Full-height line sources halve the off-center damage to envelopment

Evidence

Figure 8.12(c) shows what happens when conventional loudspeakers are replaced by vertical line-source loudspeakers running from approximately floor to ceiling. The propagation loss is reduced by half and so is the interaural difference in direct sound: 0 dB at center and 4.9 dB at the side seats. The side listeners may or may not localize the loudspeaker as a source, but anyone who has experienced this kind of full height line source knows that they do not draw attention to themselves. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 838

Categorization

• SEED: An article angle on how loudspeaker physics constrains the social geometry of listening rooms — who gets the good seat is partly decided by speaker type.