Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Tweakers' Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

I'm not quite clear what you're suggesting…

Posted by David Aiken (A) on April 24, 2010 at 23:47:14

In Reply to: Infinite baffle/coffee table design idea solicitation posted by dmzwizard@yahoo.com on April 24, 2010 at 18:18:28:

Is this speaker connected to an amp and being driven?

I get the feeling you're talking about using an unconnected speaker as a trap. When pressure is high in the room, the driver moves inwards into the box, reducing volume in the sealed box and increasing volume in the room slightly, and as pressure in the room decreases the opposite occurs. Effectively the unconnected speaker acts to reduce pressure variation in the room and that's also what bass traps do: reduce pressure variation at bass frequencies.

Certainly many people have commented over the years about how having unused speakers in a room can affect the bass behaviour of the speakers being used, weakening it.

I suspect that theoretically you could build a bass trap this way but how you would go about determining the size of the enclosure and the size of the driver(s) used plus the stiffness of the suspension in order to ensure optimal broad band response is beyond me. I also have no idea of whether such a trap is going to be any cheaper than a DIY bass trap made using one of the standard bass trap designs. It would, however, still end up being big and visible, and would also need to be placed in a high pressure area like normal bass traps in order to achieve maximum performance. That probably means placing it somewhere else than you would place a coffee table.

If you've got a couple of spare infinite baffle speakers or if you can borrow some, play with them. Simply connect the + and - terminals on each speaker and then play with placing the speakers in your room at various locations including where you want to place your coffee table. See if you think they make a positive difference. If they don't, and I suspect you simply won't get enough effect wherever it is you want your coffee table if that is well away from the walls, then you have good reason for giving up on the idea unless you or someone else can come up with a detailed design for enclosure size and drivers to be used.


David Aiken

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---