The Art of Palladium - Propagation of Sound
A key factor in acoustics is the effect of the room environment on the loudspeaker. This is actually half of what you are hearing. The loudspeaker distributes the sound around the room, drastically, influencing what we hear. Loudspeaker systems do not radiate uniformly at all frequencies due to the enclosure shape, diffraction, driver directing effects, and driver interference near the crossover points. A uniform frequency response off-axis results in more uniform room reflections, which directly contribute to a stable virtual source that is not frequency dependent.
If that is too complicated, just remember you are hearing the room as much as the speaker. We call this effect Room Gain and Imaging.
When someone speaks to you, they usually face you. It would be odd if the person holding a conversation had his back to you, but if he or she did you would expect their voice to sound different. Why? It has to do with where the sound is traveling and how high the pitch is for that tone.
In order to properly evaluate a loudspeaker on and off-axis, Klipsch developed a custom program for dispersion acquisition. This program allows the design engineer to quickly analyze the level of sound in relationship to the vector angle of that sound wave. The results show how the Klipsch horn technology helps to control the energy radiated by the loudspeaker.
A typical speaker distributes energy unevenly throughout the room in an uncontrolled manner. The energy reflecting around the room influences how we perceive the recorded sound. Loudspeaker systems do not radiate uniformly at all frequencies, due to the enclosure shape, diffraction, driver directing effects, and poor summation between radiating sources at the crossover regions. A uniform frequency response off-axis results in more uniform room reflections, thus directly contributing to a stable virtual source which is not frequency dependent. This effect, in turn, directly contributes to a stable depth of imaging or perceived reverb as intended by the recording engineer.
The graphs shown are directivity data in relationship to frequency. We call this a directivity response or map. The colors define 3 dB increments in Sound Pressure Level, (SPL). 5 straight bars would be considered a perfect system but merely impossible to design. If it existed, it would surely be a single source in one VERY large horn. The mouth on the horn would need to be about nearly 57 feet for a 20 Hz horn. The angle of dispersion would define the mouth size. 57 foot horns are very acceptable to wives, so we typically make the horn shorter and sometime fold it, like a Klipschorn.
The graph below is a competitive loudspeaker whose name will be undisclosed, but safe to say it is a direct competitor of the Palladium P-39F and NOT horn loaded. So now you can see that the back axis dispersion is much more excessive at some frequency than others. This data alone supports the fact that the competitive speaker will be more dependant on the room for a reasonable frequency response. There is no choice. The room becomes a bigger part of the equation. If you are listening to this speaker in a linear reflection room, the sound will still be nonlinear due to the erratic dispersion off axis. Please don’t overlook this fact. Not only is a Palladium speaker much lower distortion it is also a purer response off axis.
Nothing sounds like a Klipsch… and nothing sounds like a Palladium.
The Art of Palladium
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