Having recently built a fEARful 15 Sub, I've thought about a separate cab to handle the higher frequencies. One of the considerations I've had is a wide, consistent off-axis performance. I looked into things like the fEARful headcase, and used a guitar cab I put together. But the guitar cab is complete overkill for home use (it's a 212), so I kept thinking about possible alternatives.
The speakers I use for my stereo are Philharmonic Audio BMRs, which were designed around the BMR driver. For those that don't know about it, here is some info about the BMR: Balanced Mode Radiator speaker tech explained: What is it and does it make a difference? If you want technical data about the BMR driver I chose to use, go here: Tectonic TEBM46C20N-4B | HiFiCompass
You can look up measurements of the Philharmonic speakers and you'll see that their dispersion is absurdly consistent in the horizontal plane (which is really all that matters for stereo speakers, IMO). A lot of this is owed to the BMR driver (and Philharmonic's extremely intelligent design of the overall speaker). Knowing about the BMR driver, and appreciating its performance in my stereo system, I couldn't help but think about it being used to cover the high frequencies in a bass cab.
Two immediate problems crop up: low sensitivity and low power handling. I decided I'd address the low sensitivity by using several drivers (and I know enough that if they're aligned vertically they'll act as a line array). As for the low power handling, I decided I'd wire them in series and ease my way up to high volume. With no intentions at the moment of using this anywhere other than at home, reaching ear bleeding volume isn't really much of a concern.
So anyway I ordered four drivers and a generic bookshelf speaker cab that would accommodate them. Today I got the cab partially assembled and threw the drivers in to make sure everything works. Here's what it looks like at the moment:
I offset the drivers on purpose because I read a little bit about it being advantageous for how the baffle affects the sound (can you tell I'm not an expert?). Right now the sides and back of the cab aren't on, but everything is working and actually sounds good. For the moment I have the crossover set at 360 Hz. I did that simply by ear...there's no deep science or math behind that decision. I don't have the means to do real measurements, but subjectively it seems to do what I intended: widely dispersed and consistent sound. Walking in an arc from one side to the other there's little to no difference in the sound (which is consistent with what I hear from my Philharmonic speakers) no matter where I stand.
Tomorrow I'll assemble the rest of the cab and mess with it more. At a minimum I think this is a fun experiment, and who knows maybe I'll want to use it for real some day. The form factor obviously isn't ideal, but again this is just an experiment for now and what I've made at this point is just a proof of concept.
To be clear, I'm not in any way suggesting that this is on the same level as designs like the fEARful or commercially produced cabs. This is just some clown who doesn't know what he's doing screwing around. I don't want anyone to think that I'm trying to put myself out there as the next greenboy or the like.
So anyway, I hope this was at least mildly interesting. I'll report back as I keep messing around with this.
The speakers I use for my stereo are Philharmonic Audio BMRs, which were designed around the BMR driver. For those that don't know about it, here is some info about the BMR: Balanced Mode Radiator speaker tech explained: What is it and does it make a difference? If you want technical data about the BMR driver I chose to use, go here: Tectonic TEBM46C20N-4B | HiFiCompass
You can look up measurements of the Philharmonic speakers and you'll see that their dispersion is absurdly consistent in the horizontal plane (which is really all that matters for stereo speakers, IMO). A lot of this is owed to the BMR driver (and Philharmonic's extremely intelligent design of the overall speaker). Knowing about the BMR driver, and appreciating its performance in my stereo system, I couldn't help but think about it being used to cover the high frequencies in a bass cab.
Two immediate problems crop up: low sensitivity and low power handling. I decided I'd address the low sensitivity by using several drivers (and I know enough that if they're aligned vertically they'll act as a line array). As for the low power handling, I decided I'd wire them in series and ease my way up to high volume. With no intentions at the moment of using this anywhere other than at home, reaching ear bleeding volume isn't really much of a concern.
So anyway I ordered four drivers and a generic bookshelf speaker cab that would accommodate them. Today I got the cab partially assembled and threw the drivers in to make sure everything works. Here's what it looks like at the moment:
I offset the drivers on purpose because I read a little bit about it being advantageous for how the baffle affects the sound (can you tell I'm not an expert?). Right now the sides and back of the cab aren't on, but everything is working and actually sounds good. For the moment I have the crossover set at 360 Hz. I did that simply by ear...there's no deep science or math behind that decision. I don't have the means to do real measurements, but subjectively it seems to do what I intended: widely dispersed and consistent sound. Walking in an arc from one side to the other there's little to no difference in the sound (which is consistent with what I hear from my Philharmonic speakers) no matter where I stand.
Tomorrow I'll assemble the rest of the cab and mess with it more. At a minimum I think this is a fun experiment, and who knows maybe I'll want to use it for real some day. The form factor obviously isn't ideal, but again this is just an experiment for now and what I've made at this point is just a proof of concept.
To be clear, I'm not in any way suggesting that this is on the same level as designs like the fEARful or commercially produced cabs. This is just some clown who doesn't know what he's doing screwing around. I don't want anyone to think that I'm trying to put myself out there as the next greenboy or the like.
So anyway, I hope this was at least mildly interesting. I'll report back as I keep messing around with this.
