any go bigger than 18 anymore?

[agedhorse]

The problem with the lightbulb comparison is that the radiating pattern is not anywhere near the same (and likely not the response either) betweenthe two sources. At 2kHz, I would expect the off axis response to be "night and day" different.

 

[Coolhandjjl]

Alright, maybe not the best thread to ask.. but : if I look at the size of speakers, I always think about giving extra low, or supporting the lower stuff better.

Lets say I have a 5 string bass and tune the low B down to A, what is better to use : 10 inch, 12 inch or 15 inch?

BigE/MAS has several designs with just 5" or 6" drivers doing the heavy lifting that go plenty low, his target was initially double bass players, but electric guys and down tuning guys use his cabs too.

 

[JimmyM]

The problem with the lightbulb comparison is that the radiating pattern is not anywhere near the same (and likely not the response either) betweenthe two sources. At 2kHz, I would expect the off axis response to be "night and day" different.

Yeah, that light-bulb thinking is what made 70's arena PA's suck despite being gigundus

 

[Jeff Scott]

I've done the speaker size circle back - went from 10s, to 12s, to 15s, and now back to 10s.

I have 8" drivers in the mix, too. Outside of ultimate SPL differences, my properly designed and built cabs (LDS builds) with 12", 10", or 8" drivers all perform quite well with my 5 string (low B) basses. No want for bottom end from any of them over the years (when used in appropriate situations).

 

[Mugre]

That's a function of it not having a lot of mids and highs + the room causing standing waves to bounce around and multiply. Now if that 18" was designed to have more mids and highs (and yes, it can be done, although it's not very practical), your results would have been different.

Standing waves don't bounce around otherwise they wouldn't be called standing.

 

[JimmyM]

Standing waves don't bounce around otherwise they wouldn't be called standing.

Standing waves are created when two or more waves hit each other. The more waves you have bouncing around, the more standing waves you can create. So while you're correct that standing waves don't bounce around, it's the bouncing around that causes them. I plead not guilty to anything but not being pure with my terminology.

 

[Mugre]

You've mostly got it. The important thing is that the standing wave doesn't move but you're right that it caused by the CONTRUCTIVE interference between 2 waves of a certain frequency that is wholly dependent on the distance between the two walls. The bouncing at that frequency and phase reinforces itself and create the stationary pattern of loud and soft at that frequency between the two walls. Of course the walls on the other axis have their own modes which create another pattern of hot and cold spots at another frequency...

 

[eyeballkid]

I've done the speaker size circle back - went from 10s, to 12s, to 15s, and now back to 10s.

Ive gone exactly opposite!! I started with 15s, went to 10s, then 12s and now back to 15s!

 

[davy4575]

back to the speakers though....they do look like the donks of speakers. I offer absolutely zero worthwhile data to offer the subject other than that.

 

[Ric5]

 

[agedhorse]

Note that the power handling of the 30" EV is only 30 watts RMS. They are also very difficult to recone, even when the parts were available (IIRC, they were discontinued maybe 25 years ago).

 

[Stick_Player]

Go smaller!

Mix cabs, too!

 

[David Jayne]

It's mostly about economics of scale. If you're building subs it makes sense to use large drivers because less of them are needed to produce a certain amount of noise vs smaller ones. Lots of small ones will give just as much low end (see Phil Jones pictured above) but it costs a lot more.

 

[KeithAlanK]

Big drivers move a lot more air per unit, but how do they sound?
As part of a biamped system on a big stage with enough power and EQ options, great!


Just because I play bass doesn't mean all of my sound has to be in the subwoofer range.
I want definition and grind and character and tone from my rig.
And I'm forced to stand within about 6 feet of my stack in a typical club stage configuration, so big drivers don't really work well.

4x10", repeat as needed.

 

[AlexanderB]

You folks are missing an important scalability (?) parameter...
The Xmax seem to be somewhat proportional to diameter. (There are small woofers with high Xmax, but mechanically it is better to start with a big cone if you want to have long excursion.)
So while you can replace the area of a 15" by a pair of 10"s, you might need another one or two 10" to make up for the higher Xmax in the 15". 18" and larger woofers will be even better. I'd estimate that very few good 18" PA (sub) woofers have less than 9-10 mm of Xmax and at least 35 mm of Xmech. Good luck in finding any 10"s to keep up with those numbers...

However, in order to take full advantage of SD and Xmax, a very robust motor is required. Big voice coil and magnet, sturdy spider and suspension etc.
This is also important to allow for enough power handling, or the driver will not offer long term performance advantage over the 210/410.

 

[agedhorse]

And, with that big cone with high moving mass, and compliance, and big heavy voice coil comes the struggle of linear extension of frequency response and management of break-up characteristics of overdrive tones.

Nothing comes easy, ever.

 

[AlexanderB]

As we are talking 18" and larger, the need for an additional midrange transducer is fairly obvious.
Already the modest-ish 3015LF requires a dedicated mid...

 

[Bob_Ross]

The size of a driver has almost nothing to do with its frequency response.

Speaker size only tells you the size of the speaker. Make no other conjectures with out more information.

Quoted for Truth

Standing waves are created when two or more waves hit each other. The more waves you have bouncing around, the more standing waves you can create.

Quoted for Silliness

 

[JimmyM]

I thought it was genius myself.

 

[walterw]

the giant speaker only works if you wind the voice coils yourself, and also machine your own tuning key gears from scratch