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Physics Question: Why does cabinet volume matter so much to bass response?

If you put the same 8' woofer into a bookshelf speaker or a floorstander, you will get a different frequency response.  Does anyone know what's happening with the air pressure on the inside of the cabinet to cause this to happen?  Does the woofer in the bigger cabinet have greater excursion, and therefore produce more amplitude?  

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djones51
4,947 posts
 

Newer designs like the Devialet Phantoms manipulate Hoffman’s Iron Law using DSP and crazy amounts of power to get bass in small enclosures.

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,290 posts
 

By the way, that was a very good question OP!👍

erik_squires
16,118 posts
 

The simplest answer is that the air in the cabinet forms part of the suspension.

Before box speakers everything was pretty much close to open air/open baffle designs.

 

 

4krowme's avatar
4krowme
542 posts
 

  Never knew much about them, but I remember seeing a driver that was mounted in a closet door. This was back in the 50's.

 

  I agree that the volume of the cabinet will dictate the amount of air suspension that the woofer is given. It is also important to know that the cabinet volume will determine the resonance of the cabinet itself. Think of different sized bottles and the sound that they make when blown over.

marined OP
6 posts
 

I asked this exact question to Richard Vandersteen a few days ago.  I own his 5A's, and he literally has a section on his website called, "Ask Richard."  So i went ahead and asked him.  This was his response:

There are 100s of books and unlimited resources available online that will explain speaker design in detail for you.  I’m very busy and don’t have that kind of time.  RV

I managed to actually piss off Richard Vandersteen! Oops!

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