Can you invert mids?

[An-i-no 86]

I'm number crunching and having issues with depth. I know spacers is the "duh" option.

Mids can't be inverted/wired out of phase right? All the sound would go into the door then huh? Why does it work for subs but not higher freqs? I'm havin a dumbass attack and need someone to explain this to me lol

[jcarter1885 995]

Im thinking no but I dont have any reasoning to back it up, it may have something to do with the backwave or higher frequencies.

[Dangrebel 89]

I believe that the high frequency sound on a mid is produced from the center of the cone so then if it's reversed there is no real center for the speaker to produce high frequencies on the back side but I do believe you will still catch vocals, this is just a. Educated guess haha

[An-i-no 86]

Lol you guys have better reasoning than I do. I'm just looking for a reason not to try it lol.

[Dangrebel 89]

You won't catch high frequencies and spacers are super easy to do

[Tirefryr 1,742]

You can wire it any way you want. You can also invert it if you'd like, but higher frequencies are directional and more "point source." So if you want it to sound the same, no, don't do it. If you don't mind losing a good percentage of the drivers spectrum, go ahead.

[kirill007 52]

subwoofers don't have to go thru a surface, most of the sound comes from the port or in a sealed enclosure it doesn't really mathers because low frequencies are not directional.

Mids will sound bad when reversed because the motor+basket are obstructing the sound, or the sound has to go thru sheetmetal and deforms.

[Duran 387]

Everything higher than midbass frequencies are directional.

[Dangrebel 89]

Everything higher than midbass frequencies are directional.

Yes isn't anything above 80hz locatable? I think I read that some where

[Impious 1,476]

Technically yes, you can invert a mid. Sound radiates from both sides of the cone equally, you just don't notice this most of the time because the rear of the driver is sealed off from the front by some type of enclosure or baffle. Having them inverted wouldn't affect which way the sound is "projected" or cause all of the sound to be radiated into the door, but it would affect the high(er) frequency response of the driver. The basket and motor will create reflection/interference issues at certain frequencies and probably affect dispersion patterns in the upper frequencies as well. Where you will run into problems depends on the dimensions of the motor and basket (as they are related to the wavelength of the sound wave at which issues will occur, which will ofcourse determine what frequencies you will have an issue at)......the higher you play in frequency the more problems you will run into. Not to mention you run the risk of hearing the mechanical noise from the driver (which again, is normally "trapped" inside of the enclosure or separated by the baffle so you don't hear it). So overall no, it's not a good idea. But in theory if you were using them strictly as midbass speakers it would possibly be feasible.

Mids can be wired out of phase. In fact this is common practice. My midrange are out of phase with my midbass and tweeters. In my case, I had to wire them out of phase due to the phase shift inherent to the 2nd order slope of the crossovers. But often wiring one or both mids out of phase is done because of the differing distances of the mids to the other speakers and to the listening position in car audio.

Higher frequencies don't radiate only from the center of the cone. They radiate from all of the cone, but at some point the wavelengths will become shorter than the diameter of the driver and beaming will begin to occur, which means there is an increasingly narrowing dispersion pattern. But below the point of beaming, the sound radiates in a relatively even pattern.

Higher frequencies are more easily localized than lower (subbass) frequencies. This has little to do directly with the mounting orientation of the driver, assuming the frequency response (et al) was the same you wouldn't notice a difference between an inverted mid and a normal mid. But indirectly it can make a difference because of changes to frequency response and such. How we localize sound depends on the frequency and the dimensions of your head, among other things.