Hi all,
I am getting closer to being able to start my open baffle project.
I have a pair of Audio Nirvana Super 15s I want to use for this project.
The wife has said if they are white and round she is ok with them.
Therefore I designed a circular baffle with rounded edges that sits on steel leg stands.
I have had the steel legs made by a friend and they look great.
A render of what I am thinking of is below:
However I read the other day that circular baffles are the worst shape to make a baffle from.
I downloaded Edge and modeled the speaker. I don't know if I am looking at something "good enough" or "bad" when looking at the frequency curve.
In fact, it looks "better" than the rectangle baffle that I modeled next to it, just for comparison's sake.
And here is the rectangle one (Please note the green line is for the circular baffle, red for the rectangular in the rectangular picture):
I have also read that rounding the corners of a baffle helps fight bad diffraction effects.
What are your thoughts?
Do you think the modeled speaker in Edge is "good enough" (especially considering I will round the corners)?
I'm not wrong in thinking that the rectangular one is worse am I?
I have moved the driver around the baffle in the rectangular design and it doesn't get any better than what I captured in the screenshot...
PS I would like the circular design to work, as I think it is visually pleasing, but as long as it sounds ok!
Edit: I should note I am planning monopole subwoofers crossed over via miniDSP to augment the bass section of the design, so the loss of bass from having "smaller" baffles will be mitigated. The circular baffles are 54cm x 54cm, the rectangular is 54cm x 60cm in size.
I am getting closer to being able to start my open baffle project.
I have a pair of Audio Nirvana Super 15s I want to use for this project.
The wife has said if they are white and round she is ok with them.
Therefore I designed a circular baffle with rounded edges that sits on steel leg stands.
I have had the steel legs made by a friend and they look great.
A render of what I am thinking of is below:
However I read the other day that circular baffles are the worst shape to make a baffle from.
I downloaded Edge and modeled the speaker. I don't know if I am looking at something "good enough" or "bad" when looking at the frequency curve.
In fact, it looks "better" than the rectangle baffle that I modeled next to it, just for comparison's sake.
And here is the rectangle one (Please note the green line is for the circular baffle, red for the rectangular in the rectangular picture):
I have also read that rounding the corners of a baffle helps fight bad diffraction effects.
What are your thoughts?
Do you think the modeled speaker in Edge is "good enough" (especially considering I will round the corners)?
I'm not wrong in thinking that the rectangular one is worse am I?
I have moved the driver around the baffle in the rectangular design and it doesn't get any better than what I captured in the screenshot...
PS I would like the circular design to work, as I think it is visually pleasing, but as long as it sounds ok!
Edit: I should note I am planning monopole subwoofers crossed over via miniDSP to augment the bass section of the design, so the loss of bass from having "smaller" baffles will be mitigated. The circular baffles are 54cm x 54cm, the rectangular is 54cm x 60cm in size.
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I say go for it. Let your ears be the ultimate judge 🙂
You can always tape on some cardboard to temporarily change the baffle shape to see if certain shapes sound worse or better to you.
Anyway, I don't think baffle step diffraction is as large of a problem for dipoles than for monopoles. The acoustic outputs null out at 90 degrees.
You can always tape on some cardboard to temporarily change the baffle shape to see if certain shapes sound worse or better to you.
Anyway, I don't think baffle step diffraction is as large of a problem for dipoles than for monopoles. The acoustic outputs null out at 90 degrees.
That worst case is with the driver centred on the circular baffle. The offset makes it better (if you model it centred vs. offset, the difference should be clear).
Moving the driver off-centre is a good thing on most baffles.
The difference between the rectangle and circle are small in the simulation. Adding the subwoofers will equalize the differences between the two baffle shapes so I say go for the one that looks best to you (and your significant other). Personally, anything open baffle sounds good to me and anything 15" sounds good to me too. I expect they will sound really good.
You could mitigate the downsides by making it as big as you can get away with.......that way you can place the driver as eccentrically as possible 
Radiation from a rigid circular piston in a finite circular open baffle
Buff, with minimum dipoles like these, The Edge is not half acurate enough.
Have a look here:
Electro-acoustic models
And more especially here:
http://www.mellowacoustics.com/articles/Disk_in_a_circular_baffle.pdf
Buff, with minimum dipoles like these, The Edge is not half acurate enough.
Have a look here:
Electro-acoustic models
And more especially here:
http://www.mellowacoustics.com/articles/Disk_in_a_circular_baffle.pdf
Hi all,
Thanks for your kind responses.
GDO, I read through the pages you linked. Thanks for posting those.
In both articles, they were also measuring speakers mounted in the center of a circular baffle, which is worst case.
My main concerns would be offensive-sounding frequency peaks and nulls, and over-directionality.
But being a large full-range driver, it is likely to be on the directional side to begin with!
If I had my way I would put them in giant 250L coffins.
But it's that or my marriage, so I'll take marriage for now 😉
Thanks fellas.
Thanks for your kind responses.
GDO, I read through the pages you linked. Thanks for posting those.
In both articles, they were also measuring speakers mounted in the center of a circular baffle, which is worst case.
My main concerns would be offensive-sounding frequency peaks and nulls, and over-directionality.
But being a large full-range driver, it is likely to be on the directional side to begin with!
If I had my way I would put them in giant 250L coffins.
But it's that or my marriage, so I'll take marriage for now 😉
Thanks fellas.
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