Rei-nventing the wheel
Thread Starter
50 Watt CAFz'r
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 456
As I sit and ponder solutions to everyday car audio challenges, I wonder if a speaker could use a mechanical suspension rather than a box full of air to control cone motion.
What if instead of a large enclosure, you took a really small enclosure (just enough to isolate the rear wave) and mounted a damped piston (air over oil?) to it, inorder to 'simulate' the compliance of a certain volume of air? The benefit would be: reduced enclosure size, and tunability. I cannot think of any real downside to this, aside from cost. Physics guru's, does this idea have any merit, or is it just re-inventing the wheel...
What if instead of a large enclosure, you took a really small enclosure (just enough to isolate the rear wave) and mounted a damped piston (air over oil?) to it, inorder to 'simulate' the compliance of a certain volume of air? The benefit would be: reduced enclosure size, and tunability. I cannot think of any real downside to this, aside from cost. Physics guru's, does this idea have any merit, or is it just re-inventing the wheel...
Neat concept.. Iam not exactly sure what that piston is supposed to be (air over oil?)... but it looks like a spring to me... and if thats the case then Iam not sure it would work in princible...
the spring/piston is going to add mechanical resistance to that area of the box... but when you add volume to a box you are decreasing mechanical resistance.
So you are doing the opposite of what you want to do....
I think what you are looking for is something that will ABSORB the rear wave... to my knoledge the only good way to do this is to stuff your box with insulaion or other damping material...
If you can come up with a mechanical device that absorbs the pressure and transforms it into heat.. then it will work...
might be time to build a prototype if you think you've come up with something... [img]graemlins/beer.gif[/img]
the spring/piston is going to add mechanical resistance to that area of the box... but when you add volume to a box you are decreasing mechanical resistance.
So you are doing the opposite of what you want to do....
I think what you are looking for is something that will ABSORB the rear wave... to my knoledge the only good way to do this is to stuff your box with insulaion or other damping material...
If you can come up with a mechanical device that absorbs the pressure and transforms it into heat.. then it will work...
might be time to build a prototype if you think you've come up with something... [img]graemlins/beer.gif[/img]
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Well the largest the box would be is the size with the piston compressed to it's fullest. So if you build a .3 cubic foot box and the area added with the piston at full compression was .1 the largest the box would ever be is .4. Of course that is assuming that the sub and amp could deliver the kind of displacement to even move the piston.
yes I was thnking that aswell, but would the immediate dampening of the piston effect the pressure on the woofer, Even if the box only get a little bigger, would the emmediate movement dampening of the spring effect the waves more than just having that much bigger of a box?
Guest
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I don't like to talk about waves in a sub box, it really means nothing, the waves are sometimes three times longer than the box and can't even develop inside the enclosure. I think of a sub box and sub similar to a compressor, it doesn't matter the shape of the tank or where you put the pump, it's gonna get filled with air, at the frequencies we are dealing with the shape of the enclosure and placement of the sub really have little effect on the performance of the speaker system.
I mean how much difference in performance would there be between .3 and .4? Both would suck and you would always be somewhere between those volumes.
I mean how much difference in performance would there be between .3 and .4? Both would suck and you would always be somewhere between those volumes.
true enough.....was just wondering if the immediate impact of the sub would even be able to move the dampening device, it might just presurize the air and by the time the dampener starts moving the note would have already been played.......I am on the same train of thought that you are, just thinking of all the possibilities.
50 Watt CAFz'r
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 295
i like the idea, kinda like adding a hydrolic ram to a speaker, only problem is that hydrolic rams are slow. Anyhow cool idea [img]graemlins/thumb.gif[/img]
[ October 03, 2004, 06:03 AM: Message edited by: mister steve ]
[ October 03, 2004, 06:03 AM: Message edited by: mister steve ]
