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RE: Maggies and 'chest thump'

First I think we should get on the same page with what is implied by the term "chest thump". To me it is the physical sensation of actually feeling the sound waves coming from the sound source. It can be subtle or so intense it induces an unfavorable physical reaction (nausea, headache). I'm no acoustics engineer, but when you start to talk sound waves my observation is the lower the frequency of the sound wave (long wavelength) the more likely it is to be perceived on a physical level given a fixed db. You walk up to a club and hear/feel the bass from the sound system inside but everthing above 80hz is pretty much attenuated. Walk inside the club and probably anything below 150 hz can be felt throughout the body (internally as well as externally). Although you get nearly equivalent db ouput across the bandwidth (with some boost down around 60-80 hz to create the "thump"), it appears there is an inverse, yet linear, relationship between being able to feel the sound wave and the frequency of the sound wave. That being as frequency increases there is a corresponding and linear decrease in the pysical sensation of the sound wave.

So why is it many magnaplanar dipolar loudspeaker designs don't create the same physical sensation from the sound wave as some cone driver boxed enclosure monopolar designs? Probably the same reason a 100 lb lady in high heels will sink the heels into the ground if she walks across turf but wont if she's wearing flat sole shoes. I suspect it takes a certain amount of energy to create a sound wave of given sonic pressure (db) and that energy can be likened to the weight of the lady. If you have a cone driver with a given amount of surface area radiating a fixed value of sonic pressure (db) then all the energy needed to create the sound wave comes only from that cone's surface area...so the cone woud be like the spike of the high heel shoe. Take a planar design where the radiating surface area is several times larger than that of the cone driver and the released energy is more widely distributed across the driver to achieve the same level of output (db). In this case the planar driver is like a flat sole shoe. So the smaller radiating surface area that has to disperse the same amount of energy as a larger radiating surface area will exert more perceived sonic pressure because of the more focused source of released energy (pressure). And add to the equation that the planar driver is dipolar and the cone driver is monopolar and the pressure release to the front from the planar driver is reduced by half.

Man, is that junk science or what?

I can say for certian when I went from a 250wpc amp to a 500wpc amp and from a preamp with opamps to a preamp with dicrete cicuitry there was a noticeable gain in sound pressure output....which I usually refer to as dymanics.

And Magiccarpetride...why you're not feeling any "chest thump" when you play with your band could be attributed to a variety of factors including but not limited to: room acoustics, amplifier type, type of guitar, type of guitar strings, player technique, shell construcion of drums, types of heads, way the drum is tuned, muffled drums, type of sticks, player technique....see where I'm going with this? Honestly, I have a hard time believing you feel no sonic energy coming from live instruments and if you truly can't feel them...you might want to reconsider calling yourself a rock band.

Finally, the most convincing argument....if there is no such thing as "chest thump" how is it the blind can "feel" musical instruments when they are being played?

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