- Enclosure Design -
Since we are using a woofer that has a very high Q, we are
in a situation where there is no "optimum" enclosure per se'.
High Q woofers should be used in sealed enclosures, and
the larger the enclosure, the lower the system Q will be.
But, it will never drop below the Q of the driver in free air,
so at some point we have to draw the line on the enclosure
volume due to practical size limits. In this case, I decided
to use a 2.0 cu. ft internal volume for the woofer, which
translates into a 16" tall, 24" wide, and 12" deep cabinet.
Even fully stuffed, this enclosure still leaves the system Q
very high, so a larger enclosure could be used if desired.
The midrange and tweeter are both fully sealed, so they
can simply be dropped into cutouts in the baffle.
I want to point out that the horizontal orientation of the
speaker is not critical to the design. This speaker could
just as easily be oriented vertically with the drivers aligned
down the center of the speaker. As a true garage speaker,
the horizontal orientation worked better for my application.
But, a vertical orientation would place the acoustic centers
of the drivers closer together, and may yield slightly better
integration between the three.
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