The main reasons are : it’s cheap, simple, easy to understand and it has all the basic functions. There are a lot of speaker design software solutions out there but I chose : “Subwoofer design toolbox”. The other method is by using a paid application. It’s basically a complete package for a beginner. It even has a chart to show you the modeled frequency response. You will receive an excel spreadsheet, that has all that you need to model a sealed or a bass reflex enclosure with minimal difficulty. To model the response curve of the enclosure and to calculate the dimensions of the box, two methods will be used.
These are covered with extensive details regarding their characteristics and how to design them according to the standard alignments, or to complete custom response curves. But, we will focus our attention for the sealed and bass reflex enclosures. Most of the common enclosure types are listed, explaining their working principle, pro’s and cons for each one. This is obviously needed for a beginner, but it’s also good for an intermediate student, as I’m sure he will also find new information to make matters even more clear. Then moves on to how the speaker is designed and some other relevant information about acoustics. This course assumes that you have minimal knowledge about acoustics, and therefore starts slowly with some basic information about sound waves, how they are created and what are their characteristics. Only you can decide which sound qualities are more important to you and you should be the one who “moves the sliders”. The final result will always be a compromise between the acoustical qualities of an enclosure. Do you want it to sound loud? Do you want it to sound deep and don’t care about loudness? You want it to be as smooth and linear as possible? These are all just a few examples of questions that needs answering before you get to work. You have to take into consideration your application and your personal preferences. There is no such thing as “This enclosure is the best choice for this particular speaker”. The main purpose of this course is to teach you how to properly design an enclosure for your speaker. If you have any problems it is much more productive to email me before leaving a negative comment, as then I can do someting to fix the problem.Design an enclosure to match your preferences Be sure to enter your data correctly, as if you make mistakes, you might incorrectly think that part of the app (such as the ported calculation) is not working correctly. This program performs a number of calculations including Box Volume, Box Resonant Frequency, Minimum Port diameter and Port Length - these can be seen in the fourth screen shot. If you have a small screen, you may need to scroll down the page to see the calculation results. You can calculate the INTERNAL box dimensions with the following formulae:įirst find the cube root of the desired box volume, we will call this r3V However, to be helpful, I do recommend that your box has the 'Golden Mean Rectangle' proportions of 0.618:1:1.618 as these are considered by many to be the optimum shape for the acoustics (a cube is certainly the worst shape acoustically). The reason is that there isn't just one possible solution - in theory you could have any shape box you like. I have been asked by a number of people why the app doesn't calculate the box dimensions from the calculated volume. The app works with both metric and imperial (English) units. The app will then calculate the box size for you and you can plot its frequency response. If you select a Ported or 4th Order Bandpass design, you can also set the port diameter.
The details about the driver (the Thiele-Small Parameters) can be obtained from the driver's data sheet, the supplier's catalogue or from the internet. To use the app, enter the details about your driver and the type of box you would like to use. The sealed design is the simplest to construct, the ported design gives an improved bass response and the 4th Order Bandpass design is great for sub-woofers. You can design Closed (Sealed), Ported or 4th Order Bandpass enclosure designs. The app will size the box (calculate the box volume to match your driver), calculate the port length (if you want one) and will also plot the frequency response of the finished design.
Speaker Box Designer is the app for designing the boxes for your loudspeaker drivers.