You could post your idea and some of us might be able to help?
OK, might get kind of wordy, but you asked for it.
I have wanted for quite a while to experiment with wide dispersion speakers, i.e. that have wide dispersion across all frequency bands. I have a set of dipole speakers that take a kind of opposite, or maybe complementary approach in that they limit the power response of the lower mid and lower frequency bands by having a figure-8 response to make the low frequency energy transmitted into the room similar to the high frequency, which naturally narrows because of cone driver behavior.
The problem with dipole radiators is that they need space behind them, so that limits the placement options considerably. I would like something more like half-hemisphere dispersion so I can put them up against the walls in locations I don't have as much room available.
Over 20 years ago Manny LaCarrubba at The Plant recording studio in Sausalito was working on the side with Dave Moulton on wide dispersion speaker designs, and made a custom monitoring system that got used at The Plant. Mix Magazine did a cover article on the idea, but I can't seem to find a picture from that article. The follow-up article is online:
Mix article on wide dispersion control room design
A little more searching found that The Plant is still open, or maybe open again, and they still have a picture of the control room with those monitors:
"The Garden" studio at The Plant
That acoustic reflector design was eventually licensed by Bang & Olufsen and used in several of their Beolab series. This is one that is still using that design for the tweeter at least (not sure about the midrange, I can't tell from the pictures):
B&O Beolab 20 speakers
Older Beolab 5 speakers with both a tweeter and mid-range reflector shown:
B&O Beolab 5 at BeoCentral
B&O Beolab 5 at BeoWorld
This article has a little about the history of the design (the bottom of page 5 has a picture of the proto version of what became The Plant monitor system):
about Sausalito Audio Works
The design was covered by a couple of (expired) US patents, 6435301:
Acoustic Lens patent 6068080 at Google
acoustic lens patent 6435301 at Google
The "about Sausalito Audio Works" document shows what looks like some really labor intensive way of making the reflector out of clay, but these days it should be possible to print one (or a few) out of plastic.
So far so good, I just need to spend some time figuring out how to make that in CAD, then print up some test pieces.
Because of the way the energy gets redistributed, and the way that most drivers are designed to be flat vs. frequency even as the dispersion narrows with increasing frequency, you end up needing to EQ the driver to have an increase in output vs. frequency so that you get a flat power response.
I
think that means that the on-axis response flatness isn't as important as it might otherwise be, but you need low distortion and high power handling capability so that as you boost the high frequencies the distortion doesn't become noticeable, and the driver doesn't have thermal problems.
Also if going with a 2-way design need the ability to cross over at a pretty low frequency so the tweeter takes over before the mid-woofer response starts narrowing too much. With a 3-way design that is less of an issue because you can just make a bigger reflector for the mid-range, like those monitors at The Plant or the Beolab 5.
A quick trip to the Madisound web page gives me 184 tweeter choices to choose from. Considerably fewer midrange if I want to go with a 3-way design instead of 2-way, so sorting through midrange choices might be tolerable, but I don't know where to even start picking out tweeters.
Someone mentioned Parts Express, so a quick check there shows 163 tweeter choices. There is probably some overlap with Madisound, but even accounting for that I have well over 200 choices to evaluate. Where to even start?
How does one even get started on a DIY speaker design if you first have to wade through 200 tweeters and 100 mid-woofers to pick out parts?
