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Thread: why big woofers?

  1. #1
    Senior Member greyhound's Avatar
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    why big woofers?

    the trend in audioland seems to bee smaller cabinets, almost dissapearing in the background of the livingroom.
    most speaker manufacturers use smaal woofers , somethimes 2 ore three.
    but what is the advantage of using one big one?
    finally i have a pair of 604 8g's....there not easy to find in the netherlands

  2. #2
    Senior Member timc's Avatar
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    Big woofers couple better with the air. At least thats how i see it. You just "feel" the big woofers better. Even if you have the same cone area with many small woofers. This may be technical inaccurate.


    To replace a, lets say a 18" woofer, you need four 9" woofers. To get theese to work as one, is next to impossible, (plese correct me if im wrong on this) due to tollerances and slight difference in distance from the listening position.


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  3. #3
    Moderator hjames's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by greyhound View Post
    the trend in audioland seems to be smaller cabinets, almost disappearing in the background of the living room. Most speaker manufacturers use small woofers , sometimes 2 or three.
    but what is the advantage of using one big one?
    No no - the trend in living room design is smaller, invisible speakers.
    The laws of physics haven't really changed.

    Of course, I have 15s in both of my listening systems - with an extra 15 for the sub, so maybe I'm prejudiced ...
    2ch: WiiM Pro; Topping E30 II DAC; Oppo, Acurus RL-11, Acurus A200, JBL Dynamics Project - Offline: L212-TwinStack, VonSchweikert VR-4
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  4. #4
    pelly3s
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    simplest answer is because its cooler to have big woofers

  5. #5
    Maron Horonzakz
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    I can piss louder than little woofers.

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    To replace a, lets say a 18" woofer, you need four 9" woofers. To get theese to work as one, is next to impossible, (plese correct me if im wrong on this) due to tollerances and slight difference in distance from the listening position.
    Is it really that hard? The wavelengths are pretty long and our ears are not all that sensitive to differences at woofer frequencies. I should think there wouldn't be much of a problem at all. If multiple woofers are a problem, what could be done about it?

  7. #7
    Member AltecLansingFan's Avatar
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    Big woofers say "woof" - small woofers say "waf"
    The only nice small "things" are girls, everything else must be big, like big houses, big cars, big cigars, big hamburgers, big woofers and so on.....

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    Probably because we were "bottle babies."

    Actually, two smaller woofers could have half the cone area of a bigger woofer and still produce the same/near the same level of bass if they are acoustically coupled where they pick up a 3 dB advantage. Obviously this wouldn't happen at all frequencies.

  9. #9
    Senior Member timc's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by toddalin View Post
    Obviously this wouldn't happen at all frequencies.

    Wich means you would get a weird response?



    -Tim
    2213 + 2435HPL w/aquaplas + H9800 (Matsj edition)

  10. #10
    Gary L
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    Sounds like an age old question but we all know the real answer, Bigger is Better!

    Gary

  11. #11
    RE: Member when? subwoof's Avatar
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    oh the inneficiency of it all..

    Here's the story of a man named jed.

    Air molecule jed and his drinking buddies get slapped upside the head from the big bad computer's 2" subwoofer and rush to tell their buddies at the corner store. Which takes a small amount of time and energy since they live SO far away ( in the relative sense ).

    Now these molecules run and run and get a little tired along the way so one of them sits down for a break leaving the other 2 to carry on.

    By the time they get to the convenience store the sole survivor is too tired to say anything.

    Now the owner of the corner store only sees a single molecule show up and wonders what the big deal is. He knows it is a woofer's message but it is too faint to hear...

    A little while later, in a living room far far away, a 2245 woofer smacks a few billion air molecules at the same time with a 4X4. They ALL run out and tell their buddies and they ALL run and tell their buddies, ad infinitum.

    Even though only some of them make it to the store, the store owner KNOWS it's "another brick in the wall, part 2" not just another "thump" and calls the police about the loud music down the street.

    The moral is it takes a substantial amount of power and surface area to re-create ACCURATELY the sound that is on the CD you are playing. A bass drum on stage is 24" - do you really expect that little pair of cubes on the veranda to make the same sound??

    It's all physics and tiny is a marketing hype.

    sub

  12. #12
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    Yup, I've always understood it to be down to the size of the wavefront approaching that from real instruments too(see 24" bass drum, double bass, bass amp cab etc).

  13. #13
    Maron Horonzakz
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    I heard four 24" hartley woofers whomping away in a system,,,,,It peeled the green off my teeth. These multible woosey woofers dont cut it.

  14. #14
    Administrator Mr. Widget's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by greyhound View Post
    the trend in audioland seems to bee smaller cabinets, almost dissapearing in the background of the livingroom.
    The trend in audio land is such a complete disappearing act that there almost is no more audio land. Smaller speakers are more popular than larger ones. No speakers at all are even more popular. Don't forget even Bose used to make much larger speakers. Old Dr. Amar may have some whacky ideas about what good sound is, but he certainly has had a sound mind when it comes to making money.

    All that aside, a smaller woofer can do well in a home environment as long as you are not trying to play music at stupid SPLs. There are many excellent speakers out there that have managed to do quite well with 2-3 6.5" or 8" woofers. Typically you do need multiples if you are after sub 40Hz bass.


    Widget

  15. #15
    Senior Member edgewound's Avatar
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    Actually....

    In a well designed system, multiple small woofers are quicker, more accurate and can handle more power than say, a single 15". Why? Because they can start and stop faster, and the multiple motors/voice coils can handle more power with less power compression. Given high quality drivers of course. Four 8" woofers have roughly 15% more cone area than a single 15", excluding the the motor topology and voice coil excursion

    But accuracy and the visceral "ooomph" that many listeners prefer are many times mutually exclusive. That's where the 15" or 18" can win the game.

    Is the mic'd kick drum at a monster concert an accurate reproduction of the kick drum by itself acoustically?....I think not. It's a major synthesizer that's tuned by the house engineer based on the system he has at his fingertips.

    Check out the Revel line by Harman. Woofers are multiple 8"s or smaller.
    Edgewound...JBL Pro Authorized...since 1988
    Upland Loudspeaker Service, Upland, CA

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