Getting good sound quality below 200Hz


I run open baffles with currently 15" Eminence Alpha bass drivers with their dedicated Rotel amp and crossed over at 200Hz with 24db slope.

This underpins the upper driver beautifully but by contrast if I play it on its own its not at all impressive, lacking primarily in both definition around the sounds and also impact.

My first question "is this typical of what sound is like below 200Hz"

Secondly looking to improve this should I concentrate on improving the 15"drivers or the amp?

 

Please don’t recommend a powered sub as I have one already which will eventually underpin the 15"drivers when I have that bit right.

Thanks

bumpy48

The baffles were bought with Altec 416B drivers and Saba Greencones, and the crossover point was set much higher (about 450Hz). This worked well until I upgraded the Sabas for Cube Audio FC8s. These were now capable of playing full range down to 200-250 Hz and this became the new crossover point. I did this as, in open baffle, the FC8s outperformed the Altecs in the range 200 to 450Hz. Having only to cover the frequencies below 200Hz was better suited to the Eminence drivers which were almost universally recommended for this use.

Out of interest I don’t play very loud 75db and the base driver cones barely move even though they give adequate volume,

Pedroeb forgive my ignorance, but what am I looking at in that graph. I don't use the region 200Hz + where it is pretty ragged and have accepted that below 100 Hz its output is poor, exacerbated by the OB. But this is true of most 15" drivers in OB.

Ivan_nosnibor   "That makes them good for lower powered amps, but high sensitivity woofers IME tend to not exactly plumb the bass depths"

Is there a reason why this may be, and are there any lower sensitivity 15" drivers that I could think about. Power is not an issue as I have a 1000Wpc Ice amp available.

@bumpy48, I'm taking it that your listening experience is related to playing full range music but without the higher frequency drivers connnected. If that is the case, then I'm not sure that the listening experience will be that useful since the majority of bass instruments have harmonics way above the 200hz. That's precisely why there is a disjunction between what you hear when playing the bass drivers alone and then playing full range. You could get a synthesiser and play some sinewaves in the chosen frequency range but that won't be particularly educational either, I think.

Yoyoyaya  Looks like you are right about this, but it was a surprise to me and I needed a reality check.