what's the difference

ronaldo141 · January 2003

For the longest time I have always wondered what the difference is if a speaker has, say, 1 midrange driver of the same size as opposed to 2 or even three. The best example of this is the SDAs, which have 8 midrange drivers and multiple tweeters as well. With some speakers, like my wharfedale emerald 97s, there are two 6 1/2" drivers, but one is the bass and one is the midrange. Thanks for clarifying this.

organ · January 2003

Usually, the more mid-range/bass drivers, the more the power handling. Speakers with multiple mid-range drivers sound warmer to me and multiple bass drivers have cleaner and louder bass but this is not always the case. It depends on the drivers itself, crossovers, etc. A good quality speaker with only one mid can destroy a crappy speaker with multiple mids. Hope this helps.

Maurice

ronaldo141 · January 2003

thanks for your help. While we're on the subject, I have another question also. Can, say, two 8-inch cones go as deep as a 12 inch cone, or is the bass just clarified within the usual range of an 8 inch cone?

scottvamp · January 2003

I have another question also. Can, say, two 8-inch cones go as deep as a 12 inch cone, or is the bass just clarified within the usual range of an 8 inch cone?

Good question. As a rule of thumb the larger the driver the deeper the bass. It also has alot to do with the speaker and the box you put it in. Speaker companys are constantly spending millions to change that thinking. A expensive 8" in a well designed box will hit as low/wattage as a 10" of say cheaper design -SURE!
A modern thinking is one POLK also uses - in a high quality speaker market, adding the surface of woofers will give an comparision. Two well designed 8"s (16) will do "hang" with a 15" woofer but I still think the 15" will go lower.

Zen Dragon · January 2003

I would say also that a larger woofer diameter is going to go lower in freq, but that it is also more likely to be sloppy or muddy.
You can think of it like a rubber band, if you take a smaller one, and a larger one, and twang them, the smaller one will return to it's original state much quicker than the bigger one, which will kind af wallow a while longer.
A larger bass driver takes a little more recovery time from a solid bass shot, and may not be back to point zero in time for the next one. This is where it can get a little sloppy or muddy.
It depends a lot on what you listen too. If you are doing Jazz, or classical, or complex music, the smaller driver is usually the way to go for accurate sound production. If you are listening to some dual bass drum metal, or rap, you may favor the deeper impact of a large driver that hits you in the chest, and leaves it's fist sitting there an extra half a second.

ronaldo141 · January 2003

thanks for answering my question on the bass woofers. But now i'm wondering what difference it makes with multiple tweeters?

Zen Dragon · January 2003

You will not find many speakers with multiple tweeters, and in my opinion it is because they just aren't all that necessary. The early full size SDA's used multiple tweeters, but they soon began to use less and less. Tweeters do not create a lot of sound pressure like woofers. The theory is more woofers move more air, and create greater sound pressure, but one high quality tweeter is usually sufficient to sing out it's high frequency notes. Once a clear high frequency signal is in the air, it moves around plenty on it's own. It is highly reflectional, and clearly audible, even through heavy mid range and bass pressure.

abmarsh · January 2003

The basic principle is that smaller drivers are able to react to input signals quicker than large drivers making them more "accurate". Combining several smaller drivers enables a speaker to have the power handling capability of large drivers with the accuracy inherent in smaller drivers.

gidrah · January 2003

Smaller drivers tend to move faster and are correspondingly more accurate. The problem is that the soundwave also originates from multiple points for the same freq., thus negating any accuracy benefit. 6 of one, 1/2 dozen of another.

To best create a realistic sound, speakers need to move air. Often the surface area of a large cone is beaten by the surface area of multiple smaller drivers. This is most noticed in the midrange frequencies.

what's the difference

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