Are 15's too slow....

[beans-on-toast]

All this talk of 15's reminds me of an internet rumour. Sometimes they're based on a glimmer of truth and then blown out of proportion.

When using cabs with 15's outdoors, you should turn them away from the wind. The large surface area of the cone can catch the wind causing a back EMF which feeds back into the power stage and affects the performance of the amp.

I guess that's why when the audience starts cheering, the band stops playing. The pressure wave from the applause goes right into the front of the speaker cabinets and slows them down.

 

[Al Kraft]

All this talk of 15's reminds me of an internet rumour. Sometimes they're based on a glimmer of truth and then blown out of proportion.

So if we can't trust the internet to be an authoritative and accurate source of information (and OBTW this is news to me), where are we supposed to go for our answers, peer adjudicated professional journals and college text books??

 

[beans-on-toast]

 

[HaphAsSard]

All this talk of 15's reminds me of an internet rumour. Sometimes they're based on a glimmer of truth and then blown out of proportion.

When using cabs with 15's outdoors, you should turn them away from the wind. The large surface area of the cone can catch the wind causing a back EMF which feeds back into the power stage and affects the performance of the amp.

But...but...it's so convincing it can't be untrue!

 

[fdeck]

Wow, blast from the past. The idea of "fast" speakers is one of the things that got me interested in how speakers work. It's also an idea that's obsolete except in the world of marketing.

What matters is the sound pressure that reaches your ears. It can be estimated from the sensitivity curve of the speaker. For mainstream bass speakers, larger cones are actually "faster" in terms of the ability to move air. A bigger speaker can have higher sensitivity because it can have a stronger motor without suffering from an unacceptable response curve, and then the larger cone area means that the displacement volume is larger.

My guess is that when a speaker with smaller cones sounds "faster," what you're hearing is the effect of reduced response at lower frequencies, a typical tradeoff in bass speaker design.

Here's some bedtime reading on how speakers work...

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