I've been wondering, how would a speaker with 100 small drivers in a 10x10 configuration sound? Or even more.
Lets say those:
http://www.tb-speaker.com/detail/0116/W2-924S.htm
That would bring sensitivity up to ~105db/w/m
Some kind of low frequency extesion can be implemented in order to make it a decent full range.
What do you guys think?
Lets say those:
http://www.tb-speaker.com/detail/0116/W2-924S.htm
That would bring sensitivity up to ~105db/w/m
Some kind of low frequency extesion can be implemented in order to make it a decent full range.
What do you guys think?
Assuming you're not doing tricks with delay, it will have severe problems with lobing and dispersion.
Anyone old enough to remember the Sweet Sixteen?
Anyone old enough to remember the Sweet Sixteen?
Well what if each vertical array is delayed appropriately? Would this compensate for most of the problems?
I don't see why not. The Quad Electrostatic uses large vertical panels that are delayed to give good dispersion. The Quad is often mentioned as perhaps the best loudspeaker in the world, so the concept must have merit.
Another idea could be to mount your two inchers vertically in boards that are 20" high by 2" wide. The boards would be cut at an angle along the long side so that they join at 5 degrees instead of flat. This will yield a an sort of flattened semicircle that is 50 degrees across. This should give some excellent dispersion with a minimum of interference.
I have not really done this, just spitballing some ideas around. If anyone has tried that angle offset idea, please feel free to jump in.
Another idea could be to mount your two inchers vertically in boards that are 20" high by 2" wide. The boards would be cut at an angle along the long side so that they join at 5 degrees instead of flat. This will yield a an sort of flattened semicircle that is 50 degrees across. This should give some excellent dispersion with a minimum of interference.
I have not really done this, just spitballing some ideas around. If anyone has tried that angle offset idea, please feel free to jump in.
Ilianh said:
If you wired them as a bessel array and could get far enuff away from them, they will behave like a single driver (but more efficient). More practical would be a line array, but you would need to XO in an equal height line of tweeters for any driver spacing greater than 1.2" (IIRC).
SY said:
I was a kid when the article came out, but had a pr go thru here.
dave
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Ilianh said:
Taking the vertical arrangement first - there would be 10 drive units in height. They would need to be mounted as close together as possible. Even then, there would be some fall-off above 10kHz and you may wish to compensate. 8 drivers would be a little tidier at the high frequencies and would have the benefit that, assuming the drivers share the load equally, the impedance would be identical to that of a single unit. High frequency equalization may still be desirable.
For the horizontal, the time alignment method may work. I don't know. It sounds tricky. Personally I wouldn't bother; I would just go with a vertical array. Sensitivity (for 8 drive units) would be 92dB with a power handling of 160W. This would be sufficient for most applications.
The bass system could go up to, say, 150Hz with a sharp cut-offs on the crossover for a separate sub system. Above 150Hz, you may detect the position of the sub(s). If the bass system was in the same enclosure or vertical alignment, you could cut off at around 200Hz - 250Hz. The 2" units may be more comfortable doing less.
I should emphasize that this is only my take. I don't know these drive units. I think that the idea has potential (but of course I'm biased).
Steve
Re: Re: How would this sound?
They would behave like a single driver but each of the 10 would be moving a fraction of the amount as a single driver for the same sound level. Subjectively, I believe thay would sound smoother and would give the impression of having more headroom (mainly because they would actually have more headroom).
Steve
planet10 said:
They would behave like a single driver but each of the 10 would be moving a fraction of the amount as a single driver for the same sound level. Subjectively, I believe thay would sound smoother and would give the impression of having more headroom (mainly because they would actually have more headroom).
Steve
i've often pondered using 24 drivers in some sort of a tetracohedron type of shape and the more i thought about it the more i thought about the disadvantages of it...here's what i would think IMO are the disadvantages...
1. Comb filtering would probably start to get unbearable in the 6-8khz range for the 100 driver setup...if not lower...because instead of a vertical plane you now have essentially a vertical and a horizontal plane to worry about...
2. t/s parameter differences between the woofers would have to be compensated for and if in effect you were to do some sort of a bessel type of x-over i'd imagine that seperate enclosures for each driver would be a must...this could lead to problems
3. you would IMO lose the ability to pinpoint the images of what you are listening to if you choose not to do a bessel...if you were to do a bessel sweet spot would be extremely small (probably 3 or 4 inches...
4. would ntb a good distance from the speaker to get rid of the individual point sources effect...
but here is what i think would be redeeming factors for this design...
1. lack of beaming from such a small driver but a large point source...i'd say beaming wouldn't even occur until 5khz or so...and if you crossed them over to some sort of HF driver this could have even more positive options...
2. would be great for a really large room...i.e. 800sq ft or more i'd imagine sitting about 15-20 ft from the speaker and listening...
3. if you were to do a 50 degree arc i would imagine a huge sweet spot...but once again comb filtering would come into play even sooner it seems to me...
perhaps you should just do it and if you are just totally disgusted with the performance build a butt load of el-cheapo HT setups...hopefully i gave you new ideas to think about and not to take you off the track
1. Comb filtering would probably start to get unbearable in the 6-8khz range for the 100 driver setup...if not lower...because instead of a vertical plane you now have essentially a vertical and a horizontal plane to worry about...
2. t/s parameter differences between the woofers would have to be compensated for and if in effect you were to do some sort of a bessel type of x-over i'd imagine that seperate enclosures for each driver would be a must...this could lead to problems
3. you would IMO lose the ability to pinpoint the images of what you are listening to if you choose not to do a bessel...if you were to do a bessel sweet spot would be extremely small (probably 3 or 4 inches...
4. would ntb a good distance from the speaker to get rid of the individual point sources effect...
but here is what i think would be redeeming factors for this design...
1. lack of beaming from such a small driver but a large point source...i'd say beaming wouldn't even occur until 5khz or so...and if you crossed them over to some sort of HF driver this could have even more positive options...
2. would be great for a really large room...i.e. 800sq ft or more i'd imagine sitting about 15-20 ft from the speaker and listening...
3. if you were to do a 50 degree arc i would imagine a huge sweet spot...but once again comb filtering would come into play even sooner it seems to me...
perhaps you should just do it and if you are just totally disgusted with the performance build a butt load of el-cheapo HT setups...hopefully i gave you new ideas to think about and not to take you off the track
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