what are the constraints on box shape

dankamus

I have two 10" phoenix gold octane speakers that i want to install in a ford ranger. I determined that i only have room for one speaker with a 1.25ft3 enclosure between the seats. My question is if I mount both of them in a box separated in the middle and designed to position them behind the seats and then use the volume in between the seats creating an L-shaped (it would actually be T-shaped with each speaker separated by a divider in the middle of the box creating a L-shaped box for each speaker) enclosure would that cause problems with the waves in the box in a ported system. If so could I use the same design with a sealed box. I'm curious if this shape would cause interference or distortion in the way the sound waves travel through the box in either a sealed or ported box.

xeb

i'm far from an expert on this but I've just built a sealed box and the advice I got was that the shape has no effect... you just need to have the correct volume. I'm fairly the people who i got the plans from (and then modified myself) say the same for ported. have a look here: http://www.rythmikaudio.com/diy.html

ShinAce

Shape can have an effect.

The worst shape is a ball. Second worst is a cube. The more irregular, the better. It doesn't affect how the pressure wave travels, only how it bounces back.

Eric W

ShinAce wrote: »

Shape can have an effect.

The worst shape is a ball. Second worst is a cube. The more irregular, the better. It doesn't affect how the pressure wave travels, only how it bounces back.

Can you explain where this information came from? Cubes are fine provided they're properly braced (many of our and other manufacturers' home subwoofers are cubes) for sub applications. Spheres/balls may actually be the ideal enclosure because of it's self supporting nature (that's why bomb squads have spherical disposal chambers, because the sphere provides maximum support). But most users are not going to want a sphere subwoofer rolling around the floor.

If we're talking about midrange speakers then yes shape will have an effect because the wavelengths will be about the same size as the enclosure. However, for bass the wavelengths are so long that the shape of the box doesn't matter, particularly for a sealed enclosure.