Speaker Size

[vaustin89]

i have used google and was unlucky to find any info about my inquiry, i was just curious, if a 10 watt amp has a 6" speaker and i would swap let's say a 10" or a 15", given that they have the same impedance, would it be more louder? if yes, then why? if no, would there be a difference in sound? how dramatic or subtle would that change be?

thanks for any inputs that you can share.

[SemperFi]

Yes it will be louder.
So will a bigger cabinet.
Guitar drivers have undamped cones and will break up at various frequencies giving them 'character' as well as louder peaks here and there compared to HiFi drivers that have damped cones to eliminate just that. The undamped paper cones also are lighter and will be more efficient, so it's common with 12" drivers with SPLs > 100dB/W. Put into an efficient cab those 10watts can go pretty loud.

[vaustin89]

so how loud are we talking about? lets say a 10 watt amp with a 12in" versus a 20 watt amp with 6in" which will still be louder?

[MuthaFunk]

The 12" will be louder. Power output vs actual volume (SPL) is exponential as in it will take nearly 10X the power to perceive a doubling in volume using the same speaker. By doubling the cone area i.e. 12" vs 6" you will have effectively doubled your volume without changing your power. To achieve the same volume by power alone you would most likely need a specialized long throw 6" driver and nearly 100 Watts. Keep in mind this is all subjective as speaker/cabinet efficiencies will change all the #'s.

I've heard a cigarette pack housed 5 watt amp into a half stack guitar cab of 4-12" speakers and when driven to distortion it was amazingly loud.

[vaustin89]

thanks for that well put information..

[geraldfryjr]

I run a pair of old 12" jensen's on my little Park amp and it is incredibly loud compared to the little 8" that came in it.
It uses a TDA2030 20watt chipamp and sounds very nice too for what it is .

jer

[Printer2]

The bigger speaker could be louder but not necessarily so. I have seen 8" speakers that were built for high output but these were not speakers you would generally find in a low powered guitar amp. I have seen 12" guitar speakers that were inefficient and in turn were not very loud unless fed a lot of power. It all depends on how the speaker is made. A larger speaker has more surface area and should couple the energy pushing the voice coil more efficiently to the air. But the magnet structure is another part of the equation. A large magnet and a small voice coil gap helps to make most of the amps power. But that implies better materials and quality control and large inexpensive speakers might not be made with that in mind. The 8" speakers I referred to were made for high output and the cost of them reflected that fact.

As an example

MONACOR INTERNATIONAL : New products

Not a guitar speaker, made more for a specific frequency range but much louder than some 12's.

[Enzo]

And this isn't very scientific, but the tone and frequency matter. I can listen to 100 watts of something low like 100Hz a heck of a lot longer than I can listen to 5 watts of screeching 3kHz. Higher tones tend to be more piercing, and more directional. SO out right in front of some little amp like a Champ can be really loud, while a fuller range amp may be technically louder in terms of sound pressure levels, but a lot less piercing to the ear.

[Keriwena]

Originally Posted by vaustin89

i have used google and was unlucky to find any info about my inquiry, i was just curious, if a 10 watt amp has a 6" speaker and i would swap let's say a 10" or a 15", given that they have the same impedance, would it be more louder? if yes, then why? if no, would there be a difference in sound? how dramatic or subtle would that change be?

thanks for any inputs that you can share.

You're talking about replacing the cheap little speaker in a practice amp with a real guitar speaker?

I can pretty much guarantee it will be louder and it will sound a lot more real. So real, you may realise you need a better amp.

The biggest 'why' it's louder is a quality speaker will be much more efficient.

As to sounding better... party due to physics relating to lengths, and partly due to experience (98% of the guitar music you've heard has been made with 12" speakers, and the rest was EQ'd to sound like them), 12" speakers sound like guitars. You can use a 10" or 15", but there are differences. 12" speakers simply voice the range of the instrument properly.

The other thing you'll get with a quality speaker is better distortion and compression. These are the reasons we use guitar speakers in the first place.

[geraldfryjr]

Originally Posted by vaustin89

i have used google and was unlucky to find any info about my inquiry, i was just curious, if a 10 watt amp has a 6" speaker and i would swap let's say a 10" or a 15", given that they have the same impedance, would it be more louder? if yes, then why? if no, would there be a difference in sound? how dramatic or subtle would that change be?

thanks for any inputs that you can share.

1 - yes basicaly because there is more surface area

2- yes it can sound different because every speaker has its own characteristics and frequency response.

3- Depends on what the characteristics and frequency response of the speaker that you plan to use and the type of box you put it in.

I used to mount a 10" speaker in my Fender Vibro Champ and I liked that alot and it gave it much more omph.

But I have had some nice sounding 8" speakers as well that I wouldn't trade for anything because of the way they sounded.

But for loudness there is no match for surface area.
But don't forget about speaker efficiency either, As this is the biggest factor to look for especialy if you are just using a single driver,as well as multiples.

jer