Delayed, inverted subwoofer arrays can cancel standing waves in rectangular rooms

Evidence

The idea seems to have originated with Goertz et al. (2001), who used an arrangement of subwoofers on the front wall, generating an approximation of a plane wave that propagates to the rear of the room where a similar arrangement of subwoofers, appropriately delayed and polarity inverted, cancels the wave when it arrives. Ideally this eliminates standing waves and everyone in the room should hear good bass. It requires a perfectly rectangular room and at least four subwoofers to work well. The scheme was called double bass array (DBA). — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1604

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the double bass array (DBA) mechanism: a plane wave generated at the front wall is cancelled at the rear by a delayed, polarity-inverted array.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1604
• XREF: connects to: Superposed sounds cancel or amplify locally without changing each other; Inverted signals cancel at all frequencies while delayed signals cancel selectively by frequency; Equal distances from two loudspeakers eliminate all room-induced destructive interference (+7 more)