awesome video! I love it when hard core SQ home audio guys talk car audio!

According to the various articles I've read on the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, isobaric loading was originally designed to reduce second harmonic distortion of low frequency drivers by 50- percent.

Was totally thinking about the Solobaric and was stoked he brought it up.

How cool is it that having a high-end audio discussion Kicker gets brought up and butt kickers.

I was the manager and box designer at a high end car stereo shop back in the day on Wilshire Blvd in Santa Monica. We used to do tons of isobaric enclosures back then. One we built using 4 Soundstream woofers, and people from stores across busy Wilshire would come over and complain that their windows were rattling.

I enjoy these videos with Chris, he gets right to the point, is very knowledgeable and linear in reasoning topics.

So great I had to comment twice. How many 40 something's like me in here commenting about their days in early car audio? Love it!!!

Cool discussion guys! I use 2 dual voice coil 10's in an isobarac config at my lower back in my listening chair. Good for home theater, ofc, but I love it turned down for music as well. It allows tuning of the bass phase at my listening position, and sounds good.. As always, and still, all the best. I have CVA a case in progress, so my most listened to song lately is; "Boy and the Ghost" by Tarja. You'd also enjoy their album; "Beauty & the Beat Live"

Excellent topic, I was thinking about this recently. I used an Isobaric system with dual 12" Soundstream SS-12 subwoofers in my competition car stereo back in IASCA days. Thanks for sharing. PS...really enjoying my BHK monos, BHK pre, and DSD!! Cheers guys/gals!!

Thanks Paul and Chris. I've heard the term for years, but didn't know what it was.

It is actually Stillwater Designs the manufacturer of Kicker subwoofers, not Kicker Car Audio... Aahh, now I will enjoy my sole opportunity to ever correct Chris in all of his videos. The guy is a genius, don't let him go Paul! Fun fact too, only the round solobarics really had that true "isobaric in one driver" design, and they really did I think the 12's has an Fs below 17hz even. Once they switched to the L7 (square in 2001) it was simply marketing. The things loved volume, but were by no means bad drivers.

In the late 70's and into the 80's Pioneer car audio had a device which wrapped around your neck, like a rolled towel and provided that low bass feeling.

Years ago, I made an isobaric 10 inch. Both drivers fired in the same direction. With the size of the box being very small it came out as probably one of the best midrange setups I have ever listened to. Would also handle a lot of power.

I had the pleasure of owning a pair of Linn Isobariks and drove them "Aktive" and it was a "glorious amount of electronics"(amps) and they sounded LOVELY. Great video by the way cheers.

Went to Disneyworld many years ago and they had a house of the future setup. They had a small satellite/sub system set up in one room to show how you could get amazing sound out of a small system. I was suspicious and looked under one of the benches and found some small exciters, like the butt kickers mounted there. The bass definitely "feels" bigger with a little bit of hidden assistance.

Great topic, wish video would get more into depth about it

Please do more of these !

This comes from Car Hifi guys, where there wasn't enough place to put 4 38" woofers. Because Push Pull does'n need big box sizes. I had 4 of them, getting 138db SPL on the tests.

still have a compound isobaric in my car. awesome sound quality, deep bass, tiny box. power is cheap.

These are great videos

I was so surprised that he brought up the vintage kicker soloBarric subs. I actually just had one 15 inch in my vehicle. It was ok but not enough. I ended up replacing it with a Skar Audio 18inch ported (Sds18) and I am happy with that. I think in car audio a ported design is almost always a must. I also prefer ported for home audio.

Aperiodic produces a smooth extended rolloff like a transmission line, still the most musical and dramatic bass presentation, like an enormous horn but with a 12db instead if 24db rolloff.

Built a face 2 face isobaric box back in the early '00's, made cheap subs sound decent.

I do not completely disparage ButtKickers (a brand of tactile transducers). While these are not needed in rooms with wood floors, I have observed that audio systems in rooms with concrete floors (such as finished basements) benefit from the prudent use of tactile transducers. The goal of an audio system is lifelike reproduction of sound, and tactile bass is a part of real life (as reproduced in TV and movies) and live music (as reproduced in recordings). When used prudently, these "bass shakers" also seem to tighten the bass response for music in rooms with concrete floors. Some people might amplify their tactile transducers to a degree I would not recommend but it is not my place to belittle them for it if they find the effect enjoyable.

There are examples of high end loudspeaker mfrs utilizing isobaric loading ... LF drive sections, as well as Mid or Mid-bass. Eggleston Works ... and iirc, Goldmund may have.

La configuracion cono contra cono para subgraves y graves hace que suene mucho mas detallado todo,ademas de bajar mucho mas profundo.Podria decirse que tenemos un grave analitico y con todos los matices.Yo utilizo la configuracion reflex isobarico desde que lei un documento tecnico de un tal Ricardo de Beyma de hace casi 20 años.No podia creer lo que estaba oyendo.La mejora es escandalosa.Pruebalo Paul Please.Gracias.

