Cylindrical Cabinets?

[Chef]

I read the East Side Sound website.
About their 115: "most powerful, most portable, best cabinet"
From 'the sound' section:
"We don't like to add color into our cabinets. We want them to sound just like the bass and amplifier you are using. the only color we can detect in out cabinets is the warm, hollow sound that you get with an acoustic upright bass. We attribute that to the relatively thin wall of the drum shell.
(Frankly, that description makes it sound pretty colored...)
We also try to find the drivers with the largest useable frequency range. There is not much room for tweeters in a round cabinet. So we try to find speakers that will reproduce 5 and 6 strings faithfully. But we have special ordered some cabinets with tweeters inside them.''

All very interesting, and I'd love to lay hands on one.
I'd have a hard time buying into them being a very good idea without hearing the end result for myself.

 

[Chef]

After reviewing the Tone Tubby website...
$295 for the 15" speaker, $175 for the 10" speaker. No specs are listed.

The ''Round Soun'' 410 cabinet lists at $895 making it more affordable than their speakers; but again, no specs.

Again, color me curious, but skeptical.

 

[markee]

This is a fascinating subject and well worth exploring. The first reverb effect used in recording was devised by Sam Phillips at Sun records. It consisted of a 10" speaker mounted to the outside of a 55 gal metal drum, (open on the other end), facing inward and placed across the building from the artist. I've wanted to duplicate it for years but could never find a drum clean enough and cheap enough to try it.

Introducing round shapes into speaker cabinet design changes the dynamics of sound waves and how they would react, no doubt. I'm not so sure cubic space rules would apply nor would the end results be the same in any case. I often wonder what happens to sound waves when they hit the inside corners of a box and have come up with some plausable ideas on scooping (rounding) them. The trick will be to adhere the added (lite) material in the corners to where it won't shake loose and cause rattles. I plan on trying this on a Lopo 1X15 cab I'm purchasing soon using 1/4 of a six inch radius sugar pine and Gorilla glue. I have no idea how or if it will change anything but it certainly will make the cab stouter. Some cab builders use batting and some don't. If they do then much of this I think would be redundant. No?

NICE JOB on the cab which started this thread by the way! I always over build, too!!

 

[wave rider]

While the cylinder has less volume per area of floor space, I wonder if the lack of standing waves from parallel cabinet walls makes up for something?

=wr=

 

[wave rider]

Wellllll, now how about this? Great big round 4X15 or 4X18 cab and on the outside edge you put rubber covering like a tire and roll it into your gig. Very little lifting, will roll over any surface.

Don't use a rack like the tubby, just use a couple wheel chocks.

With the advent of all these new mini SS amps, you could have the amp mounted in the center of the back. Possibly in the middle of the front a full range driver for mids etc.

Then for the non-serious side: For large rigs you could make them self propelled. Possibly it could mow your lawn with proper attachments. Plug it in and it could snowblow your driveway.

Could be used in Afghanistan to not only scare rebels with bizarre music, could be rolled down hills at them in case of emergency. I think there is great unexplored potential here.

BOB

Rolling cabinet, eh? Here ya go:
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These cabinets are the next logical step in the evolution of round speaker cabinets. Why not go all the way and make them completely round. You can roll these cabinets into the bar, up the stairs, and right on the stage. Kick the drum spikes out, tilt the cabinet back to your desired level and rock out. No other cabinet offers that kind of portability.

Who woulda thunk it?

=wr=

 

[svtb15]

Hey easy load out. Just roll it to your car.

 

[billfitzmaurice]

I wonder if the lack of standing waves from parallel cabinet walls makes up for something?

No. Bass speaker cabs are far too small for standing waves to be a consideration. Radiused walls have the advantage of being more resistant to flexing and vibration than flat, so thinner/lighter materials may be used. But where low frequencies are concerned the number one limiting factor to response is the net cabinet volume, and that's where cylindrical and spherical cabs fall short, having far less actual internal volume for a given pack space than quadrilateral cabs.

Going back to the standing wave question, tubular hi-fi subs are fairly popular in DIY circles, being very simple to build. But the low internal volume of cylinders makes it necessary to make the cabs very high, and that introduces standing wave resonance problems that don't occur in short, squared cabs.

In short, rounded shapes are very useful in midrange and hi-frequency enclosures, where internal volume is not a factor, but not in low frequenct enclosures.