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time-aligned speakers: stepped fronts vs. sloping fronts

Let me first say my understanding of these things is rudimentary.

But I was thinking about manufacturers who used stepped back fronts (several vertical planes) to achieve so-called time-alignment, vs. those who slope back the whole front baffle at a certain angle/rake.

Thinking about, for instance, the tweeter driver mounted on a sloped baffle, won't its axis of radiation be shooting at a corresponding angle upward, meaning that a listener located directly in front of the speaker and with ears at tweeter height would already be listening off-axis?  Or am I missing something?  Or is that the point?

128x128twoleftears

Showing 1 response by erik_squires

erik_squires
15,877 posts
 
You are correct, but a lot of tweeters sound better off-axis.


It's up to the designer to balance the off-axis response, with the crossover, to yield the best tonal balance.

As Graveson has noted, sometimes we design speakers for listening at the tweeter axis and find we prefer listening one driver down.  Some speakers are deliberately designed with mid-woofer over tweeter, and designed to be llistened on mid-woofer axis.


This is a good experiment with most speakers, try listening below the tweeter. :)
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