[Val]

With HT at the center of home entertainment, more speakers mean smaller speakers so don't expect acoustic suspension to raise from the ashes anytime soon. I second the ATC recommendation, and a specially good new model is their new SCM12 that has received rave reviews, but it needs lots of power as is generally true of ATC.

Val

[markrohr]

Hi EMM,

This is a chicken-or-egg question. If you peruse the catalogs of available drivers--as I did before I made some DIY speakers--you will find there are very, very few woofers being made today that are suitable for a sealed-box design.

Now, whether the driver manufacturers stopped developing them first, or the speaker manufacturers stopped using them, don't know.

I personally prefer sealed-box bass, and the earlier roll-off is moot since I use a sub anyway.

Perhaps the speaker manufacturers liked to be able to say their designs go lower--a vented speaker will go lower (flat) in the bass by about 1/3 octave in the same size box. Looks better on paper, even though the sealed box speaker will likely have some usable output even lower than that.

regards,

Mark

[DVV]

Hi EMM,

This is a chicken-or-egg question. If you peruse the catalogs of available drivers--as I did before I made some DIY speakers--you will find there are very, very few woofers being made today that are suitable for a sealed-box design.

Now, whether the driver manufacturers stopped developing them first, or the speaker manufacturers stopped using them, don't know.

I personally prefer sealed-box bass, and the earlier roll-off is moot since I use a sub anyway.

Perhaps the speaker manufacturers ...

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said manufacturers wanted to brag better figures. In addition to this, a good sealed box is in some ways harder to make than a reflex box, at least these days, when the number and quality, and hence the price, of sealed box woofers is in opposition to their numbers. The numbers are shrinking, the prices are going up.

A pity, if you ask me. I can't remember many speakers which can compete with even my venerable AR94 speakers, which have the sort of bass to make you weep for joy. Deep enough to rattle your liver, but much cleaner and coherent than most comparable reflex designs. Of course, they have their share of problems elsewhere, but definitely not in the bass.

Cheers,
DVV