where can the woofer point???

[plasmodium]

After some lessons today, I am probably going to scrap my current 2 way project in favour of a 3 way project, by adding a 3 or 4 inch mid between the p17wj and d25ag vifas i currently have. (Am unhappy with final general size of box, and build quality, and so far lacks midrange detail - will reserve final judgement on how it sounds yet though)


I have seen a commercial 3way (B&W i think) where the woofer pointed out the side of the box....
why??? does it make a difference???? I like this idea as I can make my enclosure with a narrow frontage this way

If this is no probs - do the woofers point in or out?!

 

[Bylie]

I was wondering this myself. If you for example put the woofer in the side of the cabinet do you have to pick the crossoverpoint lower than a tradional 3-way where the woofer points to the listener? I was wondering this because I think when you let the woofer go up to, let's say 300 Hz, you'd be able to place where the bass is coming from while a woofer that's crossed at 100 Hz is much more difiicult to localize. A little bit the subwoofer principle I guess.

 

[AR]

I have generally seen 80 to 150 Hz used as the reference x/o, depending on the size of the woofer. AR

 

[navin]

i have generally not been to happy with the side mounted speakers on live music. this is most noticeable on transient response. why i dont know. my ears tell me some times things dont jell and this include some famed designs as the NHT3.3. The Audio Physics Virgo was an exception.

anyway if you want to use the woofer that way the 4" better be able to make 95db or so at 100Hz. so you need a midbass not a midrange. W14xxxx v/s a M14xxxx

 

[Bylie]

What if you'd use a 6.5" midrange driver (for example peerless HDS-134) and a 10" (monacor SPH-250TC) woofer sidefiring??

The peerless would be able to go quite low and it has a good Xlin for it's small size (Xlin = 4mm). I guess you'd have adequate mid/bass response from the peerless units and a good strong bass from the sidefring woofers, but I would pick the crossoverpoint at 100 Hz or even lower so that the woofers and the mid/bass do what they do best.
Only one question actually would it be best to put the mid/bass units in a br or a sealed enclosure?

 

[roddyama]

Only one question actually would it be best to put the mid/bass units in a br or a sealed enclosure?

Hi Bylie,

You would want to go with a closed box for the mid-bass as it will be reproducing the critical voice range and you’ll want the drive to have the best transient response possible.

Rodd Yamashita

 

[plasmodium]

what about 500Hz

I was thinking of xovering at around 500Hz and again somewhere 6000-8000Hz......
Will the woofer pointing sideways sound wierd at this freq??????

 

[Nisbeth]

plasmodium, AFAIK the only advantage of mountin the woofer on the side is the one you mention - that you can mount a relatively large woofer without making the speaker(baffle) too big. IMHO sidemounting the woofer makes the speaker more sensitive to where you plave it in the room (not a good thing AFAIAC).

HTH
/U.

 

[Nelson Pass]

I like the woofer pointed at me. I want the woofer's
attention at all times, responsive to my every need.

 

[Ken L]

ummm, well not exactly what you asked

but a while back when playing with positioning of my former B&W 801 seriesIII, decided to align the woofers carefully in a vertical plane - become truly obsessive compulsive about it and got them very precisely aligned with each other.

The improved response was startling.

I think that what happened is that they were so precisely aligned that they would reinforce longer waves (lower notes) uniformly.

I have doubts that woofers facing to the side could sound as good as to the front.

Ken

 

[Bylie]

The prob we have here I think is that you have two ways of making side firing designs. You can make them with a rather high crossover and a small mid speaker, this is something that would totally go wrong I think. But you also can make them with a low crossover and middrivers between the 4" and 6" which can handle some bass on their own, this way you'd actually be making two subs which in my eyes is not bad at all because you eliminate the disadvantage of a single sub : loss of stereobass.
And you get one nice small cabinet in return while otherwise you'd have to maken something like the EVE II with seperate (big) subcabinets and small sats standing on top of them.

I'm really starting to think of making my new speakers side firing with a sealed mid section, crossing the woofers at about 100 Hz would still give a nice effect I think and in the future if I need it I can still add a real sub for some moviebass (when I'm watching a movie offcourse )

 

[Dave Bullet]

Don't manufacturers do this for 3 way designs so the front baffle is narrow for better imaging? By having a side firing woofer, the "side baffle" is wider hence reducing difraction loss of low frequencies, whilst allowing a good imaging narrow front baffle.

Dave.

 

[Westrock2000]

Maybe even go so low as 70 or 80 Hz low pass, the cost of a bigger bipolar cap and iron core inductor would be relativetly small, and you could still bypass it with a nicer polypropylene cap.

 

[Mos Fetish]

OK, let's revisit this....

So, side firing woofers reduce the width of the baffle which is a bonus, but they may not image correctly if the crossover point is too high (+100hz?). Ok?

Anyone actually built some side firers? I'd love to hear any experiences. There seem to be quite a few manufacturers out their doing it.

Let's say you crossover at 100hz--what would be the best mid range driver for the job of going from that point on up? And, should the woofers point out or in?

Most interested in any voices of experience on this one.

Mos

 

[navin]

let me say this. i recently saw a pair of speakers that consisted of a dipole sub (2x12") below and a 6" 2 way on top. the speakers were built so the sub could be rotated (the speakers were from gradient). we found that what afected the sub more in rotation was it's relation with the room.