I know a 15" sub can be loud and hit low, but can the bass response be tight and well defined? Will the bass be quick?

GC

 

YES. But are you looking for sub bass, or bass / mid-bass. Because what a lot of people refer to as quick bass is really the lower end of the mid bass range. When I have my low pass set at 70 Hz or less those notes really depreciate. Unless I also quickly readjust my midbass high-pass frequency.

And really, tight and quick bass is determined by enclosure and amplifier control of the speaker. A sealed or aperiodic enclosure will have faster transient response. A fifteen takes a more powerful motor system to be as fast, because of the greater mass of the cone. But the difference in transient response of the speaker because of cone mass is less than the difference determined by enclosure type and quality.

 

I'm looking for added bass/mid bass. I'm debating now whether to get 3-8's or 2-10's. I'm not a basshead, just looking for some nice, clean bass. Any suggestions? I'm running this with my Bose system.

GC

 

just for the sake of argument, transient response has NOTHING to do with the mass of the cone. i cant get my link to work right now, but ill post it later.

eric

 

I'd like to see that link. The short definition of transient response is: the ability of the speaker to respond to any sudden change in the signal without blurring the sound. As taken from D. Weems Great Sound Stereo Speaker Manual. It seems that the suspensions ability to control the cone would be affected by the mass of the cone, therefore coloration may be a result of inproperly massed cones. Kinda like how my car doesn't corner nearly as well when full, even if I carefully balance the additional weight.

 

Don't get 3 8's. That's my official suggestion. When you get hungerin' for more (and most people do), you'll have a tendancy to crank em and they won't be able to take it. I had 3 8W6's and eventually I was cranking them too hard and blew one. It's WAY too easy to blow an 8, I say go with 2 10's and get an amp that has more power than you plan on using. This will leave you some sonic headroom to play with in the future. For now, you may even be able to get away with one 10 or one 12. Go listen.

 

as far as 15's go, i used to have two JL W4's and managed a clean 142 dbs with them. no words can describe how loud, deep and clean the bass was. if you want tight bass, get 10's. 8's, as already said, can't handle the power as well, and will most likely be too close to frequencies of the components and such to be of much good. 10's give you a nice boom but still sound good and will give you the full spectrum of sound. i know everyone has their own favorites on here, but i must say that after working with jl audio and mtx subs, they both are great, even the cheaper ones have some really good quality! good luck

 

Thanks for the response's. My plan was to get 1 15" and have it face forward. It seems like I'll be getting 2-10's, but dont know whether I should face them forwards or rearward. Any suggestions? Does anyone have any experience with Infinity Perfect's or Image Dynamics?

GC

 

Face the subs to the rear for more bass. Or just build a down fire enclosure for 2 10's like me.

 

I'm not necessary looking for more bass, just controlled tight bass. When you say you have a down fire enclosure, what do you mean? Do you a pic?

GC

 

Put "stilts" on the face of the box and set the stilts on the trunk floor. You could also do what is traditionally called a "folded horn" which is the same principal except you build a slot (3 sided with a "lid") for the air to move through. Problem is I haven't built one in YEARS and I have since lost the formula for doing so. You get a pretty clean sound out of it, and it is definitely unique. It's similar to bandpass, but different. Hard to describe - anyone know what I'm referring to?

 

I know of slot loading, but have never seen formulas for the technique. I think I saw on one of the audio forums that the distance between the driver cone and floor, or slot, should be either 1/3 or 2/3 the diameter of the cone. But I can't remeber which.

 

That sounds correct. I think it's 1/3. I had 3 8's in 1 cu. ft. sealed with prolly ~3 in slot. They sounded very nice, but I think that slot was a little too small. You may have to play around with slot size. I'm sure there's an exact equation somewhere that takes into account the theile-small parameters of the sub as well.

 

If you stick a passive EQ on it, you will work wonders.

I have 2 15w6's, OMFG. That's all I have to say, I'm on hold for a 13w7, but that's going into the new car.

K

 

sorry jmax, i forgot about this cuz i was busy...i came up with a few posts for you from speaker builders/designers, and people who work for them. if you like good entertainment, watch out for a character that goes by "mover"...he is the owner of audiomobile, and likes posting gibberish that is totally untrue, and he is whipped for it each and every time -- mostly cuz he posts about other peoples products, of which he knows nothing.

here are some links:

carsound link

carsound again (mover really takes a thrashing here )

another carsound

anyway, there's tons of info in there. pay attention to dan wiggins, and david hyre. there are a couple others in there, but i dont remember their names off hand.

later,
eric

 

Thanks. Okay, I've already got the carsound bookmark. But I don't thnk I have been to their forum in a long time.

 

i think quickness all depends on the sub you get also. i got an adire tempest and that thing sounds beautiful. it's a 15" sub just in case you didn't know. very quick in my opinion. should be right up there with a lot of the 12's.

i mainly went with the 15 cause i wanted to be able to feel the bass, but not necessarily have it play loud. i'm going for SQ. sorry, i if i sound like an idiot talking out of my bunghole, i'm kinda in a rush to post this cause i have to go.

 

Here's a quote from phase linears site, reference the design of their first Aliante woofers.

- Every speaker needs to be able to react quickly to the varying dynamics of the incoming signal. Good transient response isn?t so difficult to achieve if the moving part of the speaker is very light, as in the case of a midrange unit or tweeter, but the weight of the cone and voice coil of a traditional woofer makes it difficult for the amplifier to control the motion of the speaker. There is a tendency for the cone to over-run, so that bass notes appear to almost run into each other. This blurs the definition of the notes in a ?walking? bass guitar line, for example.

If the amplifier has to move a heavy cone and voice coil assembly, this will also affect the speaker?s efficiency of course. For these two reasons, together with the desire to avoid cone break-up distortion, Aliante?s designers decided to find a way of using a very lightweight flat membrane.
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