Beveled/smooth edges

[nm2285]

Does beveling or smoothing the edges of the baffle of a speaker significantly change its sound or is it mostly cosmetic?

Is there a way to measure this change easily?

 

[t3031999]

Beveling reduces, but doesn't eliminate, edge diffraction.
Whenever sound waves encounter a change in surface, (like speaker baffle to open air) a secondary sound wave is generated at the edge of the baffle.
So rounding those decrease the amount of instantanious change of surface.

I don't really know about ways of measuring it. You can hear it in bad situations.

 

[j_garcia]

The sonic benefit is minimal at best. It is mostly aesthetic. Some of the best sounding speakers I've heard use all square edges. Baffle width and proper placement of the drivers relative to eachother and the baffle are more important than rounded edges.

 

[nm2285]

I want to do it for cosmetic reasons, i wanted to be sure that there was no audible detriment to doing it. If it's even a minor benefit - great!

Thanks for the help

 

[Swerd]

Dennis Murphy has a page on his website where he shows the differences he could measure on one of his 2-way designs in a cabinet without rounded edges and with 3/4" roundovers.

http://murphyblaster.com/content.php?f=cabinets.html

The differences are subtle but reproducably measurable. It's not clear to me whether you can hear the small peak at 4 kHz and the dip at 7 kHz, but if you can easily eliminate them, why not?

 

[j_garcia]

That is with those particular drivers with that baffle. Every design is different. The "old" GR cabinets had all edges rounded, but the new ones only have the vertical edges rounded and I could hear no difference between them, though they do not use the same tweeter as that design either.