Been lurking on the site for months. I am going to build the Fusion Pure or Tempest (leaning towards tempest--- since I have a pretty large listening room) I will be building my own boxes (i got some woodworking chops) and would like to know if I can have the CD and waveguide exposed (with proper support) on top of the box i build for the woofer. I'll need to re-calc the proper box size of course. Why? I dont know.... just like the looks i guess. 1) Will this adversely affect the sound from the CD and Waveguide by not being in the box? 2) Does reducing the box depth (say a couple inches) but keeping the optimal box volume (ie making the box wider and taller) negatively affect the sound. I'm learning the whole diyaudio thing and am very excited to embark on this new hobby. I have some amp ideas in the works (chip & tube) , looking into DSP/REW for multiple subs..... tks, mike
Hi Mike. Do us a favor and post some pictures along the way. The waveguide and tweeter do not need the box to function perfectly well, so you're good in principle. Keep in mind that the offset - the distance front-to-back - of the tweeter relative to the woofer as well as the vertical spacing of the two drivers was set prior to the design of the crossover. Those physical dimensions play an important roll in the acoustic summation of the two drivers' sounds through the crossover region, where they both play. So those parameters should be maintained for best performance. Reworking the box volume is fine - but with a couple caveats or addenda. The smallest baffle dimension tends to define the transition from half-space radiation to full-space, based on wavelength. So a smaller baffle will allow higher frequency sound to radiate backwards compared to a larger baffle. A smaller-than-original baffle can lead to a weak bass response, while a larger-than-original baffle can make the low end bloat a little. A couple inches here or there is generally not a big deal. Fred