The advantages of cardioid sub configurations are well known, however they also have some drawbacks. Because of the nature of the arrays in their two-in-line and inverse-stacked variations, cardioid systems reduce the acoustical pressure not only on the stage, but also at FOH, the most important area! This is in front of the array, where the audience is located. SPL can be decreased by greater than 3 to 6 dB when compared to a simple mono cluster. This makes the technique unviable in situations where maximum SPL is needed. Measurements are presented to illustrate the problems with traditional cardioid sub configurations, followed by an introduction of our new way to create a cardioid array. In this new method, we achieve the same output levels as a mono cluster across most of the subwoofer’s bandwidth, while maintaining the benefits of a cardioid configuration.
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