Infinite baffle sub OK with most speakers?

[JonW]

Hey Guys,

Sorry, but I still don't know what you're talking about. I'm not yet up on the lingo here. For woofers, I was thinking about using 3 of the Ascedant Avalanche 15". The IB folks seem to really like these. Because of a wall under the hole (there in the basement) I can only fit woofers on 3 sides of the box.

[Timn8ter]

Hey Guys,

Sorry, but I still don't know what you're talking about. I'm not yet up on the lingo here. For woofers, I was thinking about using 3 of the Ascedant Avalanche 15". The IB folks seem to really like these. Because of a wall under the hole (there in the basement) I can only fit woofers on 3 sides of the box.

Hey Jon,
They are referring to the Qt of the driver which is a combination of the mechanical (Qm) and the electrical (Qe) suspension compliance. To put it simply, drivers with a high Qt, say over .6, are better able to maintain cone control in an infinite baffle application because they rely less on the air inside a box acting as a "spring" on the back of the cone for help.
As for Thomas' comments, I would agree. It may seem great at first but after a while you're going to get tired of the bass compression coming from someplace other than the soundstage created by your mains. If you can't get the IB reasonbly close to that point it may be best to look at another solution, especially considering how much you are about to invest.

[JonW]

Hey Jon,
They are referring to the Qt of the driver which is a combination of the mechanical (Qm) and the electrical (Qe) suspension compliance. To put it simply, drivers with a high Qt, say over .6, are better able to maintain cone control in an infinite baffle application because they rely less on the air inside a box acting as a "spring" on the back of the cone for help.

Got it. Thanks for the explanation.

As for Thomas' comments, I would agree. It may seem great at first but after a while you're going to get tired of the bass compression coming from someplace other than the soundstage created by your mains. If you can't get the IB reasonbly close to that point it may be best to look at another solution, especially considering how much you are about to invest.

Yes, good point. The hole is already there in the floor, I'm up for a DIY project, and I'm about to put together a whole stereo system. So the IB sounds perfect. However, if the placement is poor, it may not be a good idea. When I get home (I'm traveling at the moment) I'll have to see if I can do some testing on the location. I don't know anyone with a sub to borrow and I don't even have a stereo system to hook the sub up to. I've got some computer speakers at work- a Klipsch system with 4 speakers + sub and the sub is supposedly 160 W or something. I'll test the room with that, because it's all I've got. Then we'll see what I find. I certainly hope it's OK. But if it's not... And even if it sounds OK with my whimpy computer sub, I'm not sure that's a good test for whether or not I should build an IB, Hmmm...