The lower notes, bass notes, usually are produced be large diameter speakers so what if you gathered together enough small speakers that equals the area of a big one, would that reproduce more bass?
Fred

Yes, but_______________________

(I'll let the blanks to be filled in by more knowledgeable people....)

You probably want to do a little reading about the "Sweet Sixteen" speaker array. Here is one example... http://techtalk.parts-express.com/forum ... teen-array

The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that an array of speakers has some drawbacks exactly because it is an array (beaming, off axis distortion, etc.). It is the sound equivalent of a directional RF beam antenna.

Wow I am getting old. I remember as a kid reading about the Sweet Sixteen in Popular Electronics.

Apparently it was January 1961. There is a web site around someplace where you can read old PE issues online.

Yep page 55, January 1961 found here... http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Pop ... -Guide.htm

Here is the direct link to just that issue... http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Arc ... 961-01.pdf

Curtis Eickerman

I built that one, not really impressed with the performance.

Dave

Yeah, that's the feeling I get from the postings I have read about it.

There probably is more bass response if you are standing in just the right place. However, with 16 in-phase radiators, the 3 dimensional interference pattern probably made it sound pretty strange if you moved. Not to mention using two if them on a stereo system.

Curtis Eickerman

look at the Bose 901, the real key with those is the equalizer.

As one reader commented (I remember that article very well), "Sixteen times cheap is still cheap".

Bob

I think I remember reading that in multiple speaker systems the distortions figure of each speaker are added, if one speaker has 1% distortion, 16 would have 16% distortion. Or am I hallucinating in my old age?

A friend, Cliff Bean, built the sweet sixteen and in a small room completely covered with cardboard egg cartons for sound deadening didn't sound too bad. (Not as good as I expecting for all the work he did though) After few beers, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida sounded pretty good.

Cliff gave up on the speakers and went on to make guitars. Aluminum neck guitars. He used his middle name, Travis. Travis Bean Guitars.
RIP Cliff.

I remember those from the 70's. Wild idea that worked, I think, but I've never seen one.
I think I remember In-a gadda-da-vida-baby, but maybe I just think I do.

Actually that song started out as In a Garden of Eden, bit of trivia there.

That Popular Electronics' Sweet Sixteen concept kept coming back over the years. By March of '67 it had morphed to a dozen drivers of mixed sizes, then even that system was debunked in the November 1970 issue. By that time, the final word was the presumed cost savings had vanished due to better woofers and higher cost of the large wood cabinet.

If you have a big stash of speakers to play with and scrap plywood to match, why not build one? But the thought of cutting all those holes, the wiring and where to put the big, mediocre-sounding result, it's interesting to read about but not too enticing to build.

Especially when for about the same cost you can pick up some modern drivers, stuff 'em in a spare empty "white van" enclosure and have much nicer sound.

One source of drivers: https://www.allelectronics.com/category ... ers/1.html I bought the 10" and 8" a few years back and they are both excellent lost-cost woofers. Coupled with a 4" midrange and dome tweeter either made a nice-sounding speaker.
-Ed

From the point of view of someone experimenting with a large number of different speakers,
the object might be having a very large sound radiating surface.

As long as the speaker voice coils can carry an amperage inversely proportional to
their impedance (~DC resistance) between 4 and 16 ohms, they could be combined
into a 16 or 8 ohm bin.


Makes a squawker, fairly sensitive. If you nail a back onto the cabinet, bass will
result.

Could entertain a crowd at a Hammond organ recital.

Years ago, a division that was run by Dave, contracted out sound. His idea of
keeping the night alive, and loud, was to have a fake speaker do Pyrotechnics
at a chosen moment.

'Line Arrays' are not that uncommon.

http://projectgallery.parts-express.com/speaker-projects/longboard/

I wonder if those long arrays were placed around a live hall.

How intelligible* would it sound?.

I went to a AES demo of the computerized system in Vancouver 20 years ago.
It went well. Sticking a handy cam with tape to something didn't .It fell off.Very
slick way to do room profile.

Old way.
* the test is a series of words read from the stage, and scored by people in the
seating area, to see how many are understood.

Anyone interested in speaker building should know about Parts Express. www.partsexpress.com No, I have no stake in the company, but can attest that their customer service is very good.