i'll be interested to see how far you go towards "the baer sound" . . . i like that sound, but like my tc112 a little more. how is teh 1203 going to be tuned vis a vis a low b?
The 1203 will only have one port, centered behind the magnet, which will tune the cab a bit lower than the theoretical optimum, like ballpark 44 Hz. But the result is a little bit better pitch definition, which I'll explain in a moment when I get into the evils of ports.
The Hathor 1203 models -3 dB at 62 Hz, so it should still deliver a decent low-B.
was interested because todd and i were discussing the idea of a tc112 topped with the hathor 1203. (yes, a little nuts, probably.)
Not at all nuts! That would be very versatile - you could take whichever cab depending on the nature of the gig, and combine them for big gigs. Actually several people have had the same idea.
The normal tuning of the Thunderchild 112 is 50 Hz, and then with one port plugged it drops to 37 Hz. The tuning of the Hathor 1203 is 44 Hz (calculated but not yet measured). Will that be a problem?
Not in this case. I modeled the phase responses, and worst case scenario is 12 degrees of phase difference at 62 Hz (between the optional 37 Hz Thunderchild tuning and the 44 Hz Hathor tuning). That's still almost perfectly in-phase; they'll be reinforcing one another. And they might even have better low-end pitch definition than either one alone! Let me explain:
Ports are evil. They don't stop making sound right away, they "overhang" and keep on producing sound after the note stops. A nasty byproduct is that, as a low note decays, of its energy can pitch-shift in the direction of the port's tuning frequency, if the fundamental or a low harmonic is near that tuning frequency. (This is particularly bad for a studio monitor.)
So, what's the solution? One approach is to use a sealed box, but now our woofer choices are very limited if we still want good bottom end. A good compromise is to use a lower tuning frequency, so that relatively few notes are affected (this is what I'm doing in my Hathor cabs). And a third solution is to use multiple vented chambers tuned to different frequencies, so that only some of the energy is pitch-shifting towards a nearby tuning frequency.
The Thunderchild 112 + Hathor 1203 combo would be one way to implement that third solution, and fortunately both cabinets have high mechanical power handling so it's not like one is going to leave the other in the dust. Now this is all armchair quarterbacking on my part, but it does make a case for someone at least trying the combination. Fortunately I already have a volunteer, and when I can, I'll get two such cabs to him, and I'm sure he'll let us know.
