GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: A listening room for a domesticated Cat?

Post Subject: A ULF solution for my new listening roomPosted by Romy the Cat on: 10/3/2016

It looks to me that I will be able to live with my 6 driver line array. Again no measurements were made but it is what it “looks”. Sound-wise it is very reputable and I just might leave it as is. My current room is 6 larger to what I had in downtown Boston and running the identical configuration I will have fine result. I had slightly more solid lower bass in my Boston apartment. It is not something that is notable under normal circumstances but it rather something that I know knowing what I want to hear. It is not bass notes that are missing but a reference to the infinite “space” information at the bottom. In my Boston apartment I had it by having smaller room and in my Woburn house I had it employing ULF (Ultra Low Frequency) sections that were sitting on transition slope at 20Hz. My new room is 6 time larger for MF and perhaps 12 time larger at ULF as it has an open clearance to the rest of the house and share the same ULF space with my office, which in the same Romy’s Wing.

So, I am slowly begun to wondering what kind ULF solution I might look into. I am not a stage where I certain that I will go for it. I would like to have my playback to setup perfectly (it is not yet) and then I will make a decisions. Still, it does not prohibit me to think and to strategize.

First is the objective. I do not need my new ULF to operate in auditable region, so I am taking about sub 20 Hz. To stay with sealed configuration and to use let say 2x 18” driver per channel I will end up with 10-12 feet enclosures, something that I would not put in my room per esthetic reasons. To stick with ported configurations would give me some yield with size but it also will be prohibitly large and will end up with two refrigerators in the room. Even if I agree to use ports and deal with all crap that comes with it then the question would be how to power the thing and what the drivers to use. There is no good driver out there with Fs of 10-14 but to do it with 25Hz driver is pain. I can make driver to go 10hz in open air but this will be large and expensive project, I do not know if I have time and the important zeal to undertake it.

Alternative would be to mount a few drivers in sealant as I initials proposed in this thread, creating an infinite baffle. Again I will be faced the selection of driver, amplification, render everything and I do not know what would be the results and I did not deal with infinite baffles. I do not think that I will hit the numbers lower then my drivers free air resonance.

I might pooh- pooh resonance and the whole idea of mass-centricity and switch to pure velocity, driving the infinite baffle with negative output impedance. That would require doing a LOT of equalization and a lot of power to dissipate and I still have no knowledge to predict the result.

A promising alternative would be to use small enclosures with a lot of power, something similar to what Bob Carver did with his Sunfire subs. Bob Carver in a way a charlatan and his subs sound accordingly horrible but it might be dirty water where I could fish something. There is company out there that makes fully active devise that are small.

https://www.powersoundaudio.com/products/t18ht?variant=10539398788

I am sure that the T18HT will hit the right specification numbers but will it produce the proper ULF feeling that I need? This is the Carver’s technology + digital amplification = I naturally scare.

So, I am not sure what I want and not sure if I like what is out there and I do not know if I even need to look in this direction. Still, looking at my walls and sealant I am kind of drooling. If anyone dealt infinite baffle in regular house then I would like to hear from you. It is not a big deal to cut a few joists and to mount drivers in there but I am afraid if I load to the drivers 0.5kW then they will excite any lousy piece of wood in the house and I will end up with disaster…

Rgs, Romy The Cat

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