I saw an isobaric speaker set up when i bought a polytron ps300 long ago. Its already phaseout in my place but there's still in Indonesia i think. You can search it and ohhh! Its a nice active subwoofer actually with two 6 inch speakers facing each other.

I was only researching this idea a few days ago how a buttkicker might enhance 2 channel audio bass and if the sensation might trick the brain into a sense of deeper bass extension. Ill keep watching this concept from PS.

Thanks Paul I'm glad I asked!

My first experience with isobaric was a chamshelled pair of JL audio 12w 5's in 1.25cu ft.,as soon as they hit the streets,in an '80 Tercel hatchback,brutal. I never knew about the effect on distortion 'til listening today but I remember how tight they sounded comparatively. I didn't like however,the halving of output,which I learned about slightly later. Great fun setup but shortly thereafter I traded them in on a set of the first 10w 6's,a set of three for my newly acquired '83 Z-28. .75 cube sealed ea.,that was amazing at the time,and they sound imo to this day,fantastic in anything I put them in. Best thing in the Camaro was,I was able to fashion a perfect box on the top ledge,directly behind the back seat,rather than using the well like most did at the time,negating all real storage,and impossible to seal without losing serious real estate by squaring up something in the well. The good ol' days of car audio.

Ha! My first subwoofer system, a cheap Jamo bought in -91 have it's sub configured in that way - Never heard the term though. Still in use as PC-speakers but I recently switched out the satellites since they seemed a bit tired.

Isobaric woofers are basically not needed anymore, since the advent of magnetic FEA modeling of loudspeaker motors and mechanical FEA modeling of suspension components to produce high-BL woofers and eliminate meaningful amounts of asymmetry. Isobaric push-pull arrangements force the assembly to be essentially symmetrical by coupling the two motors and moving systems together while acting in opposite directions relative to the backplate of either driver, but good component design can now assure not only symmetry but linearity with just a single woofer to buy. Also, high-BL woofers can operate in small enclosures without requiring the two motors of an isobaric pair to be working in tandem to push the piston.

The best bass I ever heard was two 12” M&K push pull subs with their best satellites in a hifi shop. KEF has a 2nd generation 9” push pull sub that looks like a winner.

I have some Aurora tactile effect woofers which I have not used in ages. They are quite neat though.

Isobaric ruels.! I use 4 isobaric enclosure with 18 inch RCF P400 Woofers 150 liters each tuned to 28Hz. Simply awesome. Peace ✌️

Has Chris discussed Theile/Small parameters? I'd love to hear him discuss the different values, where they come from and how they affect enclosure design.

Wison Benesch use them too.I use to own the Linn Sara's. Good little speaker.

Linn had mostly moved on from their isobaric speaker designs by the time they started making electronics, so I’m not sure that amp sales were the motivation.

I think Wilson Benesch still utilizes isobaric loading to give their monitor speakers some serious bottom end - I guess throwing in another woofer for good measure is no big deal at that price point.

Paul great content, can you ask Chris or do a video on subwoofer sensitivity and why it has remained relatively stagnant. Is there no incentive to create 90-100+ dB subwoofers? It seems that the R&D in this department has been left far behind when compared to the leaps achieved in amplifier performance by comparison. Thanks.

Neat acoustics still does it but in parallel and for the size of the speakers they produce awesome low end...

Sounds like the subwoofers in SoundBars. Most soundbars that have built in subwoofers are setup like that.

Paul， I like you 😂 , you are good KZfaqr !

SO its Lunch with Paul and Chris is telling him - There's "NO" free Lunch!!! 2:08

I have a feeling this video will get a few more thousand views after the KEF announcement

You could call yours the Gkicker. As in glute kicker. (Gluteus Maximus )

the PS audio Gluteusmaximizer

I put a butt kicker on a chair and when playing electronic drums you basically feel like a god. I also cracked my couch with the thing while watching LOTR.

Lirpa Labs is pleased to announce our new Iso-Sikel woofer featuring a superfluid helium-4 cooled voice coil and field coil magnets system for unsurpassed efficiency. Well, for the woofer; the 1.7 degree Kelvin (better than CERN!) superfluid helium-4 supply system is another matter, but we won't go into that now. Operational impedance is 0.0000000 . . . 00000001 ohms. If you thought the Scintillas were tricky to drive; well, we won't go into that either.

:) Chris

I'm considering using the stairway storage room in my house as a sealed subwoofer box to maximize the but- kicking effect. It's well sealed except for the door, that needs to have some rubber sealing to keep it from vibrating, I guess. Anyone with experience in this idea?

High end rear end kicker.

We use butt kickers for drummers in Live Sound, they are great..

"Butt kickers" are especially popular for drummers so they get more of that tactile feedback from their kick drum.

"Butt kickers" were marketed to drummers to supplement their foldback / monitors on stage.

Isobaric coupling cancels out non linear Bl and suspension characteristics and halves the Vas ...

isoberic is non-sense, except when front to front, then some improving magnet non-linearity

Kicker Solobaric ruined my respect for the Kicker brand. Twisting a scientific term for marketing hype. “It’s like having 2 drivers in one” Don’t do that