Tapped horn subwoofer system

A tapped horn is a speaker design, where the horn is folded and the transducer is placed in a baffle so that the loudspeaker cone is radiating into the throat and the mouth of the horn simultaneously. A typical front-loaded, closed rear chamber horn is the best design in terms of efficiency, but its main disadvantage is considerable cabinet size, especially if the desired frequency range includes the subwoofer range. With a tapped horn design, the designer can manipulate size to output to frequency range ratio. This results in flexibility in achieving best acoustical parameters within restricted cabinet weight and size.

In this article, Tomasz Nowak detailes the design process, simulations and prototype measurements  for tapped horns and shows that for frequencies below 35 Hz, a properly designed tapped horn sub-woofer offers more efficiency than other types of cabinets.

This article is based on an award-winning project submitted to the AES Student Design Competition, Graduate category, presented at the 137th AES Convention in Warsaw, May 2015.