How To Improve Your Sound Stage for $2 -

An Article on Spherical Enclosures & Diffraction

Ever wonder why the midrange and tweeter cabinets on B&W Nautilus speakers are shaped like teardrops? It's not a gimmick, or some way to differentiate their pricey flagship models from competitors. Containing the driver inside a sphere that is pulled back to a point rather than a typical wide baffle box provides significant sound quality benefits. It eliminates the usual boxy problem of standing waves, and also reduces the effects of diffraction. An article called How To Improve Your Sound Stage For $2 on the DIY Mobile Audio forum does an excellent job of explaining the effect, and suggests how it can be applied to car audio installs.



Diffraction is the effect of a driver reflecting off of the speaker's baffle, which causes a smearing of the sound and negatively affects sound stage and timing. If you're looking to build your own speaker enclosures, whether it be at home or in the car, Ccick here to check out the Article on Spherical Enclosures & Diffraction. If you're interested in learning more about diffraction, DIYMA has an extremely thorough article on the subject, Written by user name, Patrick Bateman.