Well, I wouldn't use BL to tell control as it's really more indicative of the motor strength. Just using the printed value won't tell you anything about what happens when the sub starts moving. It's the BL vs x curve that you want. Some fall off incredibly fast while only moving a couple mm. Some will have a wider curve keeping control with much greater excursion. Subs with XBL^2 technology for example. They're BL is about half that of a Digital Designs sub, but the Xmax is several times greater. This means the sound will be much more consistant with increasing excursion, be it from lower frequency and/or more excursion.

The tightness also has a good deal to do with the installation quality. This also goes with the setup in the room. Just saying that stereo or mono is better is not really the best way to do it. The subs in question are already built, so everything has to do with the placement and setup in the room. Take some time and try them out in the different configurations. Spend the whole afternoon if you want. There's no rush and you really can't get a good feel for it with 10 seconds of listening.

so we have come up with some things that you guys think make a sub good? at last....

Only look at the xmax and maximum excursion value is useless. xmax is the length of a driver can move inward and outward and still be under controlled by the driver’s motor. Maximum excursion is the “extreme” distance a driver can move, but no longer under controlled by its motor. If you push the cone to the maximum excursion length, I bet you will recone your driver very soon……

More xmax only gives you more sound output and you need to use very powerful amps (over 1000 W I think) along with very big liter boxes (to move air) to push the driver in order to have very high sound pressure level. I can archive the same thing by simply choosing a high sensitivity drivers with less xmax value and drive it with smaller amps and still save some cash.

Fs, Qts and Vas are the three most important values you need to know when choosing the drivers. A driver with a very high BL value usually gives good speed, accuracy and fidelity; it is also ideal for horn box. This kind of driver tends to have low Qts value, which relates to speed and accuracy. Small driver usually will have low Qts value.

What kind of driver do you have anyway???? I am interested to know.

If TS value won't tell you; then, what will?

I said look at the curve, not just the two printed values. That will give you a better indication of what the sub does as it moves. Xmax (and other X values) are important to a degree. A couple mm of Xmax really doesn't allow for much volume before distortion sets in. Especially down low where the sub has to move in distances that are multiples of the higher frequencies. I forget exactly what the ratio is. Is it 4x the displacement is needed at 1/2 the octave or down 10 hz (or option 3 I'm forgetting, it's been awhile)? For a given driver we can just simplify it to position instead of displacement because the sub's cone area should be constant. I do agree that there comes a point where more Xmax really doesn't give you anything useful because you're not fully utilizing what you have already. Transient response (quickness) depends on the inductance of the driver.

I believe that Fs, Qts, and Vas are much more important insofar as choosing the box for a specific driver. This will help you reach the potential of the sub in the direction. It is possible to alter the quickness of the sub, its lowend extension, accuracy, and sensitivity to a degree with the box, but only up to the sub's potential. Not all subs have the same potential. Those specs do not say how accurate the sub is once it starts moving. They also don't give an indication of the transient response. They are mostly for building the box. They do give an indication of the extension of the sub, though.

I added one word to my original post and it seems to change the tone of the entire message.

i dont know how subwoofer specs relate to this topic's question?

then again those specs dont really equate to subwoofer performance either...

I decided to use my front tower subs as true stereo subs by taking my low level rca full range signal and feeding it to both of my towers full range inputs. I set my 950 to large for the front speakers.Question.......In my menu it still shows the xover choices for the front speakers,40-150hz. My other processor would omit that part of the menu when I would choose large for any of my speakers.Is there something that I need to do to confirm with the 950 on the menu? Or will it always show hz adjustments for each speaker no matter what size I choose. Just want to make sure that my front speakers are getting the full range signal to them,with that hz choice still showing kinda scares me if I am doing it right.Anybody know? Thanks

:p

I doubt if you really know how to read TS parameter and built speakers before. I think probably not.........

Never mind.

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