A full range speaker?

@mozartfan

Yes, I'm thinking of stripping my system down to some killer headphones and some bass shakers mounted in my listening chair. 😉

All kidding, we’ll most, aside, I have tried listening to my headphones and subs in my studio, an interesting experience.

I’m getting around the ’crappy sounding sub’ problem by going infinite baffle bass (a pair of Acoustic Elegance HTIB 18" woofers) in a somewhat custom built room, the construction of which is on hold due to building prices for now.

But, I’m really sold on IB. All the benefits of open baffle bass sound, but without that one, single drawback when it comes to slam and impact.

I was running out of room in my home for my system as I kept growing the rig. Was also looking for a workroom space to maybe start my own business. Adding onto the house seemed cheaper than moving, and simply building a metal outbuilding and finishing it out on the inside was even cheaper than adding on.

With the equity in my home, I will get a 21.5’ L, 17’ W, 11.5’ H interior listening room with a 1400 cu ft workroom on the other side of the system’s front wall, that wall being made from cinder block to handle the reactionary forces from mounting the 18-inchers directly in the front wall, using the workroom as the rear enclosure.

But, I love how neatly IB sidesteps All the traditional problems of putting a woofer in a box, most of which stem from the air pressure issues fighting against the woofer, regardless of which direction it’s moving in. Completely free pistonic movement that doesn’t ever require anything extra in the way of motor structure, amp power, enclosure size, distortion control, cost or anything else. IB bass works perfectly, well..."right out of the box", uh..to coin a phrase...

Looking at solid, in-room response down to 10 Hz, at the lp, as well.

That range is from 26hz to around 12khz including harmonics, but the speakers that can go that low are few and far between. 

GoldenEar Technology Triton 1r - freq rest 13Hz - 35kHz, sensitivity 92dB, $6,600/pair

J.Chip

@cleeds , that is exactly what I wrote. That thump is not the note it is an associated percussive sound and I think that is pretty obvious. 

Oldhvymec has it right. There is a visceral aspect to live music that is missing in most HiFi systems. People will try to get it by turning up the volume way too high. This does not work and blows out your ears. This aspect is coming from bass below 40 Hz. Reproducing these frequencies in residential settings is difficult and it is easy to "damage" the the rest of the music trying. I believe this is why there are such polar opinions on the subject. 

@ivan_nosnibor , interesting project! You need drivers with a free air resonance below 20 Hz. Infinite baffle speakers are much more efficient but the enclosures are large and larger enclosures tend to have more resonance issues. I know one person who mounted the drivers in his floor so that the basement was the enclosure. I did not like it because there was a floor resonance that ruined bass detail. He needed a stiffer floor. I toyed with the idea of mounting drivers in the front wall which in my situation is an outside wall. Glad I did not. If you go outside when the system is running that wall buzzes and rattles like crazy. The Hardy Plank siding is creating most if not all of the racket. Fortunately, I used  staggered stud sound proof walls so you can't hear it inside. I used the same construction in the master bedroom so the kids could not hear mom and dad having fun:-)
I am not sure that 18" drivers are the way to go. I would use multiple smaller drivers. I would use two of these instead of one 18" driver.
https://www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Audio-UM15-22-15-Ultimax-DVC-Subwoofer-2-ohms-Per-Co-295-514  
It is easier to control a smaller cone. A cone's motion has to be pistonic. Larger cones have a tendency to move asymmetrically. 15" drivers are plenty big enough. I use 12" drivers to keep the individual enclosures small enough to fit in my situation. The new system will use 8 drivers. Dayton subwoofers are excellent and a great value. I have been very pleased with them. I got two Morel drivers and was not impressed. I sent them back.

mijostyn

@cleeds , that is exactly what I wrote. That thump is not the note it is an associated percussive sound and I think that is pretty obvious.

You also think it "obvious" that the percussive strike is lower in frequency than the fundamental:

You have to forget about fundamentals. Things like the thumb striking low E produce a thump that is below the fundamental. Percussion will do this also.

That is completely mistaken, as can easily be shown on even a simple modern software program.

In other threads, you've reported on your need to use rumble filters in your system to prevent your woofers from "flapping." It's increasingly apparent that something is wrong with your system; you're inclined to accept it because you believe those low frequencies are inherent and filtering is the only solution. (While that approach works for you, I've always preferred to tackle LF disturbances at the source.)