3-Way & 2-Way Speaker Arrangement

[Sput]

This may sound odd but why is it tweeter on top, midrange middle, bass bottom?
Why is the bass always on the bottom and the tweeter on top?

Why? Tell me.

Why up and down? Why not sideways?

[filper]

You never heard of bass heavy ?

That's why it's on the bottom.

[scotto]

Anyone remember the ol' Jensen Triaxials?
That three-way arrangement never caught on, did it?!

[Metralla]

High frequencies are more directional than lower frequencies. So putting the the tweeter at the top of a tower speaker box puts the tweeter at the same level as your ears.

Unless, of course, your head's up your ar**.

[Sput]

Unless, of course, your head's up your ar**.

Mine is. So I should do what...arrange the speakers assbackwards????;)

[Duggeh]

Mission usually put their tweeters below the woofers, even in designs with just the one woofer. They must think theres something advantageous to it.

[thinker10]

That could be a fast tweak for some bright sounding tweeter

I will try my Paradigm 5SE MKI upside down when I have a minute.

With stand that are too tall it might be just the thing to do.

Only problem is that lot of used speaker have there bottom scratch ...

It will load the bass to the floor/stand differently is my guess

Thanks

[Rolf Erickson]

[QUOTE=Metralla;2517732]High frequencies are more directional than lower frequencies. So putting the the tweeter at the top of a tower speaker box puts the tweeter at the same level as your ears.

This is essentialy the reason. But also the woofer being low-down can also, if placed on the floor, enhance low-end gain due to "semi-horn-loading" effects. But mostly, putting the highs up high, insures the distribution of trebble more directly to the listener.

[vinyl anachronist]

My Zu Druids have the 10 1/2" full-range driver on top, and the supertweeters below them. While a majority of speakers put the tweeters on top, and the woofers below, there are many, many variations on this theme. Most designers do place the tweeters at ear level, but then after that, anything goes. JBL sold those bookshelf speakers a few years ago that actually did have the drivers side by side, and they sounded pretty good. And those new speakers from the Horn Shoppe have two Fostex drivers side by side in each enclosure. The designer said it sounds better that way.

As far as coax speakers go, you still see a lot of concentric drivers where the tweeter is located where the dustcap of the woofer usually is. Tannoy, KEF, WLM and many others use this type of speaker. And then of course there's all those D'Appolito configurations out there...

Does anyone else remember the Snell Model One? It made a brief appearance in the late '70s or early '80s. This was a strange speaker that was designed to be a floorstander, yet it ws just the size of a medium monitor. It had a sloped baffle, an 8" woofer in the middle, and the tweeter CLOSE TO THE FLOOR. A small ramp jutted out from the bottom of the enclosure, extending a few inches out to the floor, extending the baffle. And the ramp, when in place, actually partially obscured the tweeter!

This was one weird speaker, and since it came and went so quickly, I have to assume it really didn't sound that good. But I remember it getting a rave review in High Fidelity, and even made the cover. It was supposed to be a breakthrough speaker! I did a search on the Internet, however, and came up with nothing. Does anyone remember this speaker?

[JBStephens]

Earliest speakers had woofers at the bottom to make the speaker more stable. Woofers at the top would make them easier to tip over. This practice continued for decades, until somebody finally figured out that it would be a good idea to try to get the various outputs from various drivers to arrive at the ear aligned in the time domain. That's the reason for the other configurations, tilted baffles, etc. The MTM arrangement minimizes vertical lobing for fewer problems with floor and ceiling reflections.

And yes, I remember the Snells! Highly regarded in their day, but they didn't set the world on fire, sales-wise.

[vinyl anachronist]

And yes, I remember the Snells! Highly regarded in their day, but they didn't set the world on fire, sales-wise.

I'm dyin' for a pic!

[Taurus]

Tweeters and woofers in REALLY unusual positions:

JBL's "Aquarius" series of the early 70s. (http://www.audioheritage.org/html/profiles/jbl/aquarius.htm)

These were designed to disperse sound in an even manner using unique methods.

Allison Acoustics used to sell some models with upward firing woofers, one of which I was close to buying years ago, but I could only find this one photo (http://history.sandiego.edu/GEN/recording/images3/92377.jpg) as part of a scan of a brochure (Roy Allison was a close associate of Edward Villchur, the man responsible for the acoustic-suspension woofer concept). They were intended to be placed flush to a wall.