Eminence drivers as Subwoofer

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Any thoughts on this? A friend of mine has two KAPPA 18A's and a few smaller GAMMA drivers he'd like to get rid of. I don't know enough about this type of driver to know if it would work as a subwoofer or not.
They have low xmax, but huge SPL. And they're certainly big enough.
Some ideas?
 
diyAudio Moderator Emeritus
Joined 2001
Absolutely Not.

Those drivers are for professional sound. Professional woofers sacrifice deep low end in exchange for high efficiency in the mid bass region. For any size box you are planning to use, there are any number of commercial subwoofers that will give much deeper bass than those Eminence pro drivers.

Incidentally, there is nothing wrong with Eminence drivers either. A cyber friend who is a DJ in Cork, Ireland, refuses to use anything but Eminence in his equipment. But these are simply not designed for home subwoofer use.

Incidentally, do you have an idea how big you want your subwoofer to be? Give us an idea and the forum can give recommendations. Really, some great subwoofer drivers are available for a little over $100.
 
Those drivers are for professional sound. Professional woofers sacrifice deep low end in exchange for high efficiency in the mid bass region. For any size box you are planning to use, there are any number of commercial subwoofers that will give much deeper bass than those Eminence pro drivers.
.


Is it too late to respond to that statement when 18 years have passed ? :D

.........." Had a mail recently where the writer had a friend stating PA drivers cannot be used for hifi. Nothing could be further from the truth. I still claim my The Loudspeaker is more hifi than any other speaker I've made, but it takes 300 litres."...............

bass-module
 
More :


" We can't all have ~150 litre cabinets with 15" bass driver, but we can have some of the goodies from smaller designs by choosing the right drivers. Good bass is about membrane area and efficiency - and an amplifier delivering the necessary amperes. As such, there are no sonic attributes linked to bass, it's all about moving as much air as possible - and moving it fast. And we can have most of it at reasonable price from using PA drivers and plate-amps. "


bass-module

I was very happy to read these comments written by an experienced and renowned speaker builder, because it is precisely the approach that I have taken as a premise to address my current construction of two subwoofers for my sound system.
And although the plate amplifier that I will use was considered a toy here by some forum participant, it seems that he will still be able to move a lot of air when he drives 2 18-inch speakers.:)
 
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GM

Member
Joined 2003
My prosound driver subs only have ~4 mm Xmax and 75 W rated, yet four corner loaded has partially wrecked my house at >120 dB reproducing the depth charge scenes in the U-571 movie, so if you've got 40 ft^3 available in a corner or 20 ft^3 in two corners..........

GM
 
My prosound driver subs only have ~4 mm Xmax and 75 W rated, yet four corner loaded has partially wrecked my house at >120 dB reproducing the depth charge scenes in the U-571 movie, so if you've got 40 ft^3 available in a corner or 20 ft^3 in two corners..........

GM



U-571 (film - Wikipedia)



I'll have to rush the job, I'm interested in that movie ! ;)
 
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After building 25 x 18 x 34" cab with an Eminence 18" driver I found I could have built a smaller sub either following ESP's design or something on the lines as stated above, ce la vie. Still, with a sweepable filter it can be used at higher frequencies to annoy conservative neighbours with Roots and Dub.

One thing I did find though is that the sub's volume needs mucking about with on different LP's/songs/mixers. However this 18" Eminence sounds fine to my old ears. Also how can any sub be considered hifi? All it's doing is filling in a very small frequency range from around 20hz to 50hz which is more a feeling than audio sound as such.


Andy.
 
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One thing I did find though is that the sub's volume needs mucking about with on different LP's/songs/mixers.

Also how can any sub be considered hifi? All it's doing is filling in a very small frequency range from around 20hz to 50hz which is more a feeling than audio sound as such.

Yeah, it's aggravating to have to change, so glad DSPs allow different settings to quickly select.

True subs, yes, but surprisingly, even with my 120 Hz XO I can tell a difference compared to much lower efficiency drivers in smaller cabs. I attribute it to the bigger cabs sounding more 'relaxed' for lack of a better word due to minimal excursion, larger baffles Vs the 'pumping' of a high Xmax relatively small one.

That said, I had dual kit ServoDrive Contrabass, which have very stiff everything for awhile and they were even 'tighter' sounding with 18" PRs than my ~0.2 Qts drivers in what today is called a ML-TQWT, so go figure. Also built a single mini- Contrabass using dual 12" Avatar/Adire Shivas + their 15" PRs and it came close to matching one of my Altecs in half the bulk, so consider this alignment as a viable alternative, especially if set to an 80 Hz XO.

GM
 
After building 25 x 18 x 34" cab with an Eminence 18" driver I found I could have built a smaller sub either following ESP's design or something on the lines as stated above, ce la vie. Still, with a sweepable filter it can be used at higher frequencies to annoy conservative neighbours with Roots and Dub.

One thing I did find though is that the sub's volume needs mucking about with on different LP's/songs/mixers. However this 18" Eminence sounds fine to my old ears. Also how can any sub be considered hifi? All it's doing is filling in a very small frequency range from around 20hz to 50hz which is more a feeling than audio sound as such.


Andy.



To perceive through the ears or the pressure on the body the first octaves of music, is high fidelity. To listen to organ music, for example, or patches, etc. There are many instruments whose sound is favored in playback when you use subwoofers
 
I never could understand why folks think there is no music below 40-50hz when pianos and pipe organs play lower.




Maybe because they never saw these graphics? If they carry both, they pay for one ! ;)
 

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