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You are absolutely correct! Thanks for letting me know that I communicated poorly. My tuning frequencies are typically in the lower 20's to upper teens, so below that point the rolloff is indeed 24 dB per octave. Let me try to explain where that "3 dB per octave" comes from: My subwoofer...

If you're talking to me, SpeakerHardware's larger Ciare-based kit is 14" x 14" x 40" tall, not counting the 1.5" feet. So, 36cm x 36cm x 118cm + 4cm feet. But the actual internal volume is more like 80 liters because we have to subtract for the cabinet wall thickness, bracing, woofer, and ports.

Speakerhardware.com now offers three 12" passive subwoofer kits (in Baltic Birch) in which I have a minor commercial interest. Fairly small footprint (to encourage the use of multiple subs... hint hint). Specified low-end extensions assume 3 dB per octave of boundary reinforcement south of 50...

Hi Matt, Excellent article! I was unaware that not all low frequency regions are equally important when it comes to "bassiousness". You have inspired me to make a revision to a design I'm working on, so that a bit more of the spectrum will be covered by multiple subs. This is not the first...

Randy may well have come up with something new and practical, or a least something that's a worthwhile improvement, so I hope he gets the chance to fully test his ideas. The art is advanced by someone having an innovative idea and then figuring out a way to make it a reality. Sometimes that...

I have worked with coaxials, and there are two general types: Those that have a small horn for the tweeter, and those that use the woofer's cone as a horn for the tweeter. There are of course tradeoffs, but in general I prefer those that use the woofer's cone as a horn for the tweeter, so my...

Imo one of the things that makes the Amphions so special is the attention the designers paid to radiation pattern control. The benefits of good radiation pattern control cannot be replicated by doing something else well. I think you're most likely to find "like the Argon 3 but less expensive"...

My subs are designed to have the driver face the wall. The reason is, I hate making grills, and that way I can get away with not making them. Since I don't have amps or anything else on the "back" of my subs (their amp goes on the equipment stand), I can get away with it. When the woofer...

Thank you Bertha, and thank you Brian. Hi Gene, thanks for exolaining. I don't feel so bad about not noticing you now! I spoke with Jeff Hedback earlier today and he had really good things to say about you and about James. For those who don't know, Jeff is a top-level acoustician whose...

Good eyes! Yup, you could even say that the SEOS waveguide is the heart of the design. The two large midwoofers were chosen specifically with pattern-matching the SEOS as a top priority, and the crossover design followed from there. I've been doing speakers with waveguide-style horns since...

Thank you very much James! Your deep passion for the how and why behind good sound comes though in your writing. It is an honor to have my speakers included in your Axpona 2016 show report. You even remarked that “AudioKinesis gets it!” That is EXACTLY how I feel about you and about the...

The heat originates in the voice coil, so assuming equivalent voice coils and equivalent efficiency, the amount of heat that's generated would be the same, but since the neo magnet is so much smaller, its temperature rises faster. And yes the fins are to help it dissipate the heat faster into...

Researcher David Greisinger distinguishes between speech intelligibility and speech comprehension. The difference is, if we can make out the words but have to focus our attention on our hearing to do so, we don't have enough brain power left over to fully comprehend and remember the ideas the...

A use for the Founteks may come along some day... maybe as a present for kids or grandkids, in a little primed-white wooden enclosure that they can color, paint, or decorate as they see fit. Get 'em hooked now, and they'll be audioholics when they grow up.

The greater flux density tends to translate to higher efficiency, which means less power is needed to reach a given SPL, which in turn helps to offset the reduced heat sink capacity of the neo motor. The kind of thermal compression most people are familiar with is the kind that results from the...

That little 2" Fountek cone only has 1 mm of linear excursion. To put things in perspective, so does the Dayton Audio 2" dome midrange. Frankly if I was going to the trouble to build an enclosure, I'd want to use a more capable driver so that it would be worth my build time. That being said...

Researcher James M. Kates did a study that was published in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society in which he showed that dipoles have smoother in-room bass than monopoles. And smooth bass = "fast" bass. Unfortunately dipoles can't pressurize a room, so while dipole subs are certainly...

I don't think these are omnis nor even quasi-omnis. My understanding is that B&O has developed an algorithm that modifies the signal going to the side-firing drivers in time, phase, and amplitude, all with respect to frequency, to deliberately shape the radiation pattern. I'm pretty sure the...

I've never really looked at the Sonus Faber line before, so it's fascinating to me that their top-of-the-line product is a partial bipole. I say "partial" because it doesn't appear to be a bipole below the baffle-step region, and that's a valid design choice. I've worked with "full" bipoles...

I like your diagonal setup - imo that's a great way to deal with a square room. Somtimes about 10-15 degrees off from a perfect diagonal works even better. If you're looking for high output and a very neutral presentation, you might consider Pi Speakers. They call for larger box sizes than...