Do You Miss Acoustic Suspension Speakers?

[Edgar Betancourt]

NHT also says so on this site!

Interview with NHT On Loudspeaker Design Philosophy

As long time fans of NHT Speakers, this behind the scenes interview gives you a glimpse of the reasons for their success for building no-nonsense loudspeakers for over 25 years.

www.audioholics.com

I don't see separate boxes for the two-way speaker shown.

Don't tell other people around here! You'll be labelled as a kook, ignorant and a troll. BTW how would NHT know anything about the subject they have only been manufacturing speakers for over half a century

 

[Edgar Betancourt]

NHT also says so on this site!

Interview with NHT On Loudspeaker Design Philosophy

As long time fans of NHT Speakers, this behind the scenes interview gives you a glimpse of the reasons for their success for building no-nonsense loudspeakers for over 25 years.

www.audioholics.com

I don't see separate boxes for the two-way speaker shown.

My bad only 37 years....... they must therefore just be confused or ignorant

 

[Pogre]

I'm pretty darn sure I've never had acoustic suspension speakers...

 

[Edgar Betancourt]

I'm pretty darn sure I've never had acoustic suspension speakers...

Again there are few speaker manufacturers using the design anymore. But for 57000 Magico will happily deliver a pair to your home. It also happens that Magico makes some of of the most highly regarded speakers in the market though as expected they dont sell very many

 

[shadyJ]

Hey Shady... my questions remain unaswered in this thread. Please enlighten me.

What question is that? Please don't make me reread this thread to find it!

 

[NINaudio]

What question is that? Please don't make me reread this thread to find it!

I learned something today. I was also of the mindset that all sealed speakers were acoustic suspension but clearly I was wrong. In laymen's terms what sets the driver apart from an acoustic suspension to a sealed design? Is the bass roll off similar in acoustic suspension as it is a sealed design?

Because I didnt know any better, I would say no, I do not miss acoustic suspension speakers.

It comes down to the driver's thiele-small parameters, specifically in regards to it's suspension compliance. The suspension is very soft and only designed to hold everything in place, it provides little to no restorative force. Despite what some say, there are relatively few true acoustic suspension designs being made today. Speakers designers and engineers agree with that. The audioholics article on the main front page gives a good overview in layman's terms.

Edited to add that I don't know if there is a difference in the bass roll off or not.

 

[shadyJ]

It comes down to the driver's thiele-small parameters, specifically in regards to it's suspension compliance. The suspension is very soft and only designed to hold everything in place, it provides little to no restorative force. Despite what some say, there are relatively few true acoustic suspension designs being made today. Speakers designers and engineers agree that. The audioholics article on the main front page gives a good overview in layman's terms.

Edited to add that I don't know if there is a difference in the bass roll off or not.

Yeah... what he said!

 

[Verdinut]

Yeah... what he said!

IMO, both the sealed and the acoustic suspension enclosures have a LF roll-off of 12 dB/octave, as opposed to the vented design which rolls off at 24 dB/octave. The only vented design exception is in the case of a transmission line, the roll-off is 12 db.

 

[everettT]

IMO, both the sealed and the acoustic suspension enclosures have a LF roll-off of 12 dB/octave, as opposed to the vented design which rolls off at 24 dB/octave. The only vented design exception is in the case of a transmission line, the roll-off is 12 db.

There's a good thread on parts express discussing bass reflex and transmission line with Jeff Bagby and Paul Kettinger, I'll see if I can find. Couple of the posts were with Jeff designing a bass reflex that when done was a transmission line, Paul checked the math and it was correct. Then convo then turned similar to this thread without the nonsense

 

[davidscott]

Soooo were my late 70s early 80s New Advents and Allison 6 models true acoustic suspension speakers? I always thought that they were.

 

[turcinovic90]

Interesting read... but Author writing: "So instead of great small acoustic suspension subs that will play loud and low from a small enclosure, " had just slipped on the "IRON LAW" stated in the beginning of the article

 

[turcinovic90]

Regarding discussion Sealed vs Air-suspension, lets say that I put any speaker in air tight enclosure. Will air provide suspension to cone movement? Yes, it will. Saying that I conclude that every closed speaker is in air suspension category. But will it be properly designed, depends on TS parameters, box and tuning, inclusive of designers choices. So here we are coming to the IRON LAW. Small, inefficient and deep. Or Small and efficient but not big. Or, big, efficient and deep. That's it folks

 

[STRONGBADF1]

This discussion makes me want to pull out a pair of Ohm Model C's I have stacked in the drum room.

Ohm C

The Ohm C was Ohm's first large bookshelf speaker with a 10'' acoustic suspension woofer and 1'' dome tweeter. It was known for it's natural voice reproduction and…

ohmspeaker.com

Makes me wonder if the ADS pair I have is accoustic suspension??? I think that mobel is the L620...???

 

[ryanosaur]

There's a good thread on parts express discussing bass reflex and transmission line with Jeff Bagby and Paul Kettinger, I'll see if I can find. Couple of the posts were with Jeff designing a bass reflex that when done was a transmission line, Paul checked the math and it was correct. Then convo then turned similar to this thread without the nonsense

I'd love to see this thread if you happen to find it! Thanks!!!

 

[XDM]

A shortcoming of this article is, imho, that it is taking manufacturer specifications as to the -3db low point as absolute gospel.

These specs have not been independently verified with modern measurement equipment. In all likelihood these kinds of claims were massively exaggerated.

 

[everettT]

A shortcoming of this article is, imho, that it is taking manufacturer specifications as to the -3db low point as absolute gospel.

These specs have not been independently verified with modern measurement equipment. In all likelihood these kinds of claims were massively exaggerated.

Could be exaggerated or not, but for the argument's sake I don't think it matters.

 

[XDM]

Could be exaggerated or not, but for the argument's sake I don't think it matters.

This article is literally comparing accoustic suspension speakers to modern day speakers based on their supposed good lowest frequency at the -3db point. However, the listed -3db points of those accoustic suspension speakers might as well be made up completely since it hasn't been verified with proper modern measuring equipment.

 

[lovinthehd]

This article is literally comparing accoustic suspension speakers to modern day speakers based on their supposed good lowest frequency at the -3db point. However, the listed -3db points of those accoustic suspension speakers might as well be made up completely since it hasn't been verified with proper modern measuring equipment.

It's more about the drivers having a different suspension.

 

[User5910]

Is there a way to convert between FAR (measured in Hz) and Vas (measured in liters)? The DS1510 driver in my sealed Rythmik F15 subwoofer shows a VAS spec of 300L. It's not a good sign that the specs page shows ideal enclosure sizes for both sealed and vented enclosures.

Wikipedia's Thiele/Small page says Vas "is an inverse measure of the 'stiffness' of the suspension with the driver mounted in free air."

Good article, thanks.

 

[panteragstk]

A sealed speaker is acoustic suspension! They have have been abandoned because ported designs have gotten much better and have for a long time not suffered from port "coloration". Ported designs offer better bass efficiency than acoustic suspension thus more db per square cm of driver. In essence they overcame the deficiencies they use to suffer from. As I pointed out previously they haven't disappeared at all, most subs still use today.

acoustic suspension - Bing

Intelligent search from Bing makes it easier to quickly find what you’re looking for and rewards you.

www.bing.com

I wasn't aware people actually used bing...