AJ,
I asked for a challenge, not for something simple that I already addressed.
I have 5 drivers that make bass on 16.5" centers in floor to ceiling arrays.
While the center driver has a 1st order highpass filter at 125hz, that will
have no effect. The simple explanation of why they must behave as line
arrays in the lower frequencies is because the sound has nowhere else to
go, so it must expand in a cylindrical manner. The ceiling and floor prevent
vertical dispersion.
Outside would be a totally different story. To realistically obtain array behavior
outdoors for frequencies below 100hz you would need to go horizontal with
multiple woofers properly spaced to get the necessary line length. If I bring
mine on a beach trip, I'll have to adjust the XO & EQ appropriately for outdoor
use because otherwise I'd have point source transition to array back to point
source. The easiest solution would probably be to just lower the XO point of
the woofer flanking the coax to keep it point source throughout.
I'm lucky that most of my ideas work in the manner intended, but I also believe
that you make your own luck. I don't just throw drivers on pieces of wood and
keep my fingers crossed. I come up with an idea and develop a plan with a firm
foundation in science. I admit that I did have my fingers crossed when I first
cranked up my OB/RLH's, which remain the world's only single drive unit OB speaker
of reasonable size capable of full range at meaningful SPLs. There's a statement
for you to challenge.
