Moble Enclosurs 10+ year member
Box Designer/Builder
There are obviously a lot of designers in the world right now, and it seems to be expanding every year. Now, I have seen recently a designer, who will not be mentioned as I am not writing this to single out, who I noticed had done some designing before he met me. I have not been to any forums much before, and usually do most of my work locally, but figured I could use the interent to expand my business in hopes to fill the rest of the audio community with actual properly designed enclosures, so they would hear the difference from the stereotypical boom most of us have been exposed to. The hope was to get the community to notice that just designing for physical appeal is not enough, nor designing for strictly dimensional limitations.
But something recently has occured, where another designer has utilized the physical appeal of another designers work (not mine), in a sense to create more opportunities for their own profit. Now, I know that some physical aspects of audio are unavoidable, such as proper bass reflex designs looking somewhat identical, as they need to be most of the time for proper response, if the desired response is to be similar. But to create another design that is perfectly identical......I thought."Wait, I have seen this before somewhere!". So, I did some research (Google is amazing by the way for just about anything), and to my surprise, there it was..a complete IDENTICAL design by a completely different designer. Now, we are not talking about pure physical appeal here, but even if we were, the odds of this are not likely unless BOTH designers have the same approach (And since we are involving acoustics.....this would be unlikely as each design is very sensitive to the physical aspect as well for controlling resonances and such). We are also talking about the designers approach to the customer in pure explanation! Nearly exact with the approach (not wording, just approach-and fairly obvious at that). So, this makes me wonder, "How many designer actually understand the full acoustical aspect of their designs, or any design for that matter?".
For someone paying money for it, it's actually a scary thought.
Now, here is where is gets better.....oh yes, there is more and this is the most important aspect of it all. This "designer" came to me for help on understanding certain acoustical factors that are extremely important in understanding fully in this particular design......and this was after the designer sold the enclosure to the customer.........???? Wait a minute??? So, he built a design (or pretty much copied it), and then SOLD IT with the understanding to the customer that it was "calculated" to be optimal, YET comes to me for questions on the acoustical effects involving the variables of this exact design, asking me a lot about "how" it all works.
THIS...my audio community friends......is about the only thing that I get upset about. My son can **** himself 6 times a day, and that is something "I" can fix. But this?? How do you really know?
It also involves the people who purchase the designs, that are happy with the sound. Now, that makes me wonder if they know what true audio sounds like. Now, this design I am referring to is a typical reproduction of horn box for vehicle use. There is a lot of things to understand about a proper horn, and using them for any more added efficiency, more than for 1/3 octave band, in a vehicle is very tough to achieve properly, and this particular design has the acoustical advantage of not much more than a properly coupled bass reflex with a physical expansion much smaller for vehicle coupling to get the efficiency it really can achieve. That being said, basically, its a physically modified ported box made to resemble a proper horn, BUT this is true because of the calculated response only, as it is a proper horn by all means, just not anything below 80Hz efficiency (for this particular design). I know, because I have calculated it.
So, what my point? BE AWARE!! Make sure the designer is doing something that they understand fully. Research them. Ask them tough questions about the designs. And then google their answers to see if you can find them in the top listing information (this is something that a lot of people do on the internet to seem more intelligent).
What can I do about this? Nothing other than make sure you all know the real deal of what is going on in the audio community nowadays with all the designers becoming known through our forums and websites. Dont get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with trying to expand in something you love to do, but do it properly (note to the designers). Make sure you completely understand what your designing. Most of us know what good sound sounds like, but also are camo'ed by typical bass in car audio as resonances make it so we do not know anymore what direct pressure or the difference between intensity and pressure really is. So, just about anything big in a small car will sound good now days for quite a few people. This is why walls are so popular, because the calculations behind them are less sensitive to loud bass reproduction.
