What is a dipole ribbon or baffle ?
A dipole ribbon or dipole baffle is a planar magnetic, ribbon or ESL driver mounted in a baffle, typically of rectangular or trapezoidal construction. As such the driver is allowed to radiate energy in the front and rear direction. This results in soundwaves emanating in a figure 8 pattern. There is hardly any energy emitted to the sides due to quarter wave dipole cancellation. As such there are also hardly any reflections of the side walls in a typical listening environment. Care must be given however to room placement as reflection of the backwall will interfere with the front wave. A minimum distance of 6 feet of the backwall is recommended. As such the attenuated and dispersed backwall reflections reach the listener 10 milliseconds later than the frontwave, creating the famous “dipole” ambiance. Magic with large scale sound stages.
