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Smaller drivers can produce BIG bass.!


rockbobmel

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Yes they can. SWR made a pretty nice 8x8 cab at one time. However, typically, these bass rigs today are used primarily as stage monitors for the musician. In other words, they need to cut through the stage sounds, but dont have to throw the sound very far out into the audience. In my experience playing bass, there is no substitute for moving air, a large column of air, and small drivers just dont do it for me. Unless its an acoustic-type gig (minimal amplification) I always bring at least one 15 along. This small driver crap came along when all the pop and slap and two handed tapping became popular on electric bass because you needed the treble and transient attack to get that sound, hence the further development of also including tweeters in bass rigs. Another caveat of the smaller drivers is that since you must use more of them to move an equal amount of air as the larger drivers, you end up with way more magnet structure, and consequently the cabinet weight goes WAY UP. My 1x15 are far lighter than the same size cabinet in a 4x10 for instance. If youve got a roadie to haul that stuff around for you, great!! But at my age, Im done carrying that kind of crap up three flights of stairs for a $50 gig. [:P]

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I heard a guy with the 16 driver bottom and a 8 driver top with a vintage SVT. It sounded way killer. These boxes are extremely heavy and not for the giging city musician that has to haul stuff night after night. That's what the new neo cabs are for. A Walter Woods (7lb) 1200 watt amp and 2 1-12 neo cabs can be made in one trip.

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I would expect them to sound great. They look ike the same woofer he has been using for years. The platinum audio trios I have use 2 per side, with a 1.5 way crossover. With around 200watts in a small to mid size room they can move enough air to sound very good. At lower volumes, the life is sucked out of the sounds.....I'll keep the clunky old cornwalls 15s.....

Instead of asking IF it can be done, the better question might be WHY?????

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"At lower volumes, the life is sucked out of the sounds....."

Exactly right Bigger!!

IMHO, one the real acid tests for high fidelity sound reproduction is not how loud the damn thing can play, thats a piece of cake! The real question is how much resolution of timbre, dynamics, and sense of space can it reproduce at the lowest levels?

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Even the good Dr. Bose beat that by a country mile for it's time, let alone the "Sweet 16" from the 50's (?).

One of his first experiments was a large 1/8 sphere segment

placed in corner with bunches of speakers. College grads did most of-

the work and he got rich, smart. Couldn't help but make bass.

Even though he was after omni at the time. Pic should be

available somewhere, it's very interesting. Someone should try

again. In fact .....Hmmmm, pencil?

I have NSB's galore and 15 pair of paper wizzer cone 6 1/2 car speakers. Zene

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I'm not sure how he claims a "faster cleaner" response (aka, better

impulse response)...It takes at least 9 of those drivers to match the

surface area of a typical 15" driver (comparing effective acoustical

diameter...not the width of the frame). Think about it, for the same Fs

and system sensitivity the sum total of the suspension, moving mass,

and electrical properties would need to be the same as a single larger

driver. In other words, he has achieved more power handling at the

expense of cost and weight in a system that is excursion limited either

way (making that extra power handling kinda useless). And then there

are issues of comb-filtering, narrowed on-axis response, and issues

from variations between the drivers (no way in heck all 32 of those

drivers are going to be operating in an identical fashion).

(but it's not quite an apples to apples comparison because the smaller

drivers are going to have more moving mass per surface area, which then

requires a change in the suspension and motor)

The only real purpose for adding multiple smaller drivers instead of

going with a single larger one is to make the cabinet size smaller

(which reduces cone excursion which then allows one to take advantage

of the extra power handling). I don't see him making the cabinets

smaller though, lol.

I do agree that cone deformation is an issue on the larger drivers -

and that is the only reason we don't see as many 18" drivers on the

market. But I can think of many way cheaper methods of addressing that

issue than throwing on more motors per surface area.

Anyways, I don't mean to bash something without hearing it...all other

factors aside, do these things really sound better? I'm yet to hear

anything that comes close to the hartke aluminum woofers...oh so sweet

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" And then there

are issues of comb-filtering, narrowed on-axis response,"

Depends on how high up in frequency they go. If they are limited to

bass range it probably is not an issue as the wavelengths are so long.

Well a lot of bass rigs are pushing as high as 10kHz nowadays - though

most of that is noise. But I'd say most rigs need to be solid up to at

least 3kHz, which is a bit beyond the capability of a 15"/18" woofer

which is why a lot of guys will run dual/quad 10's. (though my favorite

rigs always had a single 15/18 and a dual 10 top biamped with

independant crossovers).

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