Midrange drivers in a circle?

Polk Audio could have put the tweeter on the center on the "Monitor 12", but they didn't

Vintage Polk Audio Speakers: Monitor 12

I guess since they are floor standing speakers, the tweeter would have been too low.

"SDA 1C" is similar, but with two tweeters

Vintage Polk Audio Speakers: SDA 1C (Real Wood)

"SDA 2" getting even more strange, one midrange 'deleted' but still two tweeters, this time horizontally.

Vintage Polk Audio Speakers: SDA 2

Last but not least, "SDA SRS", eight midranges and four tweeters vertically positioned in the center.

Vintage Polk Audio Speakers: SDA SRS

Could have used that one back in the day.. :D
 
The SDA speakers do crosstalk cancellation, and are not a conventional array.

See: New Frontiers in Crosstalk Cancellation with MiniDSP

IMHO, the best way to do crosstalk cancellation, by far, is to put the cancellation speakers near the listener. When you put them near the speaker the cancellation signal kills the dynamics and kills the bass. When you put the cancellation speakers by the listener, it simply widens the soundstage.

See: Crazy Wide Soundstage | DiyMobileAudio.com Car Stereo Forum
 
Last edited:
mundo12.webp


M&O Mundo 12 home theater speaker
 
That's true, since we included pretty much already everything in the market here, I thought it was a good idea to also include some of other similar stuff too. By similar I mean design goals and having more mid range drivers than usual.

I think that speaker in your attachment was already introduced in this topic on post #6. Dna Sequence.
 
McIntosh Labs XR100, bunch of small mid range drivers and some of them are for hi mid and some low


I've been studying this stuff for a while.

One of the "Eureka" moments that I had, was the realization that instead of power tapering a line array, you can just add more elements horizontally.

Free-Standing%20CBT%20Image%20for%20Website.jpg


For instance, in the Don Keele CBT array, the elements in the center are getting 1000% as much power as the elements at the edge of the array.

https://www.keele-omholt-technologies.com/papers/Harman Gallery of CBT Prototypes.pdf

Keele addresses this by using a ton of resistors.

The problem with resistors is that it massively lowers the headroom of the array. Basically the drivers receiving full power are going to distort long before the drivers reaching 10% power are going to distort.

So there's a simple fix: put more drivers at the center of the array.

Of course, there's no free lunch, and you put ten drivers horizontally at the center of the array, the horizontal beamwidth is going to vary depending on the vertical angle.

But you can compromise, and simplify the crossover, by using more drivers at the center of the array than at the edges of the array. Ten drivers horizontally probably isn't practical, but four might work.

Of course, once you go down this rabbit hole, two dimensional arrays like this start making more sense: https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...raight-cbt-with-passive-xos-and-no-eq.330031/
 

TNT

Member
Joined 2003
Paid Member
Wow, nice work and certainly in a circle :)

I would imagine that in the room, the wall behind is also part of the audio experience.

Btw, where did you get the inspiration, don't say that from this topic? :D
Yes, everything below 1,5k has had a bounce on the wall - It was a friend who had made som simulations about turning the speakers towards the wall which looked quite good so I wanted to try that... :)

My analysis so far is that the LF of that speaker has no immediate problems so I'm contemplating a larger version with 6 pcs of 5", still facing backwards and a larger wave-guide. Perhaps with a 1,4" driver for lower x-over...

//
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user