Best 15” speaker

[Father Gino]

What’s the best 15” speaker to beat a dead horse?

 

[GreyBeard]

Today's 15 inch speakers are really different from those of 50 years ago. 50 years ago they didn't have to deal with 1,000 watt amps and 60 year old backs trying to lift them. With that all said, the best sounding vintage 15" speaker I've ever used is a Electro Voice EVM-B. I put a pr of them into an old Sunn Sorado cab 30 years ago. Nobody measured anything in those days, we just stuck them in a cabinet and hoped for the best. I have powered them with a 80 watt Sunn 200S amp, a Peavey 210 watt MK IV, and now a Ampeg pf500. They still have that "KICK YOU IN THE CHEST" tone that just makes people want to get up and dance. (jmho)

 

[Jeff Scott]

Same BS in the horse world

Who would've thunk it...

 

[mexicanyella]

Same BS in the horse world

In the horse world I think it’s called HS.

Maybe that’s just a regional variation, though.

 

[agedhorse]

A top quality 12" will get as low as a 15" and sound much tighter. ... For every action there is a reaction so the bigger the speaker the slower the response. ... Plus 15's can get very woofy and sometimes you have to raise them up off the floor to get control of those frequencies. ... And this is why there are fewer 15" cabs around.

That said.
EV used to make a tight 15" as did JBL. ... Gauss made a 400-watt 15" that would shake the windows. ... 15" speaker cabs need to be ported just so to get the best out of them. ... The older TL designs, front port, were very good. ... If you can find one remember to lift with your knees and not your back.

Another set of commonly expressed urban myth. It depends entirely on the driver, the enclosure and the tuning choices.

There are loose and tight 12" designs as well as loose and tight 15" designs.

The choice of sealed versus ported have nothing to do with the size of the driver either, there are excellent sealed and ported examples with both 12" and 15" drivers. It all depends on the goals of the designs.

I wasted so much money in my youth buying the best speakers to replace in my Branded bass cabs...and it always sounded like crap!!

So I returned the originals...

and bought better bass cabs . Eventually $$$$

You are not alone in this.

The worst thing you can do to a speaker is run a clipped, square waved signal into it. As long as the speaker is moving back and forth cleanly, and not spending extra time at the limits of its excursion...( and not banging against the magnet)..it will survive for a long,long time.
Square wave distortion means the speaker is spending extra at its limits absorbing wattage and creating heat instead of moving back and forth, pumping air, cooling itself. Of course, you have to put a speaker in a proper box, but that was not the question.

Yet another myth that's based mostly on the misunderstanding of the physics behind driver design. Provided the driver is rated for the RMS power value of a square wave, it's no more damaging than an equivalent sine wave. In fact, it's actually LESS damaging mechanically because the peak displacement is slightly lower for the equivalent thermal power. Due to the mechanical slew rate of the driver itself, the resulting motion is more like a truncated sine wave.

Since most amps, when pushed to clip very hard will not deliver twice their sine wave rated thermal power (typically most will end up around 1.7x) the driver's thermal rating will need to be reduced to accommodate this. Fortunally, most amps will shut down under these conditions to protect themselves as well as the speakers. JBL's OEM application notes for their MI drivers included this analysis and recommended de-rating factors based on the above explanation.

It's a hypothetical box, so it's hypothetically large.

Simultaneously, it's a hypothetically small box...

 

[basscooker]

So is the speaker a cat?

 

[pglaser01]

So is the speaker a cat?

we’ll never be able to tell because we can’t re-open the speaker box to check on the cat.

According to the equation, it exists in both states simultaneously as a speaker and a cat

 

[SemiDriven]

So is the speaker a cat?

If it's the guitarist's cab, then yes.

we’ll never be able to tell because we can’t re-open the speaker box to check on the cat.

If it's a bassist's cab, then the guitarist is borrowing it. So yes again.

 

[Ben Clarke]

TL;DR but....

Want better answers? Ask better questions.

 

[BJMtz]

For the original poster - It's my layman's understanding that a speaker, a cabinet and an amp head are like one system. Each affects the other.
So, these guys who may sound persnickety to you are thinking along those lines.

so why do people mix amp and cab manufacturers with great success?

 

[Redbrangus]

so why do people mix amp and cab manufacturers with great success?

An amplifier (with its preamp) does what it does; a speaker system (speaker and enclosure) does what it does: that's not a tightly-coupled relationship. A loudspeaker and its enclosure are a very much a 'system'... very tightly interconnected.

 

[BlueTalon]

so why do people mix amp and cab manufacturers with great success?

You say that like everyone has great success when they mix amp and cab manufacturers.

 

[jnewmark]

You say that like everyone has great success when they mix amp and cab manufacturers.

Except for a brief time in the early '70's, when I had a Fender Bassman and 215 Bassman cab, I don't think I've ever had a matching head/cab rig. Some were good, some were great, but not too many sucked.

 

[Tim Rinkerman]

If you don't know what you are looking for, you will never find it.

 

[Jeff Scott]

If you don't know what you are looking for, you will never find it.

But, but...so many say they'll know it when they see it.

 

[monkeyfinger]

If you don't know what you are looking for, you will never find it.

I think the OP did a good job describing what they want.

 

[marchone]

If you don't know what you are looking for, you will never find it.

What did you see while you were there?

Nothing that doesn't show.

 

[jnewmark]

I think the OP did a good job describing what they want.

I think the OP has left the building.

 

[monkeyfinger]

I think the OP has left the building.

You know, I was commenting on the wrong topic!! . My bad. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Aussie Player]

I’m looking to build a 15” cabinet. I’d like some opinions on the best speaker out there for this project. Much obliged.
Gregg

I used to have similar thoughts once upon a time, but the evolution of bass cabinets has proved they are a constantly evolving component in bass amp technology so are constantly changing in the competitive world.

This simply means they are now a throw away commodity which provides the opportunity to try a lot and change out whenever you wish. I'd recommend you skip the idea and start trying various existing new and used cabinets in the stores around you and try an keep uniform the guitar and amp you audition them with.

I long ago standardized on a Fender amp because I know what to expect from it even though I don't own one.