DollarBill:

There is absolutely NO relationship between speaker size and how "musical" or "fast" a speaker can be if the speaker drivers are properly designed, for their size. "Small woofers are faster" is myth that a lot of people accept as gospel because it's been repeated enough by the audiophile press. Large woofers are not inherently "slow" - BASS is "slow"! If the subwoofer (or any speaker) does not have a sufficiently large magnet and voice coil in relation to the weight of the cone, the speaker will respond slowly, and will continue to move when the musical note stops - "hangover". This will sound "muddy, like "slow bass". The motor assembly of a speaker acts as an "engine" and also as a "generator". This generated voltage, called back EMF, is absorbed by the low output impedance of the power amplifier - this controls the cone of the speaker, keeping it from moving or "resonating" on it's own. The larger the motor assembly the speaker has, the more effective it will be in controlling the speaker. If a speaker has a large magnet and voice coil (my subwoofer's voice coil is 4" in diameter), the "motor" can accelerate the cone as fast as desired. Want the cone to respond faster? Build in a larger motor assembly. Simple as that, just like the engine in a car. If you're trying to make an Abrams tank accelerate faster, you don't put a Honda Civic engine in it.

It costs a lot of money to build a speaker with a massive motor assembly, and frankly, most low and moderate priced subwoofers are lacking in this regard. As you go up in the price range, you are buying a subwoofer that's capable of more articulate reproduction. These can be 8" all the way up to 18" and beyond.

There is NO advantage in going to a smaller woofer, "musical" or otherwise. There are huge disadvantages however, low frequency extension and efficiency being the main ones.

It may shock you to know that the "woofer" in my system that operates from 60Hz up to 1,200Hz is 15" in diameter. However it is more than able to "keep up" with the frequency range it reproduces because it has an extremely light cone, and a massive magnet structure and voice coil in relation to the weight of the cone. The voice coil gap is very focused on the voice coil, and the driver is very efficient as a result. The woofer is also horn loaded so the woofer has to move only a slight distance in order to create very high sound pressure levels.

If I thought that I could improve on my bass by purchasing smaller subwoofers, believe me, I would do it.


[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited April 07, 2003).]