plastic penguin said:
... I saw the 'R' range: R100, 300 and they are strange proportions. Quite small in height but unbelievably deep.
That's been the trend since the late 1990s with most loudspeakers.
I once did a sad little survey of this phenomena in speaker dimensions and 1997 - 1998 seemed to be the turning point where most major brands started making speakers that were a little deeper than they were wide. Go back just a few years from that point and most loudspeakers obeyed the 'wider and shallower' trend that had been prevalent since the 1960s.
One of the most ridiculous looking speakers I have seen recently are the PMC Fact 8s. (155mm wide x 380mm deep.)
Two speaker designers have admitted (on this forum) that it is mostly due to fashion / WAF / smaller rooms in modern homes and not, primarily, down to acoustic principles. This is why you will rarely see bass drivers more than 6.5" being employed in modern speakers and (partly) why the reflex ported cabinet has achieved almost total dominance over 'infininite baffle' (sealed cabinet) types.
Slim speaker cabinets look great in photographs and you'll rarely see them pictured at more than a slight angle. (To obscure their excessive and sometimes quite alarming depth.)
Add to this the usual recommendations to place speakers quite a distance from walls and corners and I honestly think that some of the old cabinets (of an equivalent internal volume) looked far more domestically acceptable and didn't require as much space.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram