Loudspeaker Enclosure - History

History

Early on, radio loudspeakers consisted of horns, often sold separately from the radio itself, (typically a small wood box containing the radio's electronic circuits), so they were not usually housed in an enclosure. When paper cone loudspeaker drivers were introduced in the mid 1920s, radio cabinets began to be made larger to enclose both the electronics and the loudspeaker. These cabinets were made largely for the sake of appearance, with the loudspeaker simply mounted behind a round hole in the cabinet. It was observed that the enclosure had a strong effect on the bass response of the speaker. Since the rear of the loudspeaker radiates sound out of phase from the front, there can be constructive and destructive interference for loudspeakers without enclosures, and below frequencies related to the baffle dimensions in open-baffled loudspeakers (described in Background section, below). This results in a loss of bass and comb filtering (i.e. response peaks and dips in power regardless of the signal meant to be reproduced).

Before the 1950s many manufacturers did not fully enclose their loudspeaker cabinets; the back of the cabinet was typically left open. This was done for several reasons, not least because electronics (at that time tube equipment) could be placed inside and cooled by convection in the open enclosure.

Most of the enclosure types discussed in this article were invented either to wall off the out of phase sound from one side of the driver, or to modify it so that it could be used to enhance the sound produced from the other side. However, a few designs have ventured in a different direction, attempting to incorporate the natural acoustic properties of the cabinet material rather than deaden it, and shape the cabinet so that the rear can remain open and still provide good bass response with limited comb filtering.