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There's a lot more bass in a 6.5" driver than most of you think

One topic of discussion I often see new audiophiles touch on is whether to get larger speakers for more bass.

I usually suggest they tune the room first, then re-evaluate. This is based on listening and measurement in several apartments I’ve lived in. Bigger speakers can be nothing but trouble if the room is not ready.


In particular, I often claim that the right room treatment can make smaller speakers behave much larger. So, to back up my claims I’d like to submit to you my recent blog post here:

https://speakermakersjourney.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-snr-1-room-response-and-roon.html


Look at the bass response from those little drivers! :)


I admit for a lot of listeners these speakers won’t seem as punchy as you might like, but for an apartment dweller who does 50/50 music and theater they are ideal for me. If you’d like punchy, talk to Fritz who aligns his drivers with more oomf in the bass.


erik_squires

Showing 3 responses by jmpsmash

jmpsmash's avatar
jmpsmash
11 posts
 
Frequency, as it lowers, undergoes a ’phase change’ of sorts. It becomes less directional and begins to ’omni’.


Look up Schroeder's Frequency. It is exactly what you mentioned.

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/schroeder-frequency-show-and-tell-part-1

As you mentioned, there is a phase change, but as with most things, it is not sudden and the lower it goes, the less directional. Try this exercise, have a tone generator to put out 40Hz, and then try locate the speakers, I bet you cannot. at 150Hz (lower than most Schroeder Frequency), you probably can. Also different room size has different Schroeder frequency so everyone's observation / experience might be different.


jmpsmash's avatar
jmpsmash
11 posts
 
@erik_squires apologies if you have mentioned it. back to your original post. I wonder how big is your room? 6.5" may be good enough for a medium room, but might be a bit lacking if there isn't enough travel to move enough air to energize a large room.

jmpsmash's avatar
jmpsmash
11 posts
 
Schroeder’s frequency does vary from room to room. In general, the larger the room, the lower the Schroeder’s frequency and more directional bass is.

for a typical concert hall, it can be as low into the teens if not lower. So everything is directional, even double bass and the lower/lowest registers in the organ.

And I wonder if that’s why we are never able to reproduce concert hall acoustics in our relatively tiny rooms


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