Yes they are, and greater internal volume for a given design I believe.
Not that I consider that an advantage. If it's actually true since both would be at best only increments away anyway but within the same range... for any given set of goals such trifling amounts don't matter a whole lot anyway - once you have reached various thresholds.
But short of sharing exact figures who's to know? Duke and I talk a lot and share details at a deep level,
and we can't even agree with ourselves!... that there is one ultimate way to boil our own choices down to the best possible internal space within a few cubic inches for a given performance goal. So then matters of practicality take precedence.
But being in the right range in the first place makes ALL the difference!
The slightly staggered woofers vs vertical woofers makes NO DIFFERENCE AT ALL.
We'd probably have to state that a number of different ways several more times yet to make that point actually seep in ; } ...Which is why reading what you or I have to say about the subject is nowhere as valuable - for people who are truly interested in this and related subjects - to do deep and continued study on their own. That's so less silly than reading what this or that person has to say on a forum and accepting it as an absolute in black and white terms, and then going around parroting it in an often mangled form, with no real comprehension.
In fact, the more one knows about this stuff, the more they come to realize that they know less because the universe just keeps getting bigger. It's worthwhile and it's humbling. And eventually that's where individual design philosophies come into play, and we begin prioritizing on the things we think most important, and avoiding approaches we tend to think have less value to us personally.
It's good to have people you can explore it with, but it gets dicey once it's in a marketplace and you have agendas all around you. Fortunately, even though guys like Duke have commerical interests, we find that we can talk theory and design and acoustics without feeling we will get cloned or that what we say to each other will be used on forums as an attempt to trip each other up later on. Keeps it fun, and another deep person's insight is always fascinating.
I do believe the superior cooling of the tall port up the side rather than the wide port of the bottom is worth having in a cab that may get pushed very hard, and also we've found this approach makes the cab stronger and stiffer for a given weight and stops unwanted transmission line effects that occur in tall cabs with the port at the bottom or top.
As regards the thermal bit, I'm not sure if it's of much significance even then, from my own hard-driving experiences and given the most comprehensive study I've read on it so far. Short of actually doing a lot of rigorous tests that go beyond even those, I'm willing to accept the possibility and even the likelihood, but in practical terms the drivers we are using are so good there just seems to be no issue even when pushing these babies all night long with big power.
But the interesting conclusion in the study I mentioned: it was that pretty much any decently-ported cab has a tremendous advantage over any sealed cab as concerns thermal shedding, which reduces driver compression and possible overheating. Even after a couple of hours the sealed cabs have not dissipated much heat. I never really thought about that until I read about it.
As for the bracing style utility that comes with the vertical shelf port approach, I discovered it on the last of my fEARful designs, several years back - the 12/6cube. I didn't find it worthwhile to do further revisions on all the earlier fEARful models that went before it though, given the small weight-shaving it would allow, and the height reduction it often implies.
But upcoming greenboy designs dual-woofer designs are using it a fair amount, as well as some other porting schemes when I think they fit the design goals better.
As for the T-line thing, I haven't seen it to be a problem thus far - in fact it may even be a voicing preference for the 1515/66 and the little ipact it has on the 1212/6 seems to be balance out by other things that are going on in crossover design and in baffle layout. Though I have been aware of the 1/4 waveform principle for some time, so far it hasn't bitten me ; }
And for how low something is tuned? Again, tuning lower than the standard fEARful tunings is sometimes an advantage, and sometimes it's a disadvantage. I outline all that to builders and to DIYers, sometimes bump discussions of it back up to the top on my forum so that understanding what it really means will grow. I have always made it clear to builders and DIYers that extending shelves are a viable option and that customers of the authorized fEARful builders can get lower tunings if they desire.
You can probably look all the way back to the first fEARful megathreads and see it discussed as something that fits some uses (but not so well for others), complete with some illustrative graphs of what it actually means. Why do I mention that? Because so many people think that a lower tuning always means more apparent low end for their bass guitars, when in fact it often means just the opposite. Thus it's good to have options and understanding.
Anyway, good to see you, Alex. Hoping that will always be the case!
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