subwoofers covering different bass frequencies

[rlsound]

I just had a thought,

Say you have an array of four 18 inch subwoofers, two of them are crossed to cover 80 to 40 cycles, the other two are set up to cover 40 to 20 cycles. Is there any real benefit to this? Deeper, more refined bass?

[Lee in Montreal]

Most subs are crossed at frequencies that are not directional. Just so that you can't locate the source. Basically in the 40 to 50Hz region. One pair could do 20-50Hz and the other pair could concentrate at 20-30Hz. But honestly, I would cross them all at the same frequency of 40-50Hz.

[grumpy]

It would be serendipitous for such an arrangement (re post #1) to just happen to sound better...
but it could.

That said, independently EQ-ing, delaying, and placing four subwoofers, possibly modifying the
bandwidth for location or type (if not all the same) or room excitation... sure, one can
potentially produce much better (or worse) bass.

Just takes study, a knack for this sort of thing (brain and interest), and equipment (including ears).

[Robh3606]

Maybe it depends on a couple of things. I would not cross them over the way you are saying though. You would get an additional 6db from adding a second pair so if you ran 2 @ 80hz-20Hz and 2@ 40 hz-20Hz you would have two pairs running the last octave. Would need some steep filters though. Could be fun to play around with just unload the china closet.:spchless:

Rob:)

[Ruediger]

I just had a thought,

Say you have an array of four 18 inch subwoofers, two of them are crossed to cover 80 to 40 cycles, the other two are set up to cover 40 to 20 cycles. Is there any real benefit to this? Deeper, more refined bass?

If You had a bandpass enclosure with a very high Q and thus a very small bandwith then such an arrangement could make sense. That means, the bandwidth of each subwoofer would be just one octave. But I think the impulse response would be suffering.

Ruediger