I am here trying to figure the best way to get the most amazing sound out of a portable outdoor speaker. The tough part for me is that I want it to be kind of small, maybe a couple feet wide and a couple feet tall, at most. It needs also to be somewhat lightweight, so its not a big deal to bring it out ... TO THE SKATEPARK. And my local skatepark is under a bridge where it is very loud. Also, the roof echoes 20-30 feet above. I also need this speaker to produce a wide sound, so that while you skate around, you can still coherently listen to the full spectrum of music. This brings into factor the "beaming" from drivers ( a 6 or 8 will start to beam around 1000hz, while a 3" wont beam until probably 2000hz). And yes, I need this thing to also play LOW. I really don't want to miss the information in the 40hz zone, because it really is part of the music for much of what I wish to play.
I want this thing to be STEREO, as well. Well its not going to create a super wide "image" because the speakers can only be a couple feet apart at most, but in my experiments, I can still produce the sort of sound that you might hear from a larger stereo "in the other room".
Any suggestions would be awesome! The desire for less cabinet and more sensitivity is what has me obsessing over peoples OB experiences on forums like this one, so THANKS for posting!
I would like to share what is on my mind, though. This has caused me to Post here, because I notice people install speakers without understanding them, in many cases. Take it for what you might: i do notice that many people think of a driver as some sort of pistonic thing which produces the same resonances all around, but it is NOT LIKE THAT. If you notice, the part which is on the far side of the speaker leads produce the highest frequencies the driver can manage. This is because the leads dampen the sound. So what I am saying is: pay attention to how your drivers are positioned on the baffle. And each driver will be different! So test each driver running FULL RANGE and try to get the best sound by rotating it, and sometimes even aiming it slightly down or up. (you can use thick or doubled up speaker gasket tape to give yourself a MM or 2). I learned all this from installing car audio where integrating the speaker into the environment is essential.
---->>> Most speakers will "ring" their highest notes from a slightly different area, requiring speakers to be rotated slightly different than others ... likely less than a 2mm difference overall, but because our ears are so sensitive, it can be heard.
A speaker is like an instrument. it has to be tuned to the environment. Angling up or down, rotating it, angling it in or outwards ... that is how you tune it. From there you go into your crossovers and EQ tuning.
I just noticed that on the speakers many people post their drivers are rotated in all sorts of ways, and I wanted to bring this awareness to everyone: speakers might move like pistons, but they exude sound like a finely tuned instrument, with only certain portions of the instrument exuding the highest frequencies.