It’s all ‘about that bass’ – or getting good sound from small speakers
Getting great sounding products can be a difficult and time-consuming process for those unfamiliar
with acoustic product design. In this article we offer the following hints and tips in designing the
simplest type of loudspeaker enclosure the infinite baffle or closed box.
Getting started
Loudspeakers sound thin and tinny without a suitably designed enclosure; just try listening to any
speaker in free space. The simplest enclosure is an air tight box, but beware if the box is too small
the bass will sound boomy and shallow, whereas large boxes will produce deeper bass but may lead
to high field returns of products with damaged speakers when they are over driven.
You can take a trial and error approach to the enclosure design - we normally find manufacturers
just fit their loudspeaker into the product enclosure and then find out how it sounds. Sometimes this
works out, but often it leads to more expense and delays caused by the necessary mechanical design
changes and resulting retesting before you find the right combination of speaker and box.
However, there is a quicker and more scientific method! Back in the 1960’s and 70’s, Neville Thiele
and Richard H. Small solved this problem by characterising the moving coil loudspeaker. Known as
the Thiele and Small parameters, they enable the acoustic designer to predict the speakers’ low
frequency performance, without resorting to using his carpentry skills.
For a closed box enclosure, the Thiele and Small parameters you will need are:


FS = the loudspeaker’s free air resonance (Hz).
QTS = the loudspeaker’s resonance magnification at Fs.
VAS = the loudspeaker’s compliance expressed as a volume (litres).
You will also need to know:


Loudspeaker’s sensitivity or loudness for a given power (dB @ 1m, for 1 Watt).
Loudspeaker’s maximum power (Watts).
Your amplifier’s maximum power (Watts).
Mellow Acoustics Limited, 42 Hale Road, Farnham, Surrey, UK, GU9 9QH. Telephone: +44 7748 766444.
Email: [email protected] Website: www.mellowacoustics.com
Mellow Acoustics Limited is a company incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 7850109 whose registered office is at
Mellow Acoustics Limited, 42 Hale Road, Farnham, Surrey, UK, GU9 9QH.
The design process
1) Understand the background noise level your product works in - More noise, means a more
powerful speaker is needed to overcome the back ground levels by at least 10dB! Hence a
speaker operating in a vehicle will need higher sensitivity and power handling than one in a
quiet office. Therefore it is likely to be more expensive as a result. Amplifiers will be higher
power and need more battery/bigger power supplies too. To calculate the loudness at
maximum power use:𝑆𝑃𝐿𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 𝑆𝑃𝐿𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 + 10. 𝐿𝑂𝐺10
𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑟𝑝𝑚𝑎𝑥
𝑑𝐵
𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑓
Note:- At low frequencies, it is the maximum cone excursion rather than power handling
that limits the SPL.
2) Define what your product does – do you want speech or music, Lo-Fi or Hi-Fi reproduction?
The bandwidth of basic speech is 300Hz – 3 KHz and high quality speech is 200Hz – 5 KHz
whereas, Lo-Fi music is 300Hz – 10 KHz and Hi-Fi, 20Hz – 20 KHz! Once known, choose a
loudspeaker able to produce the lowest and highest frequencies required (with Fs close to
the lowest frequency) and loudness needed.
3) Calculating the enclosure volume necessary – the chosen enclosure volume VB will affect
the bass resonant frequency fc and the amount it is boosted due to the compliance ratio α.
We advise that α is set between 0.7 and 1.0 to avoid overdriving the loudspeaker whilst
maximising the bass using the following formula:-
Mellow Acoustics Limited, 42 Hale Road, Farnham, Surrey, UK, GU9 9QH. Telephone: +44 7748 766444.
Email: [email protected] Website: www.mellowacoustics.com
Mellow Acoustics Limited is a company incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 7850109 whose registered office is at
Mellow Acoustics Limited, 42 Hale Road, Farnham, Surrey, UK, GU9 9QH.
𝑉𝐵 =
𝑉𝐴𝑆
α
The resonant frequency of the system fc and lower bandwidth frequency f-3dB can be
calculated as:𝑓𝑐 = √1 + 𝛼. 𝑓𝑠
𝑄𝑇𝐶 = √1 + 𝛼. 𝑄𝑇𝑆
f 3dB

 1
 fc  2 1 
 2QTC

 1

 2  1
 2QTC 
2


1


1
2
If the box volume is too large for your product, then you will need to look for a different
speaker with a lower VAS. Unfortunately, this usually affects the loudspeaker’s Fs and hence
the lowest frequency that can be reproduced, which probably means you are being too
ambitious with the design and will need a larger loudspeaker!
4) Calculate the acoustic performance of your design – using the following formula, means
you can calculate the loudness of the design at any frequency.
𝑆𝑃𝐿 = 10. 𝐿𝑂𝐺10
𝑓𝑟2
(𝑓𝑟 − 1)2 + (
𝑓𝑟
2 )
𝑄𝑇𝐶
𝑓 2
𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑟 = ( )
𝑓𝑐
Plotting the results from 20Hz to 20 KHz will give you a good idea of the acoustic
performance of your design before you build it and could save you money and time too.
5) Build and test you product – you can make the back volume in almost any shape as long as
it is airtight, including exiting holes for wires etc. We recommend you measure the acoustic
response (if you have the equipment), before undertaking a listening test, just in case your
design looks like this one (shown black) caused by leaks in the enclosure. Listening tests had
been okay with music for the most part, but speech was unintelligible! Making an air tight
seal and the enclosure the correct size of course solves these problems and produced the
smooth frequency response (shown in red).
Mellow Acoustics Limited, 42 Hale Road, Farnham, Surrey, UK, GU9 9QH. Telephone: +44 7748 766444.
Email: [email protected] Website: www.mellowacoustics.com
Mellow Acoustics Limited is a company incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 7850109 whose registered office is at
Mellow Acoustics Limited, 42 Hale Road, Farnham, Surrey, UK, GU9 9QH.
With these few simple tips, we hope your product is sounding great, but if you are struggling to fit
your design into your product or need a little help designing something at little unusual we can help
to:•
•
•
•
Shrink the enclosure size whilst maintaining the bass response.
Add resonant chambers for sirens, enabling you to combine components and reduce costs.
Improve audio quality with DSP.
Add microphones to your product.
For more information please contact us by email at [email protected]
Mellow Acoustics Limited, 42 Hale Road, Farnham, Surrey, UK, GU9 9QH. Telephone: +44 7748 766444.
Email: [email protected] Website: www.mellowacoustics.com
Mellow Acoustics Limited is a company incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 7850109 whose registered office is at
Mellow Acoustics Limited, 42 Hale Road, Farnham, Surrey, UK, GU9 9QH.