Side firing bass designs - Pros & Cons?...

Sean, how about Audio Physics?

The pros are a narrower front baffle, for better imaging, like a mini-monitor. The cons are they require a little more care in setting up. If the woofers fire into the wall they can overpower the sound. Many manufacturers are going this direction now. Audio Physics, Canton and my Vienna Acoustics to name a few. They try to better blend a monitor/subwoofer in one cabinet. The days with all front firing drivers in a rectangular box seem to be dwindling. Even speakers that have all forward firing drivers tend to not be rectangular, going with a form of pyramid shape. The main goal is to make the front baffle as small as possible to eliminate early reflections that can muffle the sound a tad. My Strauss' have 10" side-firing woofers crossed over at 70 hz. So they are basically subwoofers, and low frequency is not directional, meaning humans cannot detect where the sound is coming from. That is why subwoofer placement isn't as critical as speaker placement. I have my woofers facing in. I've found that when facing out they had too much wall reflection and the bass was a little overpowering and slow. It is tighter and quicker when firing in, IMHO. My previous speakers had 10 forward firing woofers and a wider front baffle (12" compared to 7.7" wide)than my current ones. My current speakers image better, meaning I can locate instruments within the soundstage better than with the other ones. They almost image as well as the best small monitors, but with much better bass. I hope this was somewhat helpful.

Regards,
John

Sean, I feel like I'm your Dad. I lived with several versions of Legacy speakers from 1986-2000. I've since moved on to Vienna Acoustics. FWIW, I thought the Legacy speakers were a great value when I first heard them, in 1986. I think their quality slipped some over the years. The VA's are placement sensitive, you have to keep those side firing woofers away from surfaces that can be reflective, such as walls. When I had the woofer (1 in my Strauss) firing out towards the wall, the bass was slow and muddy, as I mentioned earlier. In my room, they need to be out at least 2.5-3 feet from the rear wall, with the woofers firing inwards. This will allow the rear port to 'breath', and the bass will tighten up quite nicely. In my experiences, you really cannot judge the true sound of the VA's in a Tweeter chain store, they really have no idea how to set them up. They don't use quality equipment either. I've actually seen them have the Mahler's ($10K) being demo'd with the speakers in a corner, being driven by a Denon 70 wpc receiver and a Pioneer dvd player. It sounded horrible. You'd think they'd put a little more effort into trying to sell $10K speakers.

BTW, I do have 3 sons, ages 12-19, one named Shane, but they don't have any interest in my hobby.

Regards,
John