So, again, please be aware (not scared) of who you purchase from over the internet with audio designs. Look at my signature saying. This means a LOT to me, and is not just something to sound spunky. It is completely true. I can make a design look completely sick as hell, and try to sell it on EBAY, and many people will view it, and quite a few will ask questions, and some will actually purchase it. But get something that is more concentrated on sound reproduction instead of appeal, and not many people will touch it. So, be aware, that is all.
But something recently has occured, where another designer has utilized the physical appeal of another designers work (not mine), in a sense to create more opportunities for their own profit. Now, I know that some physical aspects of audio are unavoidable, such as proper bass reflex designs looking somewhat identical, as they need to be most of the time for proper response, if the desired response is to be similar. But to create another design that is perfectly identical......I thought."Wait, I have seen this before somewhere!". So, I did some research (Google is amazing by the way for just about anything), and to my surprise, there it was..a complete IDENTICAL design by a completely different designer. Now, we are not talking about pure physical appeal here, but even if we were, the odds of this are not likely unless BOTH designers have the same approach (And since we are involving acoustics.....this would be unlikely as each design is very sensitive to the physical aspect as well for controlling resonances and such). We are also talking about the designers approach to the customer in pure explanation! Nearly exact with the approach (not wording, just approach-and fairly obvious at that). So, this makes me wonder, "How many designer actually understand the full acoustical aspect of their designs, or any design for that matter?".
For someone paying money for it, it's actually a scary thought.
Now, here is where is gets better.....oh yes, there is more and this is the most important aspect of it all. This "designer" came to me for help on understanding certain acoustical factors that are extremely important in understanding fully in this particular design......and this was after the designer sold the enclosure to the customer.........???? Wait a minute??? So, he built a design (or pretty much copied it), and then SOLD IT with the understanding to the customer that it was "calculated" to be optimal, YET comes to me for questions on the acoustical effects involving the variables of this exact design, asking me a lot about "how" it all works.
THIS...my audio community friends......is about the only thing that I get upset about. My son can **** himself 6 times a day, and that is something "I" can fix. But this?? How do you really know?
It also involves the people who purchase the designs, that are happy with the sound. Now, that makes me wonder if they know what true audio sounds like. Now, this design I am referring to is a typical reproduction of horn box for vehicle use. There is a lot of things to understand about a proper horn, and using them for any more added efficiency, more than for 1/3 octave band, in a vehicle is very tough to achieve properly, and this particular design has the acoustical advantage of not much more than a properly coupled bass reflex with a physical expansion much smaller for vehicle coupling to get the efficiency it really can achieve. That being said, basically, its a physically modified ported box made to resemble a proper horn, BUT this is true because of the calculated response only, as it is a proper horn by all means, just not anything below 80Hz efficiency (for this particular design). I know, because I have calculated it.
So, what my point? BE AWARE!! Make sure the designer is doing something that they understand fully. Research them. Ask them tough questions about the designs. And then google their answers to see if you can find them in the top listing information (this is something that a lot of people do on the internet to seem more intelligent).
What can I do about this? Nothing other than make sure you all know the real deal of what is going on in the audio community nowadays with all the designers becoming known through our forums and websites. Dont get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with trying to expand in something you love to do, but do it properly (note to the designers). Make sure you completely understand what your designing. Most of us know what good sound sounds like, but also are camo'ed by typical bass in car audio as resonances make it so we do not know anymore what direct pressure or the difference between intensity and pressure really is. So, just about anything big in a small car will sound good now days for quite a few people. This is why walls are so popular, because the calculations behind them are less sensitive to loud bass reproduction.
So, again, please be aware (not scared) of who you purchase from over the internet with audio designs. Look at my signature saying. This means a LOT to me, and is not just something to sound spunky. It is completely true. I can make a design look completely sick as hell, and try to sell it on EBAY, and many people will view it, and quite a few will ask questions, and some will actually purchase it. But get something that is more concentrated on sound reproduction instead of appeal, and not many people will touch it. So, be aware, that is all.
