Mixing Boxes no Xover Rant

[JimmyM]

I have used and heard the Beam Blocker many times. They make a huge difference for guitar. As a member of the audience, I have never felt that I was getting drilled by a bass cab like I do from guitar. If anybody wants to try one, it is very easy to make your own. Do you have tape?

Why yes, I probably have 4 or 5 kinds of tape. Will power tools be necessary, too? What do you use for it? A metal strip and a decorative lighting dome? Are there some materials that work better than others? Any subtleties with getting the dome to work right with the dustcap that we should know? Heck, for a few bucks, I'd slap one together and see how it works.

 

[Sean S]

I'm not too knowledgeable about sound theory, but wouldn't something like the beam blocker cause greater cancellation problems?

 

[Rick Auricchio]

Why yes, I probably have 4 or 5 kinds of tape.

Gotcha there. I think I have about 20 different types of tape in the garage, and I'm not considering different sizes of some of them.

In any event, I would think you could experiment with a largish dome taped to the grille. The dome would have to be larger than the close-mounted beam-blocker, but you'd get a similar effect. Given the size of the BB domes, perhaps something about 4" diameter would be good for a start.

Then you experiment with the size of the dome to hear the effect.

It seems like the opposite of a whizzer cone...

 

[JimmyM]

Gotcha there. I think I have about 20 different types of tape in the garage, and I'm not considering different sizes of some of them.

In any event, I would think you could experiment with a largish dome taped to the grille. The dome would have to be larger than the close-mounted beam-blocker, but you'd get a similar effect. Given the size of the BB domes, perhaps something about 4" diameter would be good for a start.

Then you experiment with the size of the dome to hear the effect.

It seems like the opposite of a whizzer cone...

Ya. maybe a recon mission to Home Depot is in order, huh?

Rick, I gotta tell you, you have so many types of tape that I will refer to you as the Tape King of Talkbass from here on out. I have duct, masking, strapping, and Scotch invisible. Oh yeah, and a very old roll of electrical at the bottom of my toolbox. Does teflon tape count as real tape? Then it would be 6. Steadily closing the gap

 

[spode master]

How did this thread go from not crossing over different boxes to Beam Blockers.

BTW a "Beam blocker may work well for 1!!!! Driver but will not help improve polar pattern of multiple drivers very much.

 

[Rick Auricchio]

Jimmy, if you haven't tried the 2" black vinyl "pipe tape," it's really nice. It's the stuff you see wrapped around the roll bar on the back of a Jeep. The nice thing is that the adhesive doesn't bleed out like it does with vinyl electrical tape.

Then there's gaffer tape, which is like a more "clothy" ductape. But it removes cleanly without leaving gunk. If you recall the old Mystic Tape, it's similar to that. Used in the pro audio and video industry all the time for everything. I even have some 3" wide with "Caution-Cable" in neon green.

And I'll admit that I was counting regular masking tape as well as the blue and green varieties.

PS: I wasn't counting the several types of magnetic tape either.

 

[JimmyM]

Jimmy, if you haven't tried the 2" black vinyl "pipe tape," it's really nice. It's the stuff you see wrapped around the roll bar on the back of a Jeep. The nice thing is that the adhesive doesn't bleed out like it does with vinyl electrical tape.

Then there's gaffer tape, which is like a more "clothy" ductape. But it removes cleanly without leaving gunk. If you recall the old Mystic Tape, it's similar to that. Used in the pro audio and video industry all the time for everything. I even have some 3" wide with "Caution-Cable" in neon green.

And I'll admit that I was counting regular masking tape as well as the blue and green varieties.

PS: I wasn't counting the several types of magnetic tape either.

LOL! You da man, Tape King!

I really have to phase out the duct tape and start using gaffer tape. But it's so expensive compared to duct tape that I just get the duct tape and deal with rolling little balls of goo off my stuff

 

[fokof]

How did this thread go from not crossing over different boxes to Beam Blockers.

To get back on the thread ; I only play now with speakers that uses active x-over, bi-amplification , and single drivers.

Sounds alot better , and I tried them all , 2/15 , 4/10 , 8/10 ......