The deathbox loads the driver cone evenly to increase performance. The white paper says it does this through use of the slot design. The fact that the slot design terminates halfway across the cone has something to do with it too. I've thought of another way to do this and I'm looking for problems or reasons it won't work. Steve may have tried this already as he said in the white paper that during development they moved the position of the port 13 times. Basically, I would put the port in front of the driver. In most bandpass boxes the port is at a right angle to the driver. What if we swung the port around so its pointing directly at the driver and center it on the center of the driver's cone. Then we make the port flush with the inside edge of the box so its flat against the wall opposite the driver.
http://www.audio2.homestead.com/files/clear_bandpass.jpgBasically so its like this but with the port centered on the driver and sticking outside the box. Does anyone see any reason why this arrangement would not load the driver evenly?
-Matt