The Phase Paradox: Why Coaxial Acoustics Rule the Desktop

In the vast ecosystem of audio engineering, distance is the great equalizer. In a living room or a concert hall, the physical distance between a tweeter (high frequencies) and a woofer (low frequencies) is negligible relative to the listener’s position. The sound waves have meters of air in which to integrate, arriving at the ear as a cohesive whole. However, the gaming desk presents a radically different acoustic challenge: the Near Field.

When a listener sits merely two feet from a speaker, the geometry of sound changes. Even a separation of a few inches between drivers can cause “phase cancellation”—a phenomenon where sound waves interfere with each other, creating peaks and nulls in the frequency response. This results in a smeared audio image, where the precise location of a footstep or a distant gunshot becomes blurred. To solve this, engineers must pursue the theoretical ideal of audio: the Point Source.

The Coaxial Solution: Aligning Time and Space

The most elegant solution to the near-field phase problem is the Coaxial Driver. Unlike traditional “bi-amplified” setups where the tweeter sits above or beside the woofer, a coaxial design places the tweeter inside the center of the woofer.

This architecture, termed “Unispace” in the OXS Thunder Pro, aligns the acoustic centers of both drivers on the same axis. In physics terms, this means high and low frequencies emanate from the exact same point in space (X, Y, Z) and start at the exact same time (T). For a gamer sitting close to the monitor, this phase coherence is revelatory. It eliminates the “vertical lobing” issues that plague standard soundbars, ensuring that the sound remains consistent even if you slouch in your chair or stand up.

More importantly, it creates a rock-solid “phantom center.” When two coaxial drivers (left and right) work in tandem, the brain can pinpoint sounds between them with laser precision. In a competitive shooter, this means knowing exactly where an enemy is peeking, not just generally “to the left.”

Minimizing the Footprint, Maximizing the Wavefront

The secondary benefit of coaxial architecture is spatial efficiency. Desktop real estate is a finite resource. A traditional multi-driver array requires a wide, tall cabinet to house separate components. By nesting drivers within one another, the enclosure can be shrunk without sacrificing driver surface area.

However, density introduces complexity. The woofer cone effectively becomes a “waveguide” (or horn) for the tweeter nested inside it. Designing this interaction requires precise mathematical modeling to prevent the moving woofer from modulating the high frequencies of the tweeter—a distortion known as the Doppler effect. When executed correctly, as with high-performance coaxial systems, the result is a soundbar that fits under a monitor yet projects a soundstage significantly wider and deeper than its physical dimensions suggest.

The Signal Path: Bandwidth as the Bottleneck

Even the finest drivers are limited by the quality of the signal they receive. In the era of high-fidelity gaming, the bandwidth of the connection is often the bottleneck. Traditional Optical (Toslink) cables cap out at 5.1 compressed audio. They simply lack the data rate to carry uncompressed, object-based metadata like Dolby Atmos.

This is where HDMI eARC (enhanced Audio Return Channel) becomes critical. eARC offers massive bandwidth (up to 37 Mbps compared to Optical’s ~384 kbps), allowing for the transmission of lossless, uncompressed audio. For a system processing 5.1.2 channels of data—positioning objects in a 3D bubble—this pipe is essential. It ensures that the phase-coherent wavefront generated by the coaxial drivers is fed by a signal that hasn’t been decimated by compression algorithms.