I think that would work with your existing quadrophonic receiver... as long and you have two 15" speakers. Connect your 8s to the L & R front speaker outputs and your 15's to the rear L & R speaker outputs. Using one 15" full range as a subwoofer is not a great idea for a couple of reasons. First, your receiver doesn't produce a signal for a subwoofer. Secondly, if you did manage to hook up one fullrange to either one stereo channel, or both, it would affect the stereo imaging of your music.
I guess what I was aiming for was a passive Open Baffle Subwoofer... using a large, vintage, high efficiency woofer. If there is no easy/practical/inexpensive way to do this, then, yes,...using the Polk sub is the obvious answer.
I have been so impressed by the sound of OB, I wanted to experience some BIG OB woofers and thought I MIGHT be able to substitute an OB subwoofer for the Polk. Lots of people using big OB woofers have talked about the quality of bass... again, I just wanted to try and experience that and see/hear for myself.
Are you saying that to make what I've built so far, I will need a full fledged crossover to make it work in the system I've got right now?
I'm considering getting a 4-16 ohm stable receiver with Speaker A and Speaker B sets. That way, I can run both the 8" full rangers and these big woofers.
Unless there's a way to make what I have work, I may abandon this... but I have other ideas, too.🙄
Maybe I should try this. Get another 15" woofer (they are inexpensive... not cheap), build another H-frame (easy to do), and connect the two 15" to the rears of my quad receiver, leave the Polk connected to the fronts like I had it before I launched into this. I might sound pretty bitchin.
Thanks.
No reason why you couldn't use both. The polk for the very bottom end, you can adjust the cut off frequency. I have U frame subs myself with 4 12in and have toyed with the idea of sealed sub for extreme low end but my U frames already reach to 30Hz with easy
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I think you'll be happier with two 15s. Full range speakers aren't subwoofers. They will produce plenty of higher frequencies that the ear hears as directional. That's why you'll want one for each side of the room.
I figured you might end up with this problem. Using a single woofer on a stereo signal isn't just plug-n-play. I was hoping you had two 15s. 🙁
You can still get a feel for it by connecting it to one side. You'll only get 4 ohms in the range that the 15" plays. Above that, the coil increases the impedance so much, the amp won't notice it. Perfect solution? No. But you can do it. And if you like it, get yourself another 15" woofer and do it right. You are still at the experimental stage, don't sweat it. 😀
You can still get a feel for it by connecting it to one side. You'll only get 4 ohms in the range that the 15" plays. Above that, the coil increases the impedance so much, the amp won't notice it. Perfect solution? No. But you can do it. And if you like it, get yourself another 15" woofer and do it right. You are still at the experimental stage, don't sweat it. 😀
OK... here's what I'm currently going to do. The 15" is simply too large for the two spaces I have for a pair of large woofers.
So... I'm getting an identical pair of 12" Heppner woofers and will mount those in a pair of H-frames.
I got a taste of how having a pair of these big woofs will sound when I ran the one 15" last evening as one of the rear speakers. I liked what I heard. It wasn't the rumble (not even really very close) that the Polk can put out, but I liked the feel and sound.
I've also found something else out. I disconnected the Polk sub last evening and just did some listening with my front 8" Heppner full rangers with the loudness button ON... and no sub. Listening at about a max of 80dB (including peaks). The bass put out by these 8"-ers mounted in quite small baffles (15"H x 11"W) is surprising. Just after listening about 3 minutes or so, I just decided to listen the whole evening till late. At 80dB listening levels, the loudness button adds some but it isn't a lot... and the bass is quite smooth, even, solid sounding.
I've put the Polk sub back into the system, but it's turned off, and I'm listening right now via 2-channel and just the front pair with loudness. So nice. When I want to feel it in my chest (and I do sometimes), or for movies, then I'll turn the sub on.
Thanks to all for the help and encouragment.
So... I'm getting an identical pair of 12" Heppner woofers and will mount those in a pair of H-frames.
I got a taste of how having a pair of these big woofs will sound when I ran the one 15" last evening as one of the rear speakers. I liked what I heard. It wasn't the rumble (not even really very close) that the Polk can put out, but I liked the feel and sound.
I've also found something else out. I disconnected the Polk sub last evening and just did some listening with my front 8" Heppner full rangers with the loudness button ON... and no sub. Listening at about a max of 80dB (including peaks). The bass put out by these 8"-ers mounted in quite small baffles (15"H x 11"W) is surprising. Just after listening about 3 minutes or so, I just decided to listen the whole evening till late. At 80dB listening levels, the loudness button adds some but it isn't a lot... and the bass is quite smooth, even, solid sounding.
I've put the Polk sub back into the system, but it's turned off, and I'm listening right now via 2-channel and just the front pair with loudness. So nice. When I want to feel it in my chest (and I do sometimes), or for movies, then I'll turn the sub on.
Thanks to all for the help and encouragment.
AFAIK, circa '57 EV developed a dual coil VC woofer specifically for this purpose [mounted centrally in the rear of an early stereo console] to apparently cut down on the electronics parts count/complexity. I ~cloned' one years later with an early RadioShack dual VC 12" and up near a wall it was an impressive performer for the day and probably would be even moreso today, what with much lower bass available on CDs, etc., than old vinyl has to offer.
As an aside, anyone know of any earlier dual coil VCs?
GM
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