Anyone here heard one of these up close and personal ? From what I have 'read' they seem to be the way to go, if you have the attic or closet or garage space for the back wave..
Check out the 'Cult of the Infinitely Baffled' for info and photos.. www.f20.parsimony.net/forum36475/
No big box in the main room, smoooooooth responce, double use of same drivers if mounted against a common wall to the game room or garage, etc.. And the price is great, compaired to boxed units..
Yes, there is a little woodworking involved, but for do it yourselfers that just sweetens the pot !
Again, I have not heard one of these myself, but as Alan made reference to them in the latest news letter, I thought it would be fun to open this topic up for discussion..

Thanks for the link! I'd love to know how one of these things sounds.

I need an attic!

uumm.. interesting.. i have never seen that before. i have seen 'in-wall' speakers, but this is a whole other demon. interesting idea, to use you attic as the bass chamber.

i just dont see that kind of set up getting the same thump and low 'feel it in your chest' kinda bass, but ya never know.

i will just stick my little sub in the corner, and hope for the best.

bigjohn

Actually, the back room (attic, basement, etc.) of an infinite baffle sub isn't supposed to act like a chamber at all. It's supposed to be large enough that the air behind the driver really doesn't interact with the driver. In other words, it's supposed to act like "free air" as if there was no room there at all.

Basically, an IB sub is supposed to move a lot of air very cleanly.

OK.. well then, i thought i understood the concept, and now after you explained it, i am clueless?

the "free air" part is what i dont get? i went back and looked at the pics, and some of the speaker boxes were sealed, some wernt? are those elemenst of design, function, sound, or necesity? even i can go cut a hole in the wall and stick a speaker in it and run a speaker wire to it.. doesnt mean it is gonna sound good?

bigjohn

I imagine that they must take absolutely huge amps. Have you ever heard a driver without a cabinet? Not very loud...

The difference is that the speaker is coupled to your room. The listening room IS the cabinet.

Negative.. It's a pain, but if you read thru all the threads listed there, you will see that it actually takes "Less" power ! This is because there is no back pressure for the cone to have to work against.. Remember, the problem with boxed subs is the air 'inside' the box.. Compress it, port it, or whatever, but it has to be dealt with.. The sweet thing with an IB is the total 'lack' of pressure build up on the back stroke.. The pressure is the same on both sides..
Instead of using brute force to hammer the air, you use a smooth even power over the entire freg range..

the box is indeed sealed, with one opening, the manifold.. This single opening is what you would see from the main room.. The box would be sitting on top the ceiling or attached to the wall, and be on the other side of the main room.. Like an air conditioning unit on a house..
And the construction is very simple.. The box only has to be big enough to allow the speaker to be attached.. 15 inch speaker, 18 to 20 inch square side.. Think really really simple on the design, as there is just no trick to them at all.. Some of those photos show some pretty slick jobs, but bottom line, a simple box with an opening on one side.. Some 15 inch holes cut, any old amp you got laying around, and you're in business... If the box is up in the attic, or in the garage or closet, you dont even have to care what it looks like.. No finish, no painting, no nothing !
Remember, there are two types.. Hole in the wall, speaker filling hole... Or, multiple speakers in a box, box attached to the wall..

Heh. Shows what I know. Thanks for the correction!

Now if only I owned a house...

Does the sound change when you pull the Buick in the garage?

that is awesome. i love it! reminds me of the craziness of sub placement and custom mounts for cars. Bigger the trunk...the better the port, the larger the pump.

I can't do it unless I position that same box in my living room, and that will definately not pass the wife test. Maybe if I design it to look like a coffee table I can fool the wife into believing...

I'm sure that solution lays a lot of foundation, but probably doesn't have any punch... but isn't that the responsibility of the M60s?!

Hi,

Yep, enormous amplifiers, although the purpose of sticking the driver in the wall of one room is to prevent the bass energy from sneaking around and canceling out the bass waves from the back of the driver. That's why a driver with no enclosure isn't loud, because all the bass cancels out.
Remember, bass is omnidirectional.

I haven't heard an infinite baffle speaker in years, but they go way, way back to the early audiophile days in the '50s. Edgar Villchur, the founder of AR, and the inventor of the "acoustic suspension" compact sealed bookshelf enclosure used the infinite baffle as a starting point. He developed a woofer with a very loose suspension such that it would operate almost as though it were in an infinite baffle installation. The first AR bookshelf speakers would produce bass to below 30 Hz, but they were very insensitive and required large amplifiers. Nevertheless, they produced much smoother and deeper bass than big, folded-horn enclosures of that era, and were, by comparison, quite compact.

Regards,