Posted by Wayne Parham [ 66.139.39.38 ] on February 01, 2004 at 09:23:08:

In Reply to: Baffle step compensation posted by BillEpstein on January 29, 2004 at 18:20:56:

Baffle step is electronic compensation EQ, but I'm pretty sure you already knew that. And, as you've alluded, if the baffle is large enough, there is no need for baffle compensation. But there may be other reasons to taylor response or to compensate for something else like interaction between reactive components, driver response anomalies or collapsing DI from a horn or circular radiator at high frequencies. Baffle step is just one issue of many.

The issue is pretty simple, really. The loudspeaker's baffle forms a half-space launch point at midrange frequencies up, but at low frequencies, baffle dimensions are much smaller than the wavelengths generated. So the baffle is insignificantly small at those frequencies and below. But then, the walls become significant at some frequency too. Usually, if the speakers are near the walls, then there is a frequency region between where the baffle stops acting as a half-space lunch point and where the walls start. But the point is that baffle-step compensation has to do with compensating for increased midrange due to the increase in DI from transition from free-space to half-space.

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