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The Subwoofer: IN DETAIL

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DJ Q
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The Subwoofer: IN DETAIL

Postby DJ Q » April 18th, 2007, 3:05 pm

I was doing some research and i came across a very detailed article on subwoofers. Newbies, experienced and oldies on this forum may enjoy this article.

WARNING!
This article is VERY detailed!

Reference: http://www.iroczone.com/technical/Subwoofer/

Article and Figures by Jim Irace, unless otherwise noted.

Jim Irace

This article is a bit tough because in many cases, especially if you’re building your first system, your subwoofer and subwoofer amplifier will probably be bought at the same time, and your selection of them is really pretty dependant on each other… more so than with other components of the stereo. So, if you’re in a situation where you’re looking for both, make sure to read this and my amplifier article that I didn’t write yet.



This article basically picks up where the "How to buy Speakers" article left off. If you haven't read that yet, at least skim through it and read the section that explains how a speaker works so that you'll have a better understanding of what is discussed here.



So anyway, on with the subwoofers.



Buying a subwoofer is probably the most popular and most rewarding car audio purchase. Nothing transforms your stereo quite like the addition of prodigious amounts of bass. What many people fail to realize, however, is that making your system boom is not the only reason to consider adding a subwoofer. When I used to sell car audio, over and over I’d hear people give me all kinds of reasons why they didn’t want a sub, and it almost always revolved around not wanting that booming bass-heavy drone. What they didn’t know is that I secretly switched their coffee for Folgers Crystals… oh, wait. What they didn’t know was that quite often I’d have a subwoofer playing when they walked into the sound room, and as soon as they’d say something about the boomy bass, I’d shut the subwoofer off and suddenly they’d realize that the music is missing its entire foundation without it. They never noticed that the sub was playing because what they didn’t realize is that bass doesn’t have to be boomy and overwhelming unless that’s how you want it. Properly integrated bass just becomes part of the music, not an addition to it.



Specifications

The actual data provided to a buyer can vary wildly from brand to brand, and even model to model. Most companies will give you somewhat basic data such as power handling, impedance, and perhaps a suggested enclosure size. Others will give you considerably more information in the form of Thiele Small (T/S) parameters. These are the mathematical parameters that represent the subwoofer’s mechanical and electrical properties, and are used to determine many things, but are primarily used to determine proper enclosure specifications.



Power handling

This spec, like most, can mean a lot of different things, but generally you want to find the speaker’s RMS power rating. A peak power rating is worthless on a subwoofer just like on everything else. Power handling on a speaker is a very dynamic specification that’s hard to sum up into just one number. Like I mentioned in the “How to buy speakersâ€

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DJ Q
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Postby DJ Q » July 8th, 2008, 12:28 pm

Alright people... i had the thread unlocked...


Leave comments if you wish

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Science
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Postby Science » August 24th, 2008, 9:08 pm

very very very cool..... that program still kinda hard to use but will learn it

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Leffy
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Postby Leffy » August 26th, 2008, 2:35 pm

WOW Dj.Q you really did your home work on this. Thank for the information It very useful and i'm sure that everone will Appreciate your hard work and effort.

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cinco
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Postby cinco » August 26th, 2008, 6:12 pm

great article

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~Vēġó~
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Postby ~Vēġó~ » August 26th, 2008, 11:04 pm

very glad to get back this article......

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SUBnGIN
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Postby SUBnGIN » July 17th, 2009, 6:39 pm

Dj Q I am glad that you know so much in this stuf, and i have so many questions about it. Could you respond me? :wink: I am about making my own sub woofer and i need some details, could you help? :)

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DJ Q
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Postby DJ Q » July 20th, 2009, 10:24 am

Hey man I didn't write this article.

I'm sorry but I can't offer assistance in this case.

The best people to check would be either SR or nigel1977

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angel_player
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Postby angel_player » September 22nd, 2009, 11:11 am

Im new to the in car audio stuff and although there was a few technical stuff I still got an all round jist of what I should look for when developing my subwoofer system. Thanks for the info

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Postby Vtec Vigilante » October 15th, 2009, 5:36 pm

uh DJ Q..am surprised u didnt mention MTX audio in ur spl list..ur left out a vital name

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DJ Q
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Postby DJ Q » October 15th, 2009, 8:05 pm

i didn't write the article

it was quoted as said at the top

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Postby Vtec Vigilante » October 16th, 2009, 2:50 pm

hmmm..wel in dat case d person who wrote dis review..dont know dat MTX is in the game a long time now and there subs (T9515-44) dont make joke wen it coms 2 d comp. naywayz DJ Q...bump for a review and knowledge :bump:

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