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ESL enclosures


Has anybody ever seen an enclosed ESL?

I have never seen this subject tackled or discussed, i have never even heard of an enclosed ESL.

Has anyone ever seen an enclosed ESL? Anybody know why ESL's have no enclosure?

Ive dont alot of searching, but i have yet to find anything that addresses this topic.

I see that when using dynamic drivers, the point of the enclosure is to trap the rear radiating sound waves to prevent cancellation of the lower frequencys. Then there are loudspeakers with dynamic drivers like the AAlon Lotus Elite which only uses a baffle for the mids and highs, but no enclosure.

just about everything i have read will state the point that without the enclosure the non-directional frequencys cancel eachother out, thus resulting in the lack of bass.

Could placing an ESL in an enclosure extend the lower frequencys of the driver as in dynamic? Or does the resulting damping interfere with the ESL's preformance?

From the construction techniques used for ESL drivers, it should be difficult to ensure the box is air tight with the driver installed.

When it boils down to it, the actual driver motion of an ESL is no different than that of a dynamic driver. The membane vibrates forwards and backwards just as a dynamic drivers cone. Its just the process of causing the movement that really differs.

Any takers on this one?
slappy
tireguy
1,964 posts
 
With a sealed enclosure its seems logical to assume that it may damage the membrane- I don't think its designed to deal with pressure. I think using lens' would work best because your, your diffusing the rear wave. I know some guys like "wings" on there speakers but that's the older days(long before guys like us were around Slappy :), also it seems to be popular with guys in smaller rooms- helps channel seperation.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
The whole point of planar drivers is to get rid of the box sound. The LF cancellation effect has been exaggerated.
unsound
7,329 posts
 
Eldartford, the "LF cancellation effect" is very real and some individuals may have room and placement restriction issues. There is more to planar drivers than elimination of "box sound". Amongst other things, many are enamoured by the apparent speed and line source presentation afforded by panels.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
In the 70s there was a SuperQuad, which was ESLs just sitting inside an enclosure with Kef 139s woofers on one side of the enclosure. I do not think, however, that this is what you are talking about. Enclosing Quads into a sealed compartment would cut their efficiency in half I suspect.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Unsound...Agreed that LF cancellation is a real phenomna: I just said that, as a problem, it's exaggerated. An ordinary cone driver in a open flat baffle suffers greatly from LF cancellation, but Magnepan (for example) has tweeked up the membrane with tension and weights so as to achieve flat response comparable to box speakers.
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