Front AND Back ports. Why not both?

[BruceWane]

I agree sub frequencies are not directional. Thats fits for a dedicated sub in a bi-amped bass rig or in your car. However, I disagree with a full range rig not being directional. Does a bass guitar stay under 200hz or so? No. The typical bass rig is definately directional. Secondary harmonics and such are way above this range and are directional. What would be the purpose of having cabs with a frequency response of 4khz or with a tweeter of 20khz? Only the lowest part is non-directional.

Here is a little test. Stand 10ft in front of your cab and play a line you love that covers a wide frequency range. Now, as you continue to play walk around your cab till your 10ft behind it and tell me if its directional or not? You will hear the difference.

Um...yeah....did you read this?

As far as low frequencies, it doesn't matter which way the speaker is pointing, for that matter. The higher frequencies, anything above a few hundred Hz, are directional, so if you're relying on your woofer for mids as well (most rigs do), you won't want to point your speaker in the wrong direction.

 

[Kelly Lee]

Since bass rigs are too small to be directional, they act as pressure generating devices, which means they radiate sound waves in a 360 degree pattern, much like the waves you see when you toss a rock in a pond.

The fact that a typical bass rig is non-directional ... If your rig was directional...

Yea, I did Sorry, the way you put it is that my 350 watt rig is too small to be directional, right?

 

[BruceWane]

Yea, I did Sorry, the way you put it is that my 350 watt rig is too small to be directional, right?

Sorry, I meant in the lower frequencies. Because of the physics involved, mids and highs are pretty much always directional; it's difficult to avoid it. It has to do with the size of the device producing the sound versus the physical size of a wavelength at a specific pitch. Basically, if the radiating area producing the pitch is larger than the wavelength it is producing, it will be directional. You can only build a tweeter so small, so it is going to be larger than the frequencies it produces; so it will be directional.

The problem we have with low frequencies is getting them focused, i.e. directional; and the problem we have with higher frequencies is that they easily become TOO directional - what you look for in a near-field monitor is good dispersion in the mids and highs, so it doesn't sound different if you're a foot or two off-axis.

 

[Mark Reccord]

You can make low frequencies directional but you need large arrrays of drivers (or large horns) to do it. It's pretty impractical to try to get good directivity at 30Hz, for example because the wavelength is (about) 11m. An array of speakers would need to have minimum dimensions of 11x11m (about 30'x30') to begin to show directional characteristics at 30Hz..... So if we were using 12" drivers we'd need an array of about 30x30 drivers... A 90x12" cab, if you will....

 

[Kelly Lee]

Thats cool.
BTW, thats 90x12 sounds really cool

 

[BruceWane]

You can make low frequencies directional but you need large arrrays of drivers (or large horns) to do it. It's pretty impractical to try to get good directivity at 30Hz, for example because the wavelength is (about) 11m. An array of speakers would need to have minimum dimensions of 11x11m (about 30'x30') to begin to show directional characteristics at 30Hz..... So if we were using 12" drivers we'd need an array of about 30x30 drivers... A 90x12" cab, if you will....

As long as it's got wheels and a "towel bar" no problem....right?