Loudspeaker Enclosure - Background

Background

In some respects, the ideal mounting for a low-frequency loudspeaker driver would be a rigid flat panel of infinite size with infinite space behind it. This would entirely prevent the rear sound waves from interfering (i.e., comb filter cancellations) with the sound waves from the front. An "open baffle" loudspeaker is an approximation of this, since the driver is mounted on a panel, with dimensions comparable to the lowest wavelength to be reproduced. In either case, the driver would need a relatively stiff suspension to provide the restoring force which might have been provided at low frequencies by a smaller sealed or ported enclosure, so few drivers are suitable for this kind of mounting.

The forward- and rearward-generated sounds of a speaker driver appear out of phase from each other because they are generated through opposite motion of the diaphragm and because they travel different paths before converging at the listener's position. A speaker driver mounted on a finite baffle will display a physical phenomenon known as interference which can result in a perceivable frequency-dependent sound attenuation. This phenomenon is particularly noticeable at low frequencies where the wavelengths are large enough that interference will affect the entire listening area.

Since infinite baffles are impractical and finite baffles tend to suffer poor response as wavelengths approach the dimensions of the baffle (i.e. at lower frequencies), most loudspeaker cabinets use some sort of structure (usually a box) to contain the out of phase sound energy. The box is typically made of wood, wood composite, or more recently plastic, for reasons of ease of construction and appearance. Stone, concrete, plaster, and even building structures have also been used.

Enclosures can have a significant effect beyond what was intended, with panel resonances, diffraction from cabinet edges and standing wave energy from internal reflection/reinforcement modes being among the possible problems. Bothersome resonances can be reduced by increasing enclosure mass or rigidity, by increasing the damping of enclosure walls or wall/surface treatment combinations, by adding stiff cross bracing, or by adding internal absorption. Wharfedale, in some designs, reduced panel resonance by using two wooden cabinets (one inside the other) with the space between filled with sand. Home experimenters have even designed speakers built from concrete, granite and other exotic materials for similar reasons.

Many diffraction problems, above the lower frequencies, can be alleviated by the shape of the enclosure, such as by avoiding sharp corners on the front of the enclosure. Research experiments from the 1930s by Dr. Harry F. Olson showed that curved loudspeaker baffles reduce some response deviations due to sound wave diffraction. It was discovered later that careful placement of a speaker on a sharp-edged baffle can reduce diffraction-caused response problems. Sometimes the differences in phase response at frequencies shared by different drivers can be addressed by adjusting the vertical location of the smaller drivers (usually backwards), or by leaning or 'stepping' the front baffle, so that the wavefront from all drivers is coherent at and around the crossover frequencies in the speaker's normal sound field. The acoustic center of the driver dictates the amount of rearward offset needed to "time-align" the drivers..