SUBS: horn or front loaded

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There are two fairly noticeable differences between folded horns and direct radiators.

First, the folds in the horn path act as low pass filters for the sound coming out of the cabinet. This means that the higher order harmonic distortions that are very pronounced with direct radiators are removed from the sound of folded horns. Because direct radiators are producing 2x and 3x and 4x harmonics, this also leads to the false assumption that directs are "louder" than folded horns...especially when the observation is made while standing next to the cabinets. Because the higher order harmonics are removed, the folded horns sometimes sound "quieter" because there is less content in terms of frequencies coming from the cabinet. Generally, the sound of bass coming from folded horns is described as "cleaner" and "clearer" than the sound coming from directs. Not everyone will like that clarity.

Until you get at least 1/2 wavelength from a source of sound, it can be difficult to hear the sound integrated across all the frequencies that are begin produced. This leads to the false assumption that folded horns have some kind of "throw" associated with them. SPL is SPL, and falls off at -6dB per doubling of distance.

Second, folded horns that are 1/4 wavelength designs work better in multiples. All subs gain SPL as more cabinets are added to the pile. In general, the frequency range of directs is stable regardless of the cabinet count. With folded horns, there is a second benefit: as the mouth area increases, the corner frequency drops. This leads to another false assertion that horns "require" lots of cabinets to work well. In fact, all subs work better in multiples...but in the case of folded horns there are more benefits than with direct radiators.