04/05/25 - Reformer 112 - USA

Hey again!

So I did it, haha. I cut some plywood into a mountable speaker-hole-blocker, complete with a felt gasket/seal. And… I liked the passive radiator setup much more. (At least at reasonable volume levels. Maybe it gets more flubby at deafening levels but I don’t want to go deaf!) It kinda feels/sounds part-way between sealed and the AVD in that the mids and highs “open up” more, and the bass extends lower. Maybe partly due to changes in the compliance (less “choked”)

Also I no longer think the AVD is any less “tight”. It’s just different frequency emphasis. If I dial down the presence and use the Mark IV graphic EQ to boost 80 and 240 a bit, the Reformer gets close to the “2x12 as 1x12 passive radiator” sound. Different, but very nice!

So now I’m very curious in the tonal differences of the AVD models. E.g how the cab volume/dimensions flavor the sound. Even with the AVD I’m guessing the bigger cabs have more lows/low-mids? And different signature/flavor due to cab-internal effects (standing waves, comb filtering, reflections returning to the rear of the speaker cone)? Although likely differently/less with the AVD than a sealed cab.

Ie Upsizing vs reformer with same speaker(s) :)

Thanks as always,

Matt

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Hi Matt,

Basically the bigger cabs sound a bit bigger in the lows - making the cab bigger lowers the tuning of the Helmholtz resonance, which on its own would make the lows reach deeper but sound less fat, and making the cab bigger increases the Q of the Helmholtz resonance, which on its own would make the lows fatter and eventually boomier. But as the larger cab lowers the Fb and doing that decreases the Q, but the bigger box increases the Q, you basically get a similar sound and feel in the lows, just more low frequency extension.

Best regards,

Alex