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A physics-defying speaker array(?)

Taylor Livingston

Taylor Livingston

Commercial User
Dec 25, 2002
3,210
2,310
Oregon, US
Disclosures
Owner, Iron Ether Electronics
#1
Check this out, 5th picture from the top about a speaker array:

Link Removed

Can any of the engineer/speaker design folks shed some light on whether this is possible? The company is called Bromer Sound, but I couldn't find any actual information about this guy or his speaker design online. Personally, I don't find that there's a real need for a 5-foot speaker, so I'm not sure why it would be necessary to simulate such a thing, but I am interested in the physics of getting super-low frequencies out of small speakers with clever engineering. I e-mailed the guy; hopefully he will post some specifics here.

What do you guys think? Typical "revolutionary" bunkum? Or clever physics?
 
#3
Yeah, that part is pretty stupid, but I'm guessing he's not presenting that as an example of his engineering skills; it's more likely something he said casually that the reporter thought was more interesting than the dry subject of speaker design. (It is the "NAMM Oddities" page, after all.)
 
#4
Physicist Nick Bromer developed this speaker array that, according to theory, can reproduce frequencies as low as a five foot diameter speaker would.
The basic flaw in this statement is that it assumes one needs a five foot diameter speaker to reproduce certain frequencies, and that's not the case.:rolleyes:
 
#6
billfitzmaurice said:
Physicist Nick Bromer developed this speaker array that, according to theory, can reproduce frequencies as low as a five foot diameter speaker would.
The basic flaw in this statement is that it assumes one needs a five foot diameter speaker to reproduce certain frequencies, and that's not the case.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
I bet he knew that and just thought it would mess with the people who think "I need a 21" sub for that".

Reminds me of an episode of mythbusters i saw the other day, where they made a 50 something inch sub, to try and get a maximum volume, couldnt help but think how much better a massive array of smaller speakers with large excursions could have done, tho, granted, you couldnt have run those off the motor!
 
#8
The guy e-mailed me back and sent me a link to their website and a [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] about the cabinet. I couldn't get the sound of the video to work for some reason. The website has a little bit of information on the cabinet, but no specs.

So what's the consensus here? Total BS? BS marketing of a reasonable product?
 
#9
The Bromer Sound speaker is based on two things: one is a property of air, and the other is symmetry. The property of air is the ratio of pressure to density, and it means that air flowing from a circular ring of speakers can't be compressed inside the ring, so it becomes pressurized. That's what turns wind into sound (puts the pressure in phase with the speaker cones' motion). Symmetry lets you reduce the number of speakers from the number needed for a full ring.
Our patent issues in early March and has a full explanation. In the meantime I will be happy to post more info and answer questions about the theory, the beer can woofer, etc.
 
#11
BromerSound said:
The Bromer Sound speaker is based on two things: one is a property of air, and the other is symmetry. The property of air is the ratio of pressure to density, and it means that air flowing from a circular ring of speakers can't be compressed inside the ring, so it becomes pressurized. That's what turns wind into sound (puts the pressure in phase with the speaker cones' motion). Symmetry lets you reduce the number of speakers from the number needed for a full ring.
Our patent issues in early March and has a full explanation. In the meantime I will be happy to post more info and answer questions about the theory, the beer can woofer, etc.
Click to expand...



hmm, interesting.

mmkay, now the question is, is it a practical system?

Would it be something I could gig with, what's the volume output, ect...

also, does it sound good? You advertise the ability to reproduce low level frequencies of a much larger speaker. Would this essentially produce the ultimate mud puddle of sound, or is it a well balanced system that would be comparable to a more traditional sounding rig, like a 4x10?
 
#12
I'm curious about this thing about reproducing the frequencies that a 5 foot speaker would - is this infrasound we're talking about? Is the idea supposed to be that by going down to subaudible frequencies, that the array will be flatter in the audible bass frequencies?
 
#13
conical johnson said:
I'm curious about this thing about reproducing the frequencies that a 5 foot speaker would - is this infrasound we're talking about? Is the idea supposed to be that by going down to subaudible frequencies, that the array will be flatter in the audible bass frequencies?
Click to expand...

Like Bill says, there's not a relationship between frequency response and driver diameter. We have to wait until we know more.
 
#17
After watching the video, I heard him say response down to about 40 Hz. It's basically a line array, the benefits of which are well known anyways. The curvature does throw some interesting kinks in the workings, possibly frequency cancellations. I'd have to hear it before I'd invest in it. It looks like he's using car speakers anyways, which is weird.
 
#18
i_got_a_mohawk said:
I bet he knew that and just thought it would mess with the people who think "I need a 21" sub for that".

Reminds me of an episode of mythbusters i saw the other day, where they made a 50 something inch sub
Click to expand...
EV once made a 30 inch woofer, and it was a total failure. Even 21s are more in the realm of eye candy, rather than practical.
 
#20
Maybe, but the website says

Our cabinet relies on diameter; the array of eight small speakers has the same bass response as a five-foot speaker, and therefore has a response two full octaves lower than the that of the usual 15-inch speaker.
Click to expand...

It's possible that he was dumbing it down for the NAMM audience, but it certainly says "five-foot speaker".
 

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