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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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In Reply to: Alternative explanation for subjective preference of sealed boxes posted by Duke on December 23, 2009 at 13:13:21:
What about energy storage? Most vented boxes have a Q of 0.9-1.1 (gives a fat underdamped bass) whereas the optimal sealed box design has a total Q of 0.6-0.707. The higher the Q the more energy storage and the longer settling time a system has.
I used to have the Infinity IRS Beta, which had separate bass cabinets with 4 12 inch woofers per side in a sealed box. These were servo controlled by the use of an accelerometer on the voice coil of one woofer per box. The signal was sent to the "brain" that compared the motion with the signal and applied a corrective signal to make the bass match the signal. Now, one of the cool features was a Q control that allowed you to adjust Q from about 1.2 down to 0.5 or so. The difference in the bass quality was shocking (now remember this is in a sealed box so it is purely electronic control) and went from loose/bloated at the highest Q setting to techno beat tight at the lowest Q. Not surprisingly, the optimal Q came around 0.7 and this gave a tight yet well rounded bass. Optimal sealed boxes always shoot for this goal. I know of very few vented systems that come close to a Q of 0.7. I don't know this for a fact but by listening I would guess that the Wilson Grand SLAMM MkI had a Q closer to 0.7 as it is quite tight and fast sounding for a vented system.
Notes sound slow when energy is built up and sustained for (relatively) long periods. Bells have very high Q values and as you know they store and reradiate energy for quite some seconds and in a narrow bandwidth. Vented systems with a high Q tend to sound "one notey" for the same reason.
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Follow Ups
- The total system Q is a big factor - morricab 04:19:00 01/05/10 (0)
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