Karlson Cabinet for a 15" Speaker

[Eddie_T]

I built one of these long ago, used it for years then put a guitar speaker in it and gave it to my son.

 

[RedneckGrump]

Very nice @Eddie_T

 

[ekrig]

These things are massive. 33" x 22.5"? No wonder this thing ought to have great bass. Thank you but no. I'll stick to my nice bookshelf speaker arrangement and I can turn on the active 6" Sony subwoofer I recently fixed if I really need the bass. Most of the time I can't use it because even at ~30% of the volume, my wife complains that it makes the whole shake.

It is a very intriguing design I must admit.

 

[Eddie_T]

I use a smaller adaptation (not a scaling) using 5" speakers. The designer was able to get 50 Hz response with 3.5" speakers.

 

[bud16415]

Here is what my front 12" subs and mains are like in my simple 5.2 system. the screen in the middle is 110"

 

[Eddie_T]

I use a smaller adaptation using 5" speakers. The designer was able to get 50 Hz response with 3" speakers.

 

[ekrig]

@Eddie_T - That was kind of my point. Even with small speakers, one can get pretty low frequencies provided that one makes the box big enough... to a point at least.

 

[ekrig]

Side note: I always scoff when someone says that they "need" a 100W or higher amplifier. When I was much, much younger I build an amplifier and the power supply for it from scratch. I used a Phillips chip as the main component of the amplifier and it was rated at 6W per channel MAX! According to the specs, I doubt that it was usable past 4W or the distortion would be clearly audible. I would hook that up with a befy pair of loudspeakers I had and, if I played it at high levels (which I pretty much never did), that damn thing was so loud that neighbors 100 yards away could for hear it clearly.
TL;DR: 4W of clean RMS power is all you need

(If one is having to frequently raise the amplifier level to more than 50%, then what they really need is a good pre-amp.)

 

[Eddie_T]

Not only are big amps and speakers not needed but class D amps are cheap and perform very well. Some argue against switching but most music today has already been subjected to codecs before we ever hear it.

I think I paid about $40 for my little Bluetooth 20W x 2 class D amp. I could have bought the board for less than $10 but I wanted the aesthetics of a packaged unit. I use it with my Chromebook It drives my 5" Karlson derived speakers well even when playing music with heavy bass. I used my 5" speakers to troubleshoot a friend's Wharfedale based system and frankly they performed just as well. For my home theater system I have a BIC system with a 10" subwoofer.

Some bass players and drummers still like big speakers and outdoor venues need either big speakers or columns of smaller ones to couple with the air thus speakers like the Karlson K-15 and K-18 still have a place in the world. I used to demonstrate my big Karlson by blowing out a candle at the top of the aperture.