Yes. the Dayton RSS315 or even 390 and CSS SDX12 are considered subs but have been used in 3 way designs.
It depends on the rising distortion and non-linearity of the (sub)woofer in question. The above mentioned should be fine to 300Hz. I am looking at a design right now on the RSS390. Assuming you don't mind a 4.3 ft3 (122L) sized enclosure, you'll get an F3 of 32Hz, sealed Qtc 0.71.
It depends on the rising distortion and non-linearity of the (sub)woofer in question. The above mentioned should be fine to 300Hz. I am looking at a design right now on the RSS390. Assuming you don't mind a 4.3 ft3 (122L) sized enclosure, you'll get an F3 of 32Hz, sealed Qtc 0.71.
Wrong. The rule of thumb is to keep driver centre to centre spacing less than 1 wavelength at the crossover frequency to reduce the number of lobes.
If you are crossing over at 300Hz - you could space your "subwoofer" up to 1.14 metres from your mid-bass / midrange (being 344 m/s speed of sound / XO frequency)
The "designed differently" is about trading off hoffman's iron law (size / efficiency / extension). If a woofer exhibits linear frequency response, with acceptable distortion and frequency extension in a box you can tolerate the size of and you intend to use it below the beaming frequency, then it is suitable.
Subwoofers tend to have heavier moving mass, to provide stiffness to the membrane and travel (large xmax). This lowers resonant frequency (handy for subbass performance) at the cost of sensitivity in many cases. Some would then argue subwoofers have "slower bass" vs. "faster bass" which is rubbish and ignore the motor strength and moving mass relationship. Choosing a sub/woofer is no different than choosing a midbass. the only difference when it comes to placement in a conventional enclosure is to consider boundary effects / floor loading and the floor dip frequency, since woofers in a 3 or higher way speaker are closer to the floor.
Subwoofers tend to have heavier moving mass, to provide stiffness to the membrane and travel (large xmax). This lowers resonant frequency (handy for subbass performance) at the cost of sensitivity in many cases. Some would then argue subwoofers have "slower bass" vs. "faster bass" which is rubbish and ignore the motor strength and moving mass relationship. Choosing a sub/woofer is no different than choosing a midbass. the only difference when it comes to placement in a conventional enclosure is to consider boundary effects / floor loading and the floor dip frequency, since woofers in a 3 or higher way speaker are closer to the floor.
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Wrong. At 300hz you can locate the driver, if you want 1/2 the vocal coming 3 1/2 feet from the other half go ahead but dont tell others its a good idea.
Then you have a poorly summed crossover. It has nothing to do with distance between the drivers when they are within the wavelength rule I specified.
It is easy to locate a sub above 150 Hz, so the one octave rule below suffices at 75Hz. Cbdb is saying a sub as a stand alone should not be xover at 300 Hz. In a 3-4 way, it would likely be just fine as a woofer at 300 is what you are saying.
As to the OP query, yes, you can and I've done it several times.
Wolf
As to the OP query, yes, you can and I've done it several times.
Wolf
All my comments relate to a woofer on the same plane / baffle as the other drivers.. The OP was asking can you use a subwoofer as a woofer. I am not taking this off topic. If others want to play their sub in the corner at 300Hz - sure you will localise it (> 1m away - remember?) but that is not what this post is about.
Take a look at a lot of the 2 way speakers out there right now. Check the box sizes and proportions, as well as the crossovers. A good many of them are essentially subwoofers with a tweeter.
I see no reason not to expand that to a 3 way system as long as you can get a sub-bass driver with characteristics that fit in well with the other drivers, in your box.
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This has nothing to do with the cross over. At 300 hz you can localize your sub, which means you can tell the lower freqs are coming from the corner not the main speaker. So instuments sound like they are spread out and move between the sub and the mains as they change pitch.
Thanks to all of you for your replies.
Douglas Blake seems to have understood my idea spot on... Indeed my idea is to make 2 cabinets, each with it's own sub-bass driver, mid/woofer and tweeter, all mounted on the same baffle but with the sub driver occupying it's own separate space within the cabinet.
Or to put it another way, i should describe it as a system consisting of 2 sub-woofers with mid-range and tweeter satellites, where the "satellites" occupy the same cabinet as the sub drivers.
I'm sure you've all gathered by now that I'm pretty inexperienced. I have managed to chuck together a few projects while working pretty much in the dark, using educated guesswork, without access to TS parameters (gasp) or any test equipment (cringe) I suppose my efforts can best be described as "general purpose" speakers, suitable for background, party or uncritical listening. The main satisfaction lay in the making rather than the performance.
This time i want to go a whole lot further, esp since this will probably be my final project.
The idea is to have extended bass response within a "normal" looking pair of cabinets. Am i delving into an area that is unrealistic and/or beyond the capabilities of a rookie?
Douglas Blake seems to have understood my idea spot on... Indeed my idea is to make 2 cabinets, each with it's own sub-bass driver, mid/woofer and tweeter, all mounted on the same baffle but with the sub driver occupying it's own separate space within the cabinet.
Or to put it another way, i should describe it as a system consisting of 2 sub-woofers with mid-range and tweeter satellites, where the "satellites" occupy the same cabinet as the sub drivers.
I'm sure you've all gathered by now that I'm pretty inexperienced. I have managed to chuck together a few projects while working pretty much in the dark, using educated guesswork, without access to TS parameters (gasp) or any test equipment (cringe) I suppose my efforts can best be described as "general purpose" speakers, suitable for background, party or uncritical listening. The main satisfaction lay in the making rather than the performance.
This time i want to go a whole lot further, esp since this will probably be my final project.
The idea is to have extended bass response within a "normal" looking pair of cabinets. Am i delving into an area that is unrealistic and/or beyond the capabilities of a rookie?
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