So I've been thinking what exactly is the purpose of the tilted speakers in the cabinet design for the Sunn Beta Lead. I never owned one, and don't know if it serves any auditory purposes or is it just efficiency?
http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=40716&d=1364930312
It serves 3 purposes:
1) the most important one: visual impact, separates this amp from others, it´s instantly recognizable.
Often they also painted front baffle board white, which could be easily seen even through speaker cloth.
In a regular cabinet you have a black cone mounted on a black panel, so you perceive a dark rectangle, while in Sunn amps you often perceived a black circle inside a white rectangle, quite striking.
2) it´s physically narrower, a 2 x 12" can´t be less than 26" wide, while these can be almost 8" less.
3) it´s slightly louder on axis, so its perceived as a more powerful amp, not bad for sales.
So in general it´s a gimmick but has *some* real merit.
I once made a 4 x 12" speaker , with 4 sub baffles, each holding a 12" speaker and all focused at the same point: head level about 7 meters in front of the cabinet, guitar player´s dental fillings were softened by sound pressure and cabinet was perceived as "twice as loud as a Marshall 4 x 12" " :o
Stopped using it because customers asked for that exact model and it was a big waste of time cutting all panels at exact weird angles to fit this inverted pyramid.
There was a commercial Fender cabinet made this way, but it focused sound at same distance but at , say, 60 cm above ground, good to impress midget players only.
(http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f11/rq8953/110-1082_IMG.jpg~original)
notice the heavy use of caulking to seal poorly mating edges.
There was also a wild Trace Elliot *THREE* by 12" speaker:
(http://www.gearslutz.com/board/attachments/instruments-guitar-bass-amps/31075d1171279107-unknown-guitarhead-trace-elliot-sc-312-p.jpg)
killer cabinet buy too impractical to build.
Huh! I didn't know such things existed.
I get the "focused" sound, so it seem twice as loud, but how is dispersion?
Does it have a very narrow sound field?
JM, are those 2 cabs the Fender, or the ones you built?
Yes, you get a very narrow field, energy is not created but focused.
Those are actual Fender Cabinets (or so they seem):
If interested, keep alert for "Fender Bassman 135 4x12" cabinets" at Craigslist or wherever you fish your cool kitschy Japanese amps :cheesy: