O.K................CAUTION!.....................after researching ''EXPANDED POLYSTYRENE''(which comes in standard ''soft'' grade and higher quality ''hard'' grade which is what I am currently experimenting with) and ''EXTRUDED POLYSTYRENE'' a.k.a. ''BLUCOR'', ''PINKCOR'', ''STYROFOAM'' made by DOW and OWEN CORNINGS,..................these are two COMPLETELY DIFFERENT products.
I have the data sheets for expanded and extruded here in front of me and they differ considerably.
Even though the ''extruded'' poly is harder and stronger, its also HEAVIER(''density'' measurement)
...............nearly twice that of expanded polystyrene, and designed for a certain range of building material purposes.
Please remember this fact when you go hunting for sheets of commomly referred to ''styrofoam'' in the U.S.You may not get what you think you have got
I know this is all confusing, (confuses the hell out of me
) but take this as an example: both EXPANDED and EXTRUDED polystyrene comes in 5 different grades in the U.S.
The extruded Dow stuff has a stronger compressive strength than expanded polystyrene but at a cost...........as mentioned above........................this is going backwards I'm afraid.
If I hold two identical pieces of Gatorfoam and VH grade expanded polystyrene(twice as thick), the Gatorfoam may as well be a brick in comparison!This one fact alone is why there has been a sudden and dramatic change in the performance compared to the past.
It's the one thing that makes everything else irrelevant and slides that irrelelvance towards the ''NXT modelling'' laws rather than what we are doing here.
Anyhow, besides all of the crud I just mentioned, having re-read ALL of the Podium speaker reviews(and there are quite a few
) and reading Shelley Katz's comments between the lines and in interviews, some facts on our poor man's version are beginning to surface
The elusive ''honeycomb, mylar coated Nomex shit'' has it's problems...........don't you worry about that my little sunshines
...............some of the secrets and problems Katz was faced with are beginning to gel with me!
...........all that stress I put up with, the wasted time and money will begin to pay off soon.
I now know how this technology can work for you.............not against you............the output levels, the bass, the reason for Katz's ''rounded corners'' and his problems with what to do with the edges of ''cut honeycomb panels''.
Here's a closing FACT.............I kid you not............The Podium speakers have their panels mounted directly ''inside'' the frames
................I have documentation that specifically advises AGAINST that practice!..................remember.............
the ''edges'' produce sound also
..............now, think about that ''frame''???????
This is an incredibly complex journey in to acoustics and physics............enough to scare the crap out of anyone.....................but not me............never...............becau
se we have broken the wild horse!
