MATERIAL:
Why haven't more designers incorporated tuning? There are several questions I have had about the hobby, this is one of them. Another is, why are there not a lot of women involved in hi end audio? Somewhere in the sociology of audio the male ego became the dominate factor in what is and what isn't. As with most things the male ego rules for a while then the more excepting or artistic side of the hobby, sport or past time makes itself known.
When I did my first trade show I was surprised at how many techno-nerds there were as designers. I mean literally, do you know how many people wanted to see specs on my RoomTune before they could deal with them? At that time almost every one said they were too small till they heard them. Why? Because the audio engineers had made up rules for acoustics, electronic designs and speaker criteria. The fact is, with stereo only being a few years old there are still many laws not discovered by the many that should have been all along. One of the major ones has to do with what is distortion and what is true amplification. Designers can deal with amplification (voltage in, voltage out) of the electronics from a numbers side, but not from a vibration side. There has always been a disconnect in the thinking of vibration for techno-nerds. Engineers view frequencies, artist view notes. These two are very different and require different sensitivities.
Q) Why do we use anechoic chambers to measure efficiencies of speakers?
Q) Why do we use crossovers?
Q) Why do we use thick cable when a signal can pass through a very small gauge?
Q) Why do we use chassis on electronics?
Q) Why is it that music instruments are built to vibrate and most speaker designs are not?
Q) Why do we think we are hearing a speaker when we are really hearing the room that the speaker is sitting in?
Q) Does any model of speaker sound the same when put in different rooms?
The ego of the audio engineer actually believes that when they design something in their garage it performs the same in another room. The ego of the audiophile actually believes these designers know what they are doing.
For myself, I can't sit at a table with engineer designers very long. They know very little about sound. The mention of the word harmonics to them means something to get rid of, whereas the rest of the music world sees harmonics as something to gain or maintain.
Q) Why do speakers designers stuff their cabinets?
As they do this don't they hear the music disappearing? I have done this with many models of speakers with the same results. Take your garden variety speaker at any price and listen to how it changes as you take out and put back in the filler. Measure it if you want, but you will here whole pieces of the music disappear when you put the filler back in, and you will also hear how solid cabs distort the sound as you are taking it out. Why would I want a speaker that distorted when I put filler in it (the absence of signal) and distort when I take the filler out (no mechanical exchange)?
the fear
Q) Why is there a fear over tuning?
How many poor audiophiles are out there wanting to listen to music the way they want but are afraid someone will tell them they are incorrect? How many audiophiles are out there and still haven't found the sound they want after many years of buying and trying? Speakers are mechanical devices just as instruments are and will/should vibrate. There is no MDF or any other material on the planet that does not vibrate. Which brings me to another point.
I think that when people hear the word free resonance they think "vibrating out of control". In our world how much vibration is in the eyes of the beholder. The fact is a tunable free resonant speaker has better side wall control than does a regular cabinet. With regular speakers you have a movement that is pushing out constantly with nothing holding in the vibration, causing distortion. With a tunable cabinet you have a bolt that can be used on the outside of the cabinet to make the outer wall as tight as you want by applying pressure from the outside in. The tunable cabinet can be made to "boom" far less than an over built cabinet. We're not bulky just smart about how we deal with sound.
Fear, lack of teaching and designers who don't understand the 3 parts to audio, electrical, mechanical and acoustical, as relatives of each other is probably why the tuning revolution as a whole has not exploded. The question is, when it does explode, will any look back? When picking a speaker is more like picking a guitar will we say, what took us so long?