JW Sound

Introducing the ground plane board by JW Sound. A revolutionary new product that literally puts you in the mix. For decades, engineers have battled the destructive effects of early reflections: comb filtering, phase smearing, and spectral coloration caused by desk bounce and nearfield boundary interference. Countless hours have been spent adjusting DSP, repositioning monitors, and adding treatment in the pursuit of a more transparent sound.

By relocating the listener into a controlled half space environment, the indirect sound from environmental reflections can be dramatically reduced. Constructed from studio-grade plywood, this product has been precision engineered to meet the needs of the most demanding studio environments, and seamlessly integrate into workflows.

Key features:

- Zero latency acoustic correction: no plugins, no calibration mics, no firmware updates. Just applied physics.
- Broadband Reflection Mitigation: Effectively reduces comb filtering artifacts across the entire midrange where critical mix decisions live.
- Passive Design: no power supply or cables required. Simply insert your head and go.

Plans and limited flatpack availability will be live at the end of this month.

SAWMOD v1.01 has been uploaded. This is a minor revision that corrects a couple of issues in the guide & enclosure model, adds in a couple of recommended HF drivers, and more importantly provides a full-size single piece print file for each waveguide variant. If you have access to a larger 3D printer, this can be an effective way to reduce post-processing time and achieve a nicer surface finish straight from your build plate.

Some conceptual renders of the in-development SAWMOD design. This is a compact 3-way point source utilizing two 10" low frequency drivers, two 5" midranges, and a 1" compression driver optimized for monitoring and small-scale mains duties. It sits somewhere between the Solana and JMOD in terms of output capabilities.

The central waveguide module is an exploration into more ambitious uses of 3D printing to achieve great directivity performance and power density. Effectively, this module is a self-contained point source with controlled directivity and wide bandwidth that can be adapted for many use-cases beyond the suggested enclosure.

The dual opposed 10 inch low frequency drivers provide exceptional stability and control. They are configured to fire into a 22 liter sealed rear chamber resulting in excellent transient response and group delay while also maintaining effective convective cooling, unlike most sealed designs which suffer from thermal buildup.

Progress-wise, it's on the 5th revision at this point with a few more todo's to hammer out some small issues. There's been a lot of tweaks to really optimize the performance in terms of directivity, maximum output, and ergonomics. Assuming no more major roadblocks come up with the design, it will be moving into the field testing phase in February.

Starting in 2026 the first full size flagship JW Sound system will become available for booking in the Eastern/Midwest US.

There have been 6+ months spent in CAD, simulations, and field testing to meticulously refine this setup resulting in a highly power-dense unique hifi experience that can be configured for flexible deployments.

This system builds on an idea to push the bounds of DIY-accessible sound systems into something that fuses together psychoacoustic understanding, aesthetic design and science-based loudspeaker engineering.

I get asked quite a bit what subwoofer I recommend pairing with JMODs, so I'm sharing 3 designs that I am happy to recommend, each being fairly similar in terms of how they sound being all 6th order bandpass (/bandpasshorn) designs offering deep extension and a very heavyweight, articulate "hifi" sound.

Ricci's SKHORN
> Why I like it: my personal favorite as being the best overall sounding of the 3. The adjustable port blocks mean you can quickly go from a general use subwoofer with a 31Hz tuning to an infrabass sub with an extremely low 18Hz tuning. The sound is intense and heavyweight, but still maintains a high degree of control and precision, especially noticeable in triplets and in exhibiting clear kick/bassline separation.

Ricci's SKRAM
> Why I like it: it's far more portable than the SKHORN and keeps the adjustable port tuning feature. I think the sound can be described as being slightly more engaging/exciting, or "forward" than the other 2 options, so worth considering depending on subjective preference of where you want the subs to sit in the mix.

B&C S218BP
> Why I like it: high power density in an easy to move package. The dual-opposed driver arrangement with the magnets placed near the vent keeps the box stable and drivers cool. The sound is very natural and articulate and easy to integrate with tops without overshadowing them. I'll have more thoughts I'm sure after I've built and tested more.

