Why side-woofers are not more common?

[MattHooper]

Seeying the AP codex i always wonder where is the 9.8'' woofer... If you can shot a picture ut would be amazing, because AP doesn't show much information about his products
I mean where is...
View attachment 303496

I love the look of current Audio Physic speakers. Definitely among my favorites, aesthetically. Sleek, contemporary, beautiful materials.

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

I love the look of current Audio Physic speakers. Definitely among my favorites, aesthetically. Sleek, contemporary, beautiful materials.

I love the looks too. My only problem is their distortion... they are very high in distortion
For example this is their flagship 30,000 E, you can correct the bass because is being like -2/-3dB from the overall FR, but the distortion its very very high at 200hz

 

[Penelinfi]

How about dual opposed up and down, with the mid-tweet box sitting above the bass box with a gap? I guess that limits driver size unless you want a huge baffle

 

[Axo1989]

I love the looks too. My only problem is their distortion... they are very high in distortion
For example this is their flagship 30,000 E, you can correct the bass because is being like -2/-3dB from the overall FR, but the distortion its very very high at 200hz
View attachment 303802

Veering off-topic a bit then ... because we aren't talking about side mounted woofers really, yes I've seen snapshots with those graphs (a German magazine I assume I have't read the originals reviews or their detailed method) for various models but I don't understand their distortion results. I didn't see it when measuring mine—in room at LP so FR will be influenced by the room (see my room's uncorrected long mode peak at ~50 Hz for example) but distortion shouldn't be dramatically reduced. Here's my attempt at 95 and 105 dB (uncorrected) sweeps from a while back when I first set them up:

The treble difference is probably toe-in but otherwise no surprises and I've approximated their smoothing. They comment on H2 from the mid-woofers on the front baffle with that peak around 200 Hz. The Cardeas has two of those 175 mm/7" drivers, my Codex has one. On my graph you can certainly see the rise in H2 just above 100 Hz as we start to push that driver to its limit (and the visible excursion is obvious too). But their graph shows distortion -25 dB at the 200 Hz peak (for their 95 dB sweep) where mine is -50 dB at that frequency (both sweeps) and -35 dB at my ≥ 100 Hz peak.

I've calibrated so 0 dB reference is approx 100 dB at 1 kHz, just comparing to Decibel X on iPhone so my levels could well be off. But compare my 105 to their 95 (or even their lower levels) and we still see a crazy difference. And my sweeps were f*cking loud, no way they were 75 or 85 dB. Someone may have an idea but I don't get it.

 

[jhaider]

Let me give you a boring reason: side mounted woofers means more machining on more panels. Also, on a competent design, it means more grilles.

 

[Axo1989]

Let me give you a boring reason: side mounted woofers means more machining on more panels. Also, on a competent design, it means more grilles.

Yes "why don't more products have [interesting thing]" is often answered by "because it costs more".

 

[Penelinfi]

Yes "why don't more products have [interesting thing]" is often answered by "because it costs more".

Ironically I've seen more side firing drivers on budget orientated speakers including very entry level speakers .