Do you need >7" woofers?

[curiousburke]

I'm just wondering what most people find sufficient in the bass department. Are 7" speakers sufficient for most projects (specifically 2.5 of 3 way systems), or do people commony use larger woofers?

If the system you're building is a sealed box, would your answer change?

-m

[sqlkev]

IMO, that totally depends on the size of your listening room.

[curiousburke]

Fair enough, 200 sqr feet

[sqlkev]

I built a pair of TMM 2.5ways towers a few months ago and the bass was barely enough to fill my 17'x19' living room (for my listening taste and music anyway). I think in a smaller room like yours, the speakers might just be right for most music. Of course, don't expect any chest pounding bass, the speakers were tuned to dip down to mid 40s.

[noodle_snacks]

and your tastes in music

[curiousburke]

Originally posted by noodle_snacks
and your tastes in music

by example:
paul simon, bob dylan, eagles, bach, grateful dead

[curiousburke]

Originally posted by sqlkev
I built a pair of TMM 2.5ways towers a few months ago and the bass was barely enough to fill my 17'x19' living room (for my listening taste and music anyway). I think in a smaller room like yours, the speakers might just be right for most music. Of course, don't expect any chest pounding bass, the speakers were tuned to dip down to mid 40s.

bass reflex or sealed?

[sqlkev]

bass reflex, ports were tuned to 45hz if I remember right.

[curiousburke]

I'm more caught up in the details of what I'm making here then I intended for this post.

I'm mostly curious what woofer size people like to build with. And, if it's different for ported versus seal, how so.

Staring at the Zaph site for hours brought up this question, as he doesn't have a comparison of larger speakers. I was thinking of using his best bass suggestion (Seas P18RNXP) but I couldn't see why the bass was any better then the Seas CA18RNX, which has a lower ffrequency but higher amplitude free air resonance. So, any thoughts on this would be great too.

cheers,
mark

[keyser]

In my opinion bigger is better. A bigger cone will dig deeper with lower distortion. A 7" woofer may appear to perform quite well in the lower bass, but most likely you'll be listening to its harmonics.
The sensitivity of our hearing rolls of rapidly below about 500 hz and even more so below 100 hz. The harmonics are at frequencies the ear is a lot more sensitive and are thus heard louder.
With a 7" woofer digging deep, you actually have lots of distortion. Due to the low hearing sensitivity at those low frequencies, the harmonics might be heard just as loud or even louder than the fundamental. That's not a good thing.
A bigger woofer doesn't only go lower, it is usually capable performing with lower distortion in the bass.