Are there other designs that would work well? Of course; these are just 3 designs that I've personally field tested and validated.

I've uploaded both the SKRAM and SKHORN designs to my website with relevant drawings, CAD files, and the original databass forum posts with permission from Josh. The S218BP design can be downloaded from the "suggested designs" page of B&C's website.

The first full JMOD-M medium format array is assembled and ready for deployment at next weekend.

On the topic of plans - much like previous designs, the first iteration of this cabinet has some complex assembly procedures and steps. Especially of note is the amount of bevels and complex mitre cuts to accommodate the trapezoid-shaped cabinet. Rather than releasing the design as-is, I'll be taking some time to iterate and refine the construction so that the complexity level can be reduced, while still maintaining the target performance metrics. That being said, I still think this will end up being a considerably more advanced build than the 90x60 version, but worth it for crews looking for a challenging, yet rewarding build. Preliminary specs are on my website.

Excited to announce the largest JW Sound deployment to date at Oct 3-4th where I'll be debuting the all-new JMOD-M arrayable point source tops in the forest 360 stage.

Every detail of this deployment is being meticulously planned and evaluated to offer maximum fidelity and clarity in a highly consistent wide coverage arrangement. I'll be posting technical deep-dives on my website and stories over the coming weeks as details of this are refined.

Specifications:
-4x JMOD-M multiple entry horns with 110°x55° arrayed coverage
-2x SKHORN 2x21" infrabass subwoofers
-10x SKRAM 1x21" subwoofers (collaborating with )

WIP. Something I've wanted to experiment with for a while, but needed the right timing and set of circumstances to see it through.

Not shown is the hours upon hours of simulations and setting up workflows to optimize the horn shapes and coverage patterns. It's a bit of new territory, but the idea is that when executed properly, destructive MF/HF interference can be minimized to an acceptable level, while constructive summing occurs in the midbass region.

JMOD 2.0 plans are published on my website: https://www.jwsound.live/designs/jmod. This was a ground-up redesign based on feedback from users worldwide as well as extensive field testing to further iterate and optimize the design as a high performance DIY prosound top.

The enclosure dimensions, horn flares, and throat adapter have been BEM optimized to produce significantly improved directivity performance, while maintaining a similar size footprint and weight.

The assembly process has been simplified and considerations have been made to ensure greater consistency between builders by eliminating complex mitre cuts that were prone to tolerance issues without compromising on performance.

Solana DIY plans are live. 13 pages with detailed illustrations, thorough documentation, and measurements are provided for free on my website (link in bio).

When I first envisioned this design 2 years ago, I knew I wanted a compact design with a medium-wide coverage that could provide the intense psychoacoustic effects of a multiple entry horn, but I don't think I anticipated just how many hundreds of hours of development and prototyping it would ensue. Happy to say that the result has exceeded my expectations though and it's been a treat having this highly portable rig out for various events locally over the last few months.

A bit about how this design should be used: rather than providing full instructions on an enclosure, I'm recommending that people lean into the flexibility that this waveguide offers by thinking of it similarly to a coaxial unit. Basically it's a mostly full range point source module with controlled directivity that can be used in monitoring, small-scale mains, home audio, and home theater depending on requirements. It's a step towards an overarching design philosophy I'm exploring to erase the lines separating pro, home, and studio sound by creating highly capable neutral loudspeakers that excel in multiple listening environments.

Solana Prototype B

This project is moving along with the small incremental improvements really starting to stack up. Redesigning the bandpass ports resulted in a considerable improvement in the polar response highlighting the advantage of the unique waveguide profile of peaks and valleys, which allows placement of the bandpass ports in an area of low impedance on the waveguide to minimize harmful interactions with the compression driver's wavefront.

Sound-wise, the design is 90% of where I'd like it to be, with the only area still needing attention being the port - still battling air noise at higher SPLs.

Prototype C will be a stereo pair and focus on refining the fit & finish as well as better materials/assembly methods for the waveguide. That pair will also serve as field testing prototypes and for me to conduct a series of double blind A/B listening tests in mono to collect subjective data from listeners.