Benefits of a cardioid subwoofer?

Martykl, I believe that the rear-firing woofer's output is time-delayed in order to obtain the cardioid pattern.

Speaking from theory rather than experience here, I would think that the benefits of a cardioid pattern at bass frequencies are rather small in a home listening room. You see, the ear cannot detect the presence of bass from less than one wavelength, and it takes several cycles for the ear to discern pitch. Given the size of our home listening rooms in relation to a wavelength, by the time we hear bass tones the energy has been reflected multiple times. So the initial radiation pattern of that bass energy doesn't make a great deal of difference.

I'm not saying there would be no improvement... just probably not as much improvement in a home audio setting as implied by the superior radiation pattern control of a cardioid subwoofer.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer

"...What am I missing?"

The time delay on the rear woofer corresponds to the time it takes for the output of the front woofer to wrap around the cabinet and reach the rear woofer. So the reversed-polarity rear woofer "fires" just as the output from the front woofer reaches it, and this way cancellation occurs behind the sub, rather than off to the sides, as with a dipole. The rear woofer's output might also be attenuated a bit relative to the front woofer, I dunno... never actually done it.

Duke