SIMPLE QUESTION: Can a 10" woofer give me the same bass of a 15" one?
 

Please be honest, can a 10 inch woofer offer the same impact of bass, I'm telling of the first octave 20-40Hz of a 15 inch?
I;m asking this because of the quote of a JBL guy, MArk Gunder: "to make sound, you must move air"

No a 10 inch won't beat a 15 inch, Mark is quite correct

It depends....
 

All things equal the 15" will do a better job. The real question is application. There are modern 10" sub woofers with huge air moving abilities. They exist for those that have space and or cost limitations that make a 15" impractible.

However the 10" will have limitations and usually be less efficient.

You need to tell us more about what your goals and application situation.

· If the cone area is doubled, the excursion is halved.

· If the frequency is halved, the cone excursion increases by a factor of 4.

· If the cone excursion is halved, the acoustical power is halved.

· If the cone area is doubled and the cone excursion remains the same, the acoustical power is increased by a factor of four.

Too vague of a question. It's like asking: can a truck go faster than a sportscar?

or you could also ask; 'at 70m/h, which car drives best?'

at lower SPL, I would say a 12" will do :D

On the other hand, 15's are harder to build to keep the cone behaving.
The simple answer which I am sure you have figured out by now is "It depends"

I'll take a pair of 12's over a single 15 unless I was building a PA system.

Hi,

A really good 10" will slaughter a poor 15", it just needs around double
the xmax to do the job the same. Given your talking 20Hz to 40Hz, that
is possible in moderate volume with a lot of power with a 10". Generally
speaking a poor 15" will need a lot more box volume and less power.

However, if the 15" has about 4 times the cone mass of the 10" and
the same xmax, it will slaughter the 10", but will need a far bigger
magnet to do so, and will be commensurately much more expensive.

A good 15" will kill a good 10", depending on your design criteria.

Which it all boils down to, good design, and proper drivers for purpose.

rgds, sreten.

then I would take it to 18" :D

Hi,

The optimum size of a bass (sub) driver depends on understanding
the problem (the constraints - and there always are some), and
handling unrealistic expectations to properly define the constraints.

rgds, sreten.