Do we really need anything more than 8" woofer and 1" tweeter for medium size room?

With the right electronics good 8" can go down very low and relatively clean. And if that's not enough, well, two 10" subs would do it.
Opinions?

inna08-12-2016 9:05pm

Showing 4 responses by timlub

timlub Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 2,043 posts 08-12-2016 at 09:56pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Hi Inna, In general, not absolutes... 8 inch woofers that go down well, don't go out well in the midrange. That's why you see so many 5 or 6 inch 2 ways, the smaller drivers go out in the midrange better. Again no absolutes, I have certainly seen very good 8 inch 2 ways.... so now bass... anyway you look at it, larger drivers move more air and increase the impact. so yes, in my opinion, in general, an 8 inch 2 way is fine for a small to medium room and also yes, a couple of 10's would do it.... If they go down well.
timlub Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 2,043 posts 08-14-2016 at 11:27pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Quote: The big unaddressed question from the OP is "What constitutes 'relatively clean'". At 85db in a mid-sized room, most 8" woofers are distorting horribly. The good news is that the ear isn't terribly sensitive at such low frequencies, so you don't necessarily hear it ...... Until you switch in lower distortion (read larger) drivers to handle the bass. That's really a loaded statement.... 85db is nothing. On todays drivers with stiffer cone materials, quality spiders and surrounds We really shouldn't be looking at horrible distortion... of course, there was nothing said about the frequency that distortion was measured at, nor the normal excursion limits of the driver measured, its true that woofers normally have higher distortion than smaller drivers, but overall, today, you just can't apply the above statement to "Most" 8 inch woofers. Tim
timlub Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 2,043 posts 08-15-2016 at 06:35pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Ok, to push the discussion a little further... In reality, you can design an 8 inch 2 way to be somewhere around 3db down at 35 hz and still go out to 2k to blend with a tweeter. Of course, every 8 cannot do this... Way back, I had a peerless woofer that had enough excursion that when adding enough mass, it could go comfortably down to the mid 20's in a sealed box, but it would loose its mid performance. We did use it occasionally as a sub, never developed or used it in big numbers. So, you can definitely, get an 8 inch woofer to go down. The big deal that has already been discussed is that as the driver gets larger, it can move a substantial amount of air. I have hear 15 inch 2 ways that I could live with, but didn't go down any lower than a decent 8, yet the difference in impact of the air moving along with the added sensitivity was a great experience.
timlub Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 2,043 posts 08-16-2016 at 02:57am Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Hi Marty, I don't mind going to take a look at whatever that you would like me to read. For this discussion, it isn't necessary. You quoted that Most 8 inch woofers distort Horribly at 85 db output... Well, with most 8 inch woofers that is less than 1 watt of power. Again, I am saying that an 8 inch woofer with a reasonably stiff cone, proper spider tension, good surround and proper xmax will not distort horribly at 55 hz playing at 85 db. Just tested too many..... I'm not saying that you didn't read that or that some woofers won't distort horribly at 85 db.... Just not most... at least certainly not any woofer that we would consider using in the Audiophile world. I hope that this makes sense, Tim

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