Depends on the size of the room, the SPL you want to achieve and how low you want to go.
Usually really high sensativity drivers dont do as low, so you'd want a bigger driver to get lower for the same sense.
However if you are talking about a normal size living room then its only overkill really if you cant or will find it a hassle living with a big box.
Usually really high sensativity drivers dont do as low, so you'd want a bigger driver to get lower for the same sense.
However if you are talking about a normal size living room then its only overkill really if you cant or will find it a hassle living with a big box.
Big speaker are impressive to look at, however there are reasons you don't see them in many speaker designs using them.
1) The mass of the driver makes it sound slow and lack of detail.
2) Cabinet volume
3) Cabinet Size which increasing the front baffle causing diffraction.
4) They don't sound correct till they bring played louder than a smaller driver.
5) It is not necessary that your speaker go to 20Hz unless your room that can produce a 20Hz wave length.
5) Most bass guitars only go down to about 35Hz.
But they do have a cool factor for your friends
10” is about all you need, most of the time you can get buy with an 8 inch woofers
Now if you can afford a 15” Focal that is a cool speaker.
1) The mass of the driver makes it sound slow and lack of detail.
2) Cabinet volume
3) Cabinet Size which increasing the front baffle causing diffraction.
4) They don't sound correct till they bring played louder than a smaller driver.
5) It is not necessary that your speaker go to 20Hz unless your room that can produce a 20Hz wave length.
5) Most bass guitars only go down to about 35Hz.
But they do have a cool factor for your friends
10” is about all you need, most of the time you can get buy with an 8 inch woofers
Now if you can afford a 15” Focal that is a cool speaker.
Hi there ........That 15 incher...to keep size down..... there's nothing wrong using this for music in closed box C2nd 3 way alignment....it's going to need power as efficency is way down compared to reflex versions......
Choose driver with spec roughly, Vas = 10Cuft; fs= 13Hz; Qt= 0.31; Box Vol comes roughly 3Cuft. Drivers like this don't come cheap.
Anything is poss.
rich
Choose driver with spec roughly, Vas = 10Cuft; fs= 13Hz; Qt= 0.31; Box Vol comes roughly 3Cuft. Drivers like this don't come cheap.
Anything is poss.
rich
jewilson said:
1) Slow? How fast do you think a 40Hz wave is?
3) I doubt diffraction has that much effect on LF.
4) ???
5) How does a room produce a wavelength? I think you're talking about room gain, though if the output at 20Hz is only 40dB, no amount of normal room gain will let you feel it.
6) http://www.contrabass.com/pages/frequency.html - though many of the instruments higher up on the list are pretty rare.
454Casull
I have only head a few speakers that had tight bass that used a 15" woofer that was a JM Audio Lab Utopia. Great for sound reniforcement.
No problem with low frequency diffraction but when you build the rest of the cabinet you will end up with a wide cabinet.
You have to have a room that is long enough to reproduce a 20 Hz wave length
or it does not happen.
Most 15" drivers don't sound good till they are playing loud.
6) http://www.contrabass.com/pages/frequency.html that interesting but most of us don't listen to a Tuba.
So what 15" drivers do you like......
I have only head a few speakers that had tight bass that used a 15" woofer that was a JM Audio Lab Utopia. Great for sound reniforcement.
No problem with low frequency diffraction but when you build the rest of the cabinet you will end up with a wide cabinet.
You have to have a room that is long enough to reproduce a 20 Hz wave length
or it does not happen.Most 15" drivers don't sound good till they are playing loud.
6) http://www.contrabass.com/pages/frequency.html that interesting but most of us don't listen to a Tuba.
So what 15" drivers do you like......
High quality pro 15" drivers can sound great.
The reason I find most logical is that they can move a lot of air without compresing it. Generally high quality pro drivers have much lower distortion than typical HiFi drivers.
Yes, the cone is heavier than a smaller driver, but the motor is usually much stronger, so the cone is usually proportionally lighter than a typical driver. This is reflected in the much higher efficiency for pro drivers. As mentioned, they are also more efficient because they don't really go that low- usually a little less than 40 hz flat. Keep in mind that there is still bass much lower, it just is tapering off. As has been pointed out, that covers most instruments. I don't agree that they sound correct only at high volumes. They are often less distorted , which some people don't like.
The Pass Rushmore uses pro drivers for all but the tweeter.
-including a 15"
I guess the biggest question is whether one is talking about pro PA type 15" drivers , or 15" sub woofer drivers.
The pro PA drivers usually have pretty low excursion but of course large area. This accounts for the low distortion I believe. They sound very fast and very detailed. Smilar to the way planar
speakers sound- but planars have even more area and move even less!
Sub woofer drivers TEND usually to have very large excursion, aren't particularly efficient, have higher distortion, and are made to reproduce very low notes. These notes are mostly on movie sound tracks.
So it's apples and oranges. I LOVE my 15" pro drivers in my home stereo- they sound more realistic to me. Yes, the boxes are big though...
I don't like the bass of 15" subwoofer drivers that much except for the lowest notes. They often do sound slow and bloated.
The reason I find most logical is that they can move a lot of air without compresing it. Generally high quality pro drivers have much lower distortion than typical HiFi drivers.
Yes, the cone is heavier than a smaller driver, but the motor is usually much stronger, so the cone is usually proportionally lighter than a typical driver. This is reflected in the much higher efficiency for pro drivers. As mentioned, they are also more efficient because they don't really go that low- usually a little less than 40 hz flat. Keep in mind that there is still bass much lower, it just is tapering off. As has been pointed out, that covers most instruments. I don't agree that they sound correct only at high volumes. They are often less distorted , which some people don't like.
The Pass Rushmore uses pro drivers for all but the tweeter.
-including a 15"
I guess the biggest question is whether one is talking about pro PA type 15" drivers , or 15" sub woofer drivers.
The pro PA drivers usually have pretty low excursion but of course large area. This accounts for the low distortion I believe. They sound very fast and very detailed. Smilar to the way planar
speakers sound- but planars have even more area and move even less!
Sub woofer drivers TEND usually to have very large excursion, aren't particularly efficient, have higher distortion, and are made to reproduce very low notes. These notes are mostly on movie sound tracks.
So it's apples and oranges. I LOVE my 15" pro drivers in my home stereo- they sound more realistic to me. Yes, the boxes are big though...
I don't like the bass of 15" subwoofer drivers that much except for the lowest notes. They often do sound slow and bloated.
Variac,
As Carl pointed out there are a lot of good Sound Reinforcement systems out there. But these systems are not High Fidelity and certainly not high resolution.
Back in the 60's and 70's many of the audiophiles listen to JBL studio monitors, I have owned several pairs. My preference now is for high resolution speaker that does not need to play at 120dB.
A speaker for Variac.
As Carl pointed out there are a lot of good Sound Reinforcement systems out there. But these systems are not High Fidelity and certainly not high resolution.
Back in the 60's and 70's many of the audiophiles listen to JBL studio monitors, I have owned several pairs. My preference now is for high resolution speaker that does not need to play at 120dB.
A speaker for Variac.
Attachments
Jim, I didn't say to use a sound reinforcement system at home. Please don't say that I did. I said that some 15" pro PA drivers sound amazing in home systems.
I agree many of the JBL's from the late 60's and the seventies are seriously flawed- especially those in smaller boxes. This is well known. I know there are people that are crazy about them.
I'm not one of those. I doubt that I would like current sound reinforement systemds in my room! My midrange and tweeter are not sound reinforcement drivers. They are in a narrower baffle than the woofer. My speakers do not need to play at high volume to sound good, but their dynamic range is amazing compared to less efficient speakers. Some PA drivers are designed to have optimal bass when hot, I agree, But I think you can compensate for that in the box tuning. At least I think I have.....
I do think your picture is cool though
Mark
I agree many of the JBL's from the late 60's and the seventies are seriously flawed- especially those in smaller boxes. This is well known. I know there are people that are crazy about them.
I'm not one of those. I doubt that I would like current sound reinforement systemds in my room! My midrange and tweeter are not sound reinforcement drivers. They are in a narrower baffle than the woofer. My speakers do not need to play at high volume to sound good, but their dynamic range is amazing compared to less efficient speakers. Some PA drivers are designed to have optimal bass when hot, I agree, But I think you can compensate for that in the box tuning. At least I think I have.....
I do think your picture is cool though
Mark
He didn't say anything about building it into the main speaker; in fact, if you read his other threads, he's asking about how to build a subwoofer, which driver to use, etc.jewilson said:454Casull
I have only head a few speakers that had tight bass that used a 15" woofer that was a JM Audio Lab Utopia. Great for sound reniforcement.
No problem with low frequency diffraction but when you build the rest of the cabinet you will end up with a wide cabinet.
You have to have a room that is long enough to reproduce a 20 Hz wave length
Most 15" drivers don't sound good till they are playing loud.
6) http://www.contrabass.com/pages/frequency.html that interesting but most of us don't listen to a Tuba.
So what 15" drivers do you like......
Your next point: tell me how people can listen to, let's say, I don't know, 100Hz with headphones? Do you think the space between the transducer and the end of ear canal is enough for a 100Hz wavelength?
<<Most 15" drivers don't sound good till they are playing loud.>>
Can you explain why?
No it isnt but it is true that you need a room of a certain size to reproduce bass of a certain frequency.
My room is not all that big maybe 3.5*4 meters there is a deffinate limit to the LFE that I can get in there. How do I know this? I moved the speakers to a bigger room, normally people would expect less bass, but no it was all there the same as before except it went deeper. I like massive rooms for playing hifi in, thing is large houses with huge rooms are not cheap!
My room is not all that big maybe 3.5*4 meters there is a deffinate limit to the LFE that I can get in there. How do I know this? I moved the speakers to a bigger room, normally people would expect less bass, but no it was all there the same as before except it went deeper. I like massive rooms for playing hifi in, thing is large houses with huge rooms are not cheap!
Konnichiwa,
I find that a 15" is really the diameter where the whole thing starts to approach a dynamic range where the Speaker is no longer the problem. A 15" based speaker of good design (e.g. Tannoy 15" Coaxial Monitors) can handle large scale music without congestion at realistic levels.
In most cases however it is a little overkill, but remember, nothing succeeds like excess....
Sayonara
Andre Baptiste said:
I find that a 15" is really the diameter where the whole thing starts to approach a dynamic range where the Speaker is no longer the problem. A 15" based speaker of good design (e.g. Tannoy 15" Coaxial Monitors) can handle large scale music without congestion at realistic levels.
In most cases however it is a little overkill, but remember, nothing succeeds like excess....
Sayonara
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