Alacrity Audio’s Caterthun design ethos is multifaceted and, in some ways, quite radical. Our Acoustic Induction cabinet loading system and our insistence on close-to-wall positioning and bi-wireing fly in the face of the “Accepted Wisdom”.

Accepted by who, may I ask?

😉

Another question I am often asked is; why don’t you make some floor-standing loudspeakers? This, of course, is the wrong question. It should be; “what’s so special about a small, isolated front baffle?”.

The answer has shown itself recently, but there’s more to it than this. Problems are caused by incidental waves propagating across the front baffle and being reflected back towards the drive unit at 1/4 frequency wavelengths. The minimal front-baffle area afforded by both our Caterthun Classics and Caterthun 8s, plus their sharp edges and corners, minimises this effect which could be characterised as an ‘acoustic corona’. People may scoff at treating acoustic fields as one would an electrical field, but this approach has so far brought us a long way (2 x “Recommended Product” for Caterthun Classics, plus an “acoustically invisible” for our Caterthun 8s).

When building a floor-stander, there is a greater surface area of  front baffle. Inevitably, it stretches to the floor, from where the ‘acoustic corona’ effect can then spread along the floor as well as returning across the baffle and interfering with the bass unit. Basically, the angle between the floor-stander and the floor becomes a HUGE loudspeaker horn, with all the problems that brings (phase reversals every octave, frequency-dependent results, etc)

The only way to control this unwanted energy is to physically, actually, get in it’s way, and stop it from propagating. Unfortunately, this could ruin the smooth clean lines of your new loudspeaker box. Or result in it being removed from the floor, but then, isn’t that a stand-mounted loudspeaker again???

Here at Alacrity Audio, we view things from a different angle. Seeing the propagating waves as an acoustic corona offers a solution in the acoustic equivalent of a high-voltage ceramic bush. To cut a long-story short, an edge introduced into the front baffle, either stepped forward or stepped back, is enough to start to overcome this acoustic corona effect.

Not that we’re developing a floor-stander… honest!

😀

Watch-out, no news to come.

jonx