Stereo subs - Do they rock or is it overkill?

[rbinck]

Originally Posted by stevign

So I take it that 2 smaller subwoofers (one for each channel) in my van would be better than just the one large one I have?

In a vehicle one good sub is better. If you are going for more shaking add a tactile transducer under each seat like ButtKickers.

[stevign]

Rbinck:

re: "If you are going for more shaking"

I'm not. Thanx for the response.

[DaveLadely]

Originally Posted by rbinck

In a vehicle one good sub is better. If you are going for more shaking add a tactile transducer under each seat like ButtKickers.

As long as the subs are good, I think more than one would be better, due to nodes and vehicle shape, and within reason of quantity and certainly size, but there is a tendency to overwhelm the rest of the frequency spectrum with pounding of base, and not really low bass at that, just for the sake of ego problems. And that is why a well designed, well balanced audio system is so rare in vehicles as to be extremely difficult to find. I heard only one truly well designed non-ego system in my life, and that was at the CES in Las Vegas, in a car set up by Velodyne several years ago, using multiple subwoofers (with accelerometers) specially designed for vehicles. No boominess, effortless, tight, natural sounding bass that blended very well with the rest of the speakers to create a sound much like a very good home system.
The butt kickers are not really musical, more of a gimmick, but when used very judiciously, can add some excitement to movie soundtracks. I attended a demo of the company's products that were hooked up to a couch on a plywood platform at CES, so I would nix them for music.
dave in Snohomish, WA

[Mitchell Erblich]

Wow... Don't believe that 2 8" woofers are better than 1 15" woofer. IMO, in general the 15" woofer is going to be able to produce freqs that a 8" can not touch. Again if both can produce this lower extreme freq, ex: 10Hz, then the larger woofer
will be able on a one to one basis be able to produce it at a greater decibel. Now, most subs are designed for sats, and thus will crossover at a directional higher freq. Thus, you need at least 2 subs for the fronts. If you have a 5.1 system you need a third to pick-up the sounds on the .1 channel. Now, if your fronts are in a large room and you want/need more dbs, then you add more subs to keep those lower freqs as your dbs increase. Now, if your subs really do crossover at a directional freq and you sit and stand listening to music / DVD, then stack your subs and you are at 5.

FYI, my main older vintage Infinity IRS Betas stack 4 12" woofers per channel. Plus running two Krell Ref Subs, plus ..

Is way overkilll and can make you physically ill, if a Ref Recording drum CD is playing..

[DaveLadely]

Originally Posted by Mitchell Erblich

Wow... Don't believe that 2 8" woofers are better than 1 15" woofer. IMO, in general the 15" woofer is going to be able to produce freqs that a 8" can not touch. Again if both can produce this lower extreme freq, ex: 10Hz, then the larger woofer
will be able on a one to one basis be able to produce it at a greater decibel. Now, most subs are designed for sats, and thus will crossover at a directional higher freq. Thus, you need at least 2 subs for the fronts. If you have a 5.1 system you need a third to pick-up the sounds on the .1 channel. Now, if your fronts are in a large room and you want/need more dbs, then you add more subs to keep those lower freqs as your dbs increase. Now, if your subs really do crossover at a directional freq and you sit and stand listening to music / DVD, then stack your subs and you are at 5.

FYI, my main older vintage Infinity IRS Betas stack 4 12" woofers per channel. Plus running two Krell Ref Subs, plus ..

Is way overkilll and can make you physically ill, if a Ref Recording drum CD is playing..

I don't know about being made "physically ill' by a stereo pair of 4 12" speakers, since the Genesis monster $135,000.00 speakers, which were also Arnie Nudell designs, and which had about twice as many very high end 12" speakers, did not come close to making me ill any more than listening to live music does, since they came close to replicating a live performance, whether symphony music, rock, country, or heavy metal. Movie sound effects did come close, however.

I tend to agree about 8" speakers; with their much smaller cone area and their higher resonant frequency, trying to use them as "subwoofers" amounts fighting physics. 15" have lower resonant frequency, but tend to have inertia effects, so I do prefer 12" in multiples, as you mention. If the crossing over is high enough to cause directional effects, then my feeling is that they are being used as subwoofer/woofers rather than true subwoofers. I prefer using woofers as woofers, allowing speakers designed as subwoofers to act as subwoofers and be virtually non directional. I wouldn't stack five subwoofers, but would distribute them, since they would then provide diffraction, reduing nodes. Annie Nudell advised using one subwoofer per speaker.

Dave

[stevign]

I get physically ill even when I listen to Kenny G on 2 inch speakers. Just sayin'.......................