What is the reasoning behind this unique speaker design?

[Topkat13]

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

 

[jazzyvee]

The badge says "Acoustic"

It reminds me of this oddball from Trace Elliot, the BLX 80.
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Gosh, i had one of those way back, and gave it away to a friend who was learning bass when i got into separate head and cabs. It got submerged in a house flood at her house half way up the cab. When it dried out it worked fine.

 

[Redbrangus]

Here's an article about Karlson speakers that explains (somewhat) the theory of operation: Karlson Compendium at DIY Audio

An interesting relevant quote: "... These projector speakers were manufactured both by Karlson, and under license by Karlson’s good friend, Jess Oliver."

 

[TomB]

I forgot about that one, didn't last long either.

I had one of those TE BLX 80’s briefly. 80 stood for “pounds” . In its defense, it didn’t chuff, and it sounded pretty good in the mids - 0 highs though. Sold it quickly.

 

[JimChjones]

The design also featured in a book of home build speaker cabinet designs that one of the major bare speaker retailers featured heavily. I remember seeing one in the backline at very early Hawkwind gigs.

 

[Element Zero]

The badge says "Acoustic"

It reminds me of this oddball from Trace Elliot, the BLX 80.
View attachment 7000993

Played through one of these a couple times at the Reno Jazz fest back in high school. Can’t remember if it was in the ensemble hall or the combo rooms. Either way, at least twice I played through it sometime in ‘94-‘98.

 

[TheReceder]

My worst/best deal. I was using an acoustic 320 with a jbl 7 foot folded horn. Needed something small so I traded it for a Trace BLX80. Saved my back... Ended out donating the trace to a church. Never hated or loved the amp... was shocked when I saw the sticker with an asking price of $999.00.

 

[larrysb]

The slot load woofer does two things, it causes the mid range frequencies to diverge rather than “spotlight” straight out of the center axis. It acts as a 4th order band pass filter and can slightly deepen the bass response of a driver provided the dimensions are carefully chosen.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Never seen anything quite like this before.


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As has beeen said it’s a Karlson design, used by gauss and others.
Reminds me of alien ant farm singers hair.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.

 

[agedhorse]

The slot load woofer does two things, it causes the mid range frequencies to diverge rather than “spotlight” straight out of the center axis. It acts as a 4th order band pass filter and can slightly deepen the bass response of a driver provided the dimensions are carefully chosen.

The tradeoff is the smaller effective box volume which is at odds with low frequency extension.

 

[larrysb]

All I can say, it went to many smaller gigs and parties and did the job reasonably well, and it was easy to transport.