Direct or Reflect ... What's your flavor


Was thinking about this from another thread. When we think of a basic speaker we usually think of monopoles. That is, speakers with a single baffle or plane from which sound emanates out of to the room, but as long as I can remember there are examples at all price ranges of speakers designed specifically to reflect, or whose basic construction forced rear or side reflections. Among the "forced to reflect" categories:

  • Electro static speakers (Martin Logan, Sanders, etc.)
  • Open Baffle / di-pole
Then we have ambient reflectors, which I include:
  • Bose 901 and smaller direct/reflecting models
  • Snell with their rear tweets
  • Wilson 
  • Probably numerous others
Let be clear though, NONE of these ambient reflectors are accurate. None of these latter elements can be called a way of credibly and accurately increasing the transmission of information from the recording to our ears. To my mind these are all in the land of bass shakers. They add some pizzazz and excitement, and perhaps an illusionary venue.

So, still, for your music and tastes, who has gone with di-poles or ambient reflecting speakers and never looked back?
erik_squires

Showing 5 responses by erik_squires

One other point needing to be made is that monopole loudspeakers (forward-firing enclosure designs) are monopoles at only certain frequencies



We're now conflating dispersion with speaker topology, which I was trying to get at. Besides, even when the driver is significantly narrower than the frequency so as to cause wide dispersion, the dipole still behaves very differently.

Best,

E
I wish somebody would come out with a contemporary version of the Definitive Technology BP 20.


You know, I'm kind of surprised no one is making add-on speakers to turn any speaker into a bipolar.  Self-powered, self calibrating accessories that would do more for you than a lot of tweaks. :)
@audiokinesis

I read no argument there.  The truth is we are all here to figure out what kind of illusions we like the most. Then we argue what measurements and tools make this illusion more easy to define and achieve.

Best,

Erik
@mrdecibel 

OK, maybe the 901s were not, but a lot of future Bose speakers were. :)