Gino wrote on Mon, 08 September 2008 12:31 |
but if not reversing the polarity wouldnt the sound be driven into a sealed compression chamber?? i understand the sound should be driven thru the throat of the horn? i must be wrong...
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I'm not sure if my English is good enough to explain this and I'm really busy at the moment but i'll try...
If you play one frequency, lets say 50Hz, the driver moves 50 times/second back and forward. If you now reverse the polarity it just changes the direction that the cone starts it's movement. It still moves 50 times/second. Because of long wavelenghts most of the time it doesn't matter much which way it is as long as you take into account the space the driver takes. But when you cross over the speaker to another you want them to be in the same phase or they will cancel each other on the overlapping frequency range.
And here is what David Trotter has said:
By making the USB to match the lab sub however, it was no longer possible to mount the drivers in the traditional forward firing configuration. It was therefore decided that the drivers would be reverse loaded and fire backwards through the magnet. In doing so, the front chamber has been made smaller, decreasing efficiency slightly around 60Hz, but the rear chamber is now larger, increasing sub bass response. Apart from this, there is no loss in output (as a driver acts like a piston) and there are actually some advantages:
1. The magnet now has a direct heat path to the outside and a cooling effect due to airflow over the magnet. This eliminates heat build up in the driver chamber, decreases power compression (loss in output due to heat) and allows for greater power handling.
2. The magnet acts like a phase-bung; to an extent, reducing path length differences and giving a much cleaner sound and flatter response.
3. Mounting the driver is a lot easier
4. There is protection of the paper cone due to the basket.
5. It is actually possible to reach round the horn and check on the magnet temperature!