Cardioid Subwoofers - Bob McCarthy

6/8/2017 Cardioid Subwoofers — Bob McCarthy
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Cardioid Subwoofers
january 27, 2010 by bob mccarthy leave a comment
A hot topic of discussion is cardioid subwoofers, so this will be the place to get that topic going. At the
moment I will use this as a test to see if I can upload a few graphics from the book here. The rst will
some pics that describe the behaviour of end- re arrays.
The above gure shows the timing chain for a set of four speakers in the end- re con guration. The b
principle is a game of acoustic “leap frog” where the rearmost speakers jump sequentially over the fron
The timing is set up so that all four speakers are synchronised at the front of the 1st (the rightmost in t
gure) speaker. This “in phase” situation causes the signal to sum additively in this forward direction. T
phase angles shown at the right for 3 different freq ranges are color coded to re ect their position on
phase cycle (green = +/- 90 deg, yellow = 90-120 deg and red = >120 degrees. The key item here is NO
exact phase angle, but rather the amount of AGREEMENT in phase between the 4 speakers. In this cas
shows perfect agreement at 98 degrees so the addition wiull be strong. 63 Hz shows 4 speakers all syn
198 deg and will achieve the same effect.
http://bobmccarthy.com/cardioid-subwoofers/ 1/5
Meanwhile in the rearward direction (shown on the left ) the timing chain reveals four speakers out of
as they move over the rearmost speaker. The 4 elements are all at different times and range over 17.4 m
apart. The phase responses also fall apart – ranging from a 1/6 cycle (65 deg at 31 Hz) to 2.16 cycles (12
and all sorts of values in between. These disparities in phase values cause the amplitude response to s
very poorly in the rearward direction, the intended result of the design. In sync at the front – scrambl
the rear. The side directions fall somewhere between and the end result is shown in the 3 polar plots a
bottom of the chart.
This gure shows an alternate spacing/timing con guration. Instead of a constant spacing (as the upp
version shows), with a consistent delay timing, this con g has a log spacing – and log adjusted timing.
leap-frog game is still played the same at the front – everybody in sync at the front cabinet, but thing p
out somewhat differently at the rear. The difference is small but illustrates the options we have availab
us.
This 3rd gure has a different twist to it. In this case the intent is NOT to have perfect synchronicity a
front of the array. Instead the timing sequence is set up so that they are slightly off – such that there is
a 90 degree spread at 125 Hz, 45 degree spread at 63 Hz etc. This creates a less than perfect addition a
front/center – but causes a better addition at the front corners. The result is a attened front and an
triangular shape. This con guration was shown to me by Mitchell Hart way down in Australia.
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Comments
Jens Brewer says:
February 4, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Bob, any special considerations when phase aligning steered subs vs. omni subs with the mains? Or is it
business as usual?
Reply
6o6 says:
February 4, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Good question Jens,

Since the phase alignment between mains and subs can only be optimized for a limited area, it would make sens
that the location for the synchronization should be forward of the array – out in the house. You won’t see direct
evidence of the cardioid action out there. The only possible evidence in front would be improved coherence due
the suppression of rearward re ections. This would require a VERY controlled environment to see from in front
verify the cardioid action requires an equidistant front and back mic pair to compare levels over frequency, but
would not affect the need to time things to the mains in front – where the listeners are.
So the phase alignment would be “business as usual” as you said.
6o6
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Good question Jens,

So the phase alignment would be “business as usual” as you said.

Speak Your Mind

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Buy Bob’s Book!

Search this website … Search

Top Posts & Pages

The ABC's of Line Array Tuning

A Concise Article on Cardioid

The third edition of Sound Systems:

Phase Alignment of Subs - Why I don't

SIM3 Optimization & Design Seminar

AES analyzer AVB cardioid

FOH Francois Bergeron Gibson

response John Huntington LF

Lively NYC optimization

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