Total newbie question about speakers

[Thrill-House]

I was a guitar player for 8 years before switching to bass 6 months ago, and after looking at lots of gear for bass, theres one thing i dont understand. It seems that the most common size of speaker used for bass amps is the 10inch speaker, as well as 12 and 15 inches also showing up as well. But 10" seems to be the standard. When i was searching for guitar gear, nearly all of the mid-high end cabs used 12" speakers.

Whats the reason for the difference in speaker size? I would have thought bass amps would use bigger speakers more often, but that doesnt seem to be the case. Is there a special reasoning behind this?

[JimmyM]

speaker size is immaterial, even with guitar cabs. with porting and building boxes the right size for the speakers, you can use pretty much any size speaker. what counts is the tone of the cab, and that has almost nothing to do with the size of the speakers.

[littlepope]

Over the years bassist gear have gotten better. 15 inch and 10 and 12 can all produce a 'A' note, open string or 5th fret E string. The lows of a 15 inch cannot be produced really effecient by a 10 inch. You see a like of players pairing a 15" speaker cab (for lows) with a 2X10 inch (and sometimes 4X10) cabinets. That way you will get thundering lows (which will transition into midranges) with authority and power, and the quick brightness of 10 inch speakers. 10 inch speakers are not meant to produce low B notes with 400 watts. Design has gotten better over the years.

Some players personal sound, music taste, etc. may not dictate a lot of lows. Personally I play funk, with thumb & snap action, fingerstyle-walk jazz lines, keyboard and sometimes I play sythesizer lines.

12 inch also can carry the low end too. I am looking towards 2X12 cabinet with a 2X10 inch for starters. As you get older, you do not want to be dragging a lot of heavy gear around. Stuff should be light and efficient but yet loud enough.

It is all good. Choose wisely whatever you taste, strength and pocketbook can support.

[Selta]

Originally Posted by littlepope

Over the years bassist gear have gotten better. 15 inch and 10 and 12 can all produce a 'A' note, open string or 5th fret E string. The lows of a 15 inch cannot be produced really effecient by a 10 inch. You see a like of players pairing a 15" speaker cab (for lows) with a 2X10 inch (and sometimes 4X10) cabinets. That way you will get thundering lows (which will transition into midranges) with authority and power, and the quick brightness of 10 inch speakers. 10 inch speakers are not meant to produce low B notes with 400 watts. Design has gotten better over the years.

Some players personal sound, music taste, etc. may not dictate a lot of lows. Personally I play funk, with thumb & snap action, fingerstyle-walk jazz lines, keyboard and sometimes I play sythesizer lines.

12 inch also can carry the low end too. I am looking towards 2X12 cabinet with a 2X10 inch for starters. As you get older, you do not want to be dragging a lot of heavy gear around. Stuff should be light and efficient but yet loud enough.

It is all good. Choose wisely whatever you taste, strength and pocketbook can support.

Ignore this entire post.... it doesn't have a shred of useful information in it, except for the VERY last line.
JimmyM has it spot-on.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by littlepope

Over the years bassist gear have gotten better. 15 inch and 10 and 12 can all produce a 'A' note, open string or 5th fret E string. The lows of a 15 inch cannot be produced really effecient by a 10 inch. You see a like of players pairing a 15" speaker cab (for lows) with a 2X10 inch (and sometimes 4X10) cabinets. That way you will get thundering lows (which will transition into midranges) with authority and power, and the quick brightness of 10 inch speakers. 10 inch speakers are not meant to produce low B notes with 400 watts. Design has gotten better over the years.

i'll try to put this in a friendly way...none of this is true. this is called "engineering by looks."

[Thrill-House]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

speaker size is immaterial, even with guitar cabs. with porting and building boxes the right size for the speakers, you can use pretty much any size speaker. what counts is the tone of the cab, and that has almost nothing to do with the size of the speakers.

Good to know. Ive been doing some reading on here for a while, and people often refer to "moving air" when trying to get the bass as loud as possible. So i guess a 15" speaker moves more air than a 10" speaker... but does two 15" speakers move as much air as say 4 10" speakers?

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by Thrill-House

Good to know. Ive been doing some reading on here for a while, and people often refer to "moving air" when trying to get the bass as loud as possible. So i guess a 15" speaker moves more air than a 10" speaker... but does two 15" speakers move as much air as say 4 10" speakers?

a lot depends on the design of the speakers as much as raw cone area, but generally speaking with bass cabs, a 215 and a 410 will have approx. equal air movement.

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by Thrill-House

. but does two 15" speakers move as much air as say 4 10" speakers?

Insufficient data. You must consider not only driver cone area but also cone excursion. There are roughly two dozen factors that determine driver performance, and size is one of the least significant of them.
Understanding Loudspeaker Data | Eminence Speaker