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Acoustic Design

Acoustic Design: shaping what a speaker radiates

Waveguides, directivity matching and enclosure behaviour — the program behind all three Tikpal speakers.

Published June 20, 2026

1 — The question

A speaker is not judged by its on-axis response alone. What reaches the listener is a bundle: direct sound, first reflections from walls and desk, late reverberation. How does an engineer control the entire radiation — direct and reflected — instead of just one axis?

2 — Why it matters

Rooms differ wildly, but the ratio between direct and reflected energy at the listening seat follows rules the speaker itself sets. A driver pair that hands over with mismatched directivity radiates a different spectrum into the room than into the sweet spot — and listeners hear the room’s version more often than they think. Controlling directivity is the cheapest room treatment ever built, and it ships inside the cabinet.

3 — Our approach

  • Model waveguide flare geometries in simulation before cutting any wood.
  • Build prototypes in pairs (A/B) so every design change produces a measurable difference, not just a narrative.
  • Track horizontal and vertical directivity as first-class data, published alongside the on-axis response.

4 — What we have learned

The flare rate of the waveguide matters more than its size: a small guide with the right flare matches the mid-bass driver’s directivity closely enough that the crossover region reads as one source. Changing the crossover without fixing the guide’s loading produced the 2–3 kHz artefact visible in the Prototype A data.

5 — Open questions

  • Vertical directivity at the crossover with offset driver centres — how much baffle tilt is worth the manufacturing cost?
  • Baffle-step compensation in nearfield placement versus free-standing: can one DSP preset per placement replace per-room EQ?

6 — Related work