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

[murillollirum]

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"

 

[balerit]

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

 

[John Busch]

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.

 

[balerit]

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

· 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.

 

[Cal Weldon]

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

 

[tinitus]

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

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

 

[tvrgeek]

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.

 

[sreten]

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.

 

[tinitus]

I'll take a pair of 12's over a single 15 ...

then I would take it to 18"

 

[sreten]

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.

 

[nkoozer]

10" (might) give lower bass

If the box is not large enough for the 15", then the 10" will result in a lower resonant frequency in that size of box. In a large box, such as a closet, the 15" will have the lower resonant frequency (assuming that it has a lower fs to start with).

 

[tinitus]

....assuming that it has a lower fs to start with).

its way more easy to find a 10" with low ressonance(Fs)

 

[murillollirum]

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

good analogy, better one is can Cain Velasquez knocking out George Saint Pierre?

 

[pdul]

What became of the 30" from Fostex. I saw them in the 80s?
Two of those would make a nice sub.

 

[pdul]

Here is a real livingroom sub

 

[balerit]

From another post of mine:

Those 10" speakers are mid range units. I used to design and build equipment for 1 man bands and used 10" Zomax speakers as midrange units coupled with 15" Zomax speakers and Sammi bullet tweaters using a three-way second order filters from my hi-fi speaker designs. They were awesome and rattled the foundations.

They could make glasses slide off a table 30 m away and when I originally tested them at my home I had people and the police from half a block away coming to see what the noise was about, so where you think a 15 inch will be slaughtered by a 10 inch think again. I had 107 dB 4 m away on my slm on my veranda (porch).

 

[sofaspud]

Here is a real livingroom sub

The huge subs are impressive.
The fashion sense isn't.

 

[Cal Weldon]

What became of the 30" from Fostex.

The Madisound Speaker Store

 

[Illusus]

The huge subs are impressive.
The fashion sense isn't.

Must have blown the sock budget on the speakers. In "Travels With Charley", John Steinbeck mentions someone saying " you must be very rich to dress so poorly". Most people I know that lead rich lives (not necessarily financially rich) dress like they don't own mirrors.

 

[murillollirum]

so as I'm understanding,

1) To get low Hz we must have to move air
2) big cones moves more air than smaller cones
3) but bigger cones are heavier...
4) if they are heavier they need more power...
5) so with a quality 15 inch, a good enclosure and a good power, there is no way a 10 inch can beat.