Acoustic crossover speaker enclosure

Claim 1

A speaker enclosure comprising: an enclosed cabinet disposed in an upright position having an opening at the top end; a horn disposed in an upright position within said cabinet, said horn having a throat opening at the near bottom end of said cabinet, said horn having a mouth opening through said top end of said cabinet, the exterior walls of said horn and the interior wall of said cabinet defining an annular air chamber extending 360 degrees around said horn exterior walls and substantially along the full length of said horn between said throat, and means mounting said horn in said cabinet to define said 360 degree annular air chamber; and a driver carried at the throat end of said horn such that the front of said driver projects therein for radiating compression waves therein, the back side of said driver projecting compression waves into said annular air chamber, said cabinet having a back wall with a port extending therethrough, said air chamber communicating the sound waves radiated from the rearward side of said driver to said port; a deflection panel carried at the top end of said cabinet adjacent the mouth of said horn such that sound waves emitted from the mouth of said horn are laterally deflected by said deflection panel for deflecting the sound from the front of said cabinet into the listening area, whereby the energy emitted in a rearward direction by said driver is communicated via said air chamber to said port to add said rearwardly emitted radiation of said driver to the radiation emitted from the front of said driver which is directed through said horn.