm sq'd that is vastly greater than what free air can accept, within that sq'd cm of air, immediately adjacent to the voice coil, etc.
The model for speakers is a piston. It has infinite mass and size, both large and small. It produces a compression wave in the air. The piston is excited by an electrical signal applied to the voice coil, etc. The measured difference between the electrical signal and the compression wave is how we decide, in a quantitative fashion, how good a piston the speaker is.
If the voice coil could apply it's energy in a direct conversion to a compression wave, in the air, by being infinitely variable in size and mass, all at once, then multiple frequencies and phase relationship compression wave structures, could be created in free air, with little or no alteration in quantitative character, between electrical and measured compression wave results.
Unfortunately, this is not yet physically possible. So, we have a time expander, to allow the free air next to the expander surface, more time to accept the energy. This expander surface has boundaries, edges, a place where it ends.
In addition, this expander does not act as a piston. Instead, it acts as a transverse wave carrier. This transverse wave is the intermediate step between the electrical signal to the voice coil and the compression wave in the air, adjacent to the time expander. The transverse wave is the embodiment of the "time" factor that allows the very high cm sq'd energy level of the voice coil to be expressed into free air as a compression wave, one that you can hear and measure. As this transverse wave moves across the expander it allows the energy, originally supplied by the voice coil, more time to become a compression wave, matching the cm sq'd energy uptake of the adjacent free air, over a period of time.
In the energy transformation from transverse wave across the expander surface, to compression wave in the immediately adjacent free air, there is a "transformation zone" called a "boundary layer". This, in conjunction with the lateral "edges" of the expander surface, describes the "boundary" of that expander. All energy that is going to be expressed, over time, into a compression wave, must exit all of these boundaries, without ever creating a portion of the compression wave that deviates from the electrical signal.
When you have a finite expander surface, with transverse waves crossing it, there will be reflections of the energy that is not completely expressed, into the compression wave. This energy will "ring" in the boundary layer, until friction dissipates it. Or, you have to either dampen it with a perfectly accepting mass that does not also provide another reflecting surface. Or, you have to terminate the boundaries, all of them, with a device that disallows reflection, in the boundary layer of the time expander.
This second Or, is what EnABL is all about.
Now, for your questions.
All drivers and all adjacent surfaces will benefit from this single pass of the transverse wave across the time expander surface, producing a fully phase and time coherent compression wave, just as if it had been produced by the impossible infinite piston. In addition, all adjacent surfaces will exhibit no transient blurring, due to standing waves, as a compression wave encounters that surface and then moves past it.
All drivers. Full range, tweeters, subs, mids, planar ribbons, bare ribbons (though Alex of RAAL will claim it is unneeded for his bare ribbons), horns, compression drivers, electrostatic panels, expanded foam panels, you name it, EnABL will properly terminate the transverse wave that is creating the compression wave in the adjacent free air.
Quantitatively, almost none. The typical test suites are comparing the finished compression wave, in the air, to the original electrical signal. The transient blurring that same frequency standing waves create is not available to these test procedures, because it has already finished it's destructive work, before the compression wave has fully exited into free air.
Qualitatively, an absurd amount of low level, wide bandwidth information becomes available. In addition, an unreasonable amount of uncompressed headroom becomes available, to support transient peak signal levels.
What does this mean? Take a single piano key stroke. The entry of the hammer plinks the chord wires, as it begins to stretch them, there is a characteristic initiation of emission from those chord wires, when the hammer releases them. Then there is a decay within the chord wires and a long series of resonances in the sounding board and piano support frame. All of these "sounds" have a specific relationship to one another, in time train, phase and amplitude. Our "hearing", which is actually a portion of a tool set used by a semi autonomous correlator, that is actually a threat assessment system correlator, utilizing all of our sense systems to ***** threat levels, on a continuous basis, knows exactly what this piano note should "sound" like. If it doesn't meet criteria, you will be notified by this semi autonomous system. If you consciously decide that the "odd" sounding piano note is not threatening often enough, your correlator will cease to "hear" it, so that it can listen deeper into the sound field for other threats. This is an irritating event, it uses brain juice up and causes "listener fatigue".
When a fully EnABL'd driver/system is playing, these threat announcements cease. If the rest of your listening environment is "safe" this threat assessment correlator will actually go off line and a feeling of peace will unfold. You may even fall asleep! When you awake, it will be to a feeling of refreshment and peace, rivaled and occasionally surpassed only by live music, played in an equally safe environment.
In terms more usually used, with reference to piston models of speakers, an EnABL'd driver is a more perfect piston. Even though it is not perfecting any sort of piston behavior. An expectation of piston behavior, that is incorrectly applied to the time expander surface of a voice coil, etc. But, correctly applied to the compression wave created by the time expander and transverse waves that created it.
Yes, they will sound much less confused, without altering frequency response. However, the phase angle of the high frequencies, with respect to the mids, will be altered, so it will "sound like" you have more highs. The apparent bass amount will also alter, but again this will be with respect to phase angle. The big difference here will be in the amount of textural information available.
I sincerely hope you have a strap handy right about now and that it does it's intended job.
Ask more questions when you can.
Bud
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