A few weeks ago, I collaborated with some co-workers to build 12 Balanced Mode Radiator speakers. We chose BMR speakers as they have a wide dispersion pattern without the artifacts that traditional cone speakers can create in the edges of their dispersion pattern. The enclosure design was chosen to be significantly larger than the Vas rating of the speakers. Enclosure volumes significantly larger than Vas tend to act as an ‘infinite baffle’ and sacrifice some volume at low frequencies but otherwise sound just fine.
The enclosures were modeled in CAD software and built by my manager in his garage. He painted them with paint used in truck beds, which gave them a nice rough texture. The port that the speakers were placed into was cut so precisely that the paint caused the speakers not to fit; The edges of the speakers had to be sanded down to accommodate this.
The speakers were connected to 22 AWG 2-conductor wire (Not ideal for long runs) which was run out of the back of the enclosure. Hot glue is used around the speaker wire to create a seal. The enclosures were then stuffed with Acousta-Stuff foam and the speakers attached to their enclosures. Finally I measured each speaker’s frequency response to validate them.
The speaker wires were then all routed to a 5.25″ (3U, Eurorack friendly!) panel for easy connection!