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15" VS. 12" and 10" VS. 8" SPEAKERS

#21
Punch is a pretty subjective thing though, my NV215 has loads of it in the rumbley deep kinda sense, but doesn't have much of the slightly higher, slightly nauseating when in vast amounts, punch you get from alot of typical decent 10 loaded cabs, the kinda punch a modern kick drum has to it.

Not really come across any 15 that delivers that so far. Although that won't matter to me when I have enough money for the custom NV310 I'm gonna get made, if the Impedance works out and Mr Bergantino lets me buy the 10s of him for it that is :p
 
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#22
The 15" midrange drivers used in older large PA cabs, both direct radiating and horn loaded, have far more punch than any 10" loaded bass cab could hope to. With any cab with relatively even frequency response finding the punch you want is simply a matter of getting to understand your bass, your amp and the tonal controls on both.

Price-wise there's no formula. To get like for like output assuming all else is equal then you need to match up cone areas so you need a greater number of smaller speakers which negates any cost savings the smaller cone, chassis and magnet might have. But once cones get really big you run into stiffness challenges. And when cones get smaller it gets harder to make suspension with enough travel. And so on, lots of pros and cons for any size of speaker. Note the smaller the total speaker area the less well the speaker will couple with the air which is why tiny woofers on their own are so painfully inefficient.

Alex
 
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#23
To my best understanding, the fundamental difference between speaker sizes isn't in tone, but rather the sheer amount of air the speaker moves. A 15" or 18" speaker has more surface area than a 10" hence it's able to produces the earth rattling lows at a greater volume, the tone presumably would be the same--all things being equal in the voice coils. Anyone back me on this or have I been mis-informed?
 
#25
adam precision said:
I've got a 15 (orange) and a 4x10 (ampeg). The 15 is punchier than the 4x10 and the 4x10 is bassier that the 15. I am inlcined to agree that the speaker size alone doesn't give your tone type.
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The Orange 1x15 is quite amazing. Remember, speaker size? It's all about the box they are in. You can't tell in a recording what size speaker I am using or how many. It's so well designed that it just does the job of putting out the funk etc. that it doesn't call attention to itself.:)
 
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#29
It really depends on the type of sound you are after. For years I played a Hartke 4.5 and it had highs, punch and bottom end out the butt. I drove it with 200 watts and it never let me down. So in my opinion, 4x10's will give you just about anything you might need if they are in a properly designed cabinet for those particular speakers.
 
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#30
GreyBeard said:
It really depends on the type of sound you are after. For years I played a Hartke 4.5 and it had highs, punch and bottom end out the butt. I drove it with 200 watts and it never let me down. So in my opinion, 4x10's will give you just about anything you might need if they are in a properly designed cabinet for those particular speakers.
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We may need to call some zombie hunters if we have too many more of these threads brought back from "back in the day"...

:D
 
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#32
OMG, I totally just read through this zombie thread without looking at the dates, good grief. Ah well, better than the poor chap responding to someone looking for a bongo like 8 years ago.

FWIW, I love the sound of Mesa's powerhouse 212 cab. It can handle uber power without farting out.

Raz
 

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