Joeb, the point that I was trying to make was that sound waves can't be heard if they don't have room to develop at least one full cycle. For simplicity sake, one cycle of sound meanders like the letter S. According to the laws of physics, one full cycle of sound at 40 cycles per second needs 28 feet to develop. That is why I thought 40 cps was the lower limit for a normal listening room. One would have to be rich to have a room large enough to hear deeper tones. However, Bob at inpepinnovations said that only one half of the space required for a full cycle is required in order to hear a low frequency. One half of a full cycle would look like the letter C instead of the letter S. Assuming that the revised theory is correct, 40 cycles per second (hertz) could be heard in a 14 foot room, not a 28 foot room as I first proposed. Also, sound at 25 hertz would only require a 23 foot room, not a 45 foot room. In short, my theory was shot down.
Allow me to propose an anology to explain the limitation of the 40 hertz rated speaker. Imagine a soprano singer trying to sing bass. The vocal cords are too short to develop the lower frequencies, and thus distortion sets in. As you proposed, let's imagine that the soprano singer tries to sing bass even louder on the second try. The distortion would be louder and more pronounced, but the lower octave would never be reached. If the soprano singer continues these attempts, her vocal cords would be destroyed, just as a speaker would be destroyed in the same attempt.
