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Sealed, Ported, or Passive Radiators?

What do you use? And more importantly, why? Since my setup is made up of a Sh**load of left overs, I use all three. Do you think that would be better or worse? When I built them I tuned all of my sub boxes to cover specific frequency ranges.

For instance two 12" ported subs (in a very large box of about 18 cubes or so) handle 45Hz and below, four sealed 12" subs handle 35Hz to 80Hz, six ported 6" woofers (tuned at 50Hz) take care of the 50Hz to 120Hz range, and four ported 8" subs (tuned to 20hz) handle super low quick transitions, two 12" subs in a band pass box (tuned to about 38Hz) and a single 12" sub with a 15" passive radiator (tuned to 45Hz).

Yeah I know, overkill, but like I said I had a lot of left over equipment.... and I was bored.

I don't drive them with tons of power and only the subs in the same frequency ranges share amps. The super large two 12" ported box gets its own amp. I mean three amps just for the subs is already ridiculous.

Sure it is powerful but that wasn't my goal, I was simply doing what everybody else does with mid-bass drivers and super tweeters, just kinda in reverse.

So should we be splitting up subs like we do with the upper frequency ranges?

Shahinian's Diapason setup uses many drivers aimed at specific frequency ranges. And I have yet to hear anything as good as his design. So I tried the same with my sub woofer setup and at least in my opinion it worked. I can still refine it down to something less insane. But it is the idea that I can't help but think this would work well, even scaled way down.

I don't know maybe I'm just a little loose in the screws.

Please let me know what you think of the concept and if anyone's tried this already.
Thanks

Andrew
Synesthesia Studios
dynami28

Showing 1 response by audiokinesis

audiokinesis
2,723 posts
 
I'd be more interested in using multiple distributed subs covering the whole bass spectrum than in using different subs for different portions of the spectrum. The reason is, if you spread multiple low frequency sources around the room, each one will interact with the room's modes differently, and the net result will be a significant smoothing of the bass response throughout the room (of course this is only true down to the lowest room mode, below which we are in the "pressure zone"). Smooth bass = fast bass, tight bass, good pitch definition bass.

As for what type of sub is best, imo the ideal would be a sub whose native response is roughly the inverse of room gain. This can be achieved with ported or passive radiators tuned properly, and approximated with a low-Q sealed box, or achieved with an equalized sealed box.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